C. S. Lewis Day

Last year at this time I wrote a respectful and appreciative entry on C. S. Lewis, the eminent Christian apologist. In it I noted that this brilliant and influential man died on 22 November 1963, the same day President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. Although President Kennedy will always be remembered in American history books, Mr. Lewis will be thought of with appreciation for decades to come by untold thousands of solid Christians because of the illuminative insights he published in books and essays of his authorship:

Mere Christianity
The Four Loves
Surprised by Joy
The Great Divorce
The Screwtape Letters
Miracles: A Preliminary Study
George MacDonald: An Anthology
The Abolition of Man
God in the Dock: Essays on Theology

These, and other books of his letters, essays, and his fictional works (Space Trilogy and others) have been extremely valuable for me in my adult sojourn in mortality, and have been a delight to review regularly.

As noted previously, C. S. Lewis is highly ranked as one of my most highly esteemed and influential heroes. If your list of heroes is short, or your view of man and his potential is jaded, a sampling of his work is highly recommended.

I end today with a very typical excerpt from Mere Christianity:

“Let us go back to the man who says that a thing cannot be wrong unless it hurts some other human being. He quite understands that he must not damage the other ships in the convoy, but he honestly thinks that what he does to his own ship is simply his own business. But does it not make a great difference whether his ship is his own property or not? Does it not make a great difference whether I am, so to speak, the landlord of my own mind and body or only a tenant, responsible to the real landlord? If somebody else made me, for his own purposes, then I shall have a lot of duties which I should not have if I simply belonged to myself….

“Christianity asserts that every individual human being is going to live for ever…. Now there are a good many things which would not be worth bothering about if I were going to live only seventy years, but which I had better bother about very seriously if I am going to live for ever. Perhaps my bad temper or my jealousy are gradually getting worse—so gradually that the increase in seventy years will not be very noticeable. But it might be absolute hell in a million years: in fact, if Christianity is true, Hell is the precisely the correct technical term for what it would be.” (Mere Christianity, Book III, chapt. 1)

The Unending Battle of Fitness

Nearly every person I know has fought this battle. It is a battle that is not won, but it can be managed. Just as we don’t eat a meal ‘once and for all,’ or take a breath of air and be done with it, we don’t get fit ‘once and for all.’ So how do we manage it?

First, know what you really want to accomplish. Most people who say they want to get fit really mean they don’t want to be fat. This little article is not really about fitness, but about fatness. This article is not for people who want to compete in some athletic event but is for people who want to look better and feel better (and as a bonus, the person who looks better and feels better usually performs life tasks better!).

I have been involved with physical fitness and athletic performance in one way or another all of my adult life. Movement, of course, is the key; the greater the demands of the performance the more movement (in volume, intensity, and type) is required. But what we are talking about here is not competition with another person, it is just about looking better and feeling better about yourself. So here are a few non-conventional suggestions that may seem just common sense, or too easy, but might be just what you need.

Realize that every movement you make that goes beyond what just gets you by will be for your good. That is to say, for example, that if you want to get to the third floor of an office building you could take the elevator or you could walk the stairs. Guess what you should do? You could even stop on a step and do some toe raises for 30 seconds or so—or even 10 or 20 squats if no one else is around. And you could probably do it several times a day. Similarly, if you are going shopping you could drive around the block looking for a parking place close to the store you intend to patronize or you could intentionally try to park a couple of blocks away and walk (just don’t forget where you parked!). Likewise, every time you picked up a bottle of water or a bag of groceries, or your backpack, or carried in some firewood, etc., you could do a few arm curls. What could you do when a television commercial comes on? Can you see where this is going? In short, don’t take it easy. Every repetition counts.

What you don’t need is to get a membership at a gym or to buy some expensive exercise equipment or special clothing before you get started. Just start where you’re at and with what you’ve got. If you do have an inexpensive piece of equipment such as an exercise ball or a dumbbell then great; keep it out and use it when you can (and be innovative with its use) but just use your own body weight when you can’t. Nothing should hold you back. One of the most physically fit men I ever met was confined to a jail cell. He ran in place, did one-legged squats, did handstand pushups against the wall, isometrically curled his bedframe and he didn’t eat too much. He did all this to try to save his life. Ask me about him sometime.

That brings me to my last piece of commonsensical but unconventional advice. Don’t go on a diet. Don’t buy a bunch of miracle vitamins or energy bars or supplements or other hyped junk. Just eat less of what you normally eat (smaller portions). Also increase your intake of water or food that has a lot of water it (fruits for the most part). Lastly, get rid of all the food in your house that you know is not good for you (high-fat, high-sugar foods). You know the movie ‘Field of Dreams’ –if you build it they will come? Well, if you buy it, you will eat it. So don’t buy it.

But do buy this advice. It works. I hope to see less of you. Hmmm.

Sexual Predators

Without trying to emulate the bulldog-like histrionics of outspoken and tireless advocate for victims’ rights Nancy Grace (a Fox News television personality), I feel the time has come to weigh in on the societal illness of sexual deviancy that defiles modern culture. With the sexual abuse scandals that have, in recent years, been reported in the Catholic Church, with the women school teachers who have seduced their young male students, with the incest and predation upon young girls that my wife and I learned of in our mission to a South Pacific nation (and the consequent highest suicide rate in the world) and with the frequent and horrible crimes perpetrated by male perverts reported in the media every day it appears that we have a systemic problem that poses grave danger to the future of our way-of-life.

I was saddened last night to learn of the immediate dismissal of Penn State University football coach Joe Paterno, one of my heroes, as part of the outfall of the child sexual abuse scandal perpetrated by one of his former assistant coaches. Coach Paterno, though innocent of wrongdoing himself, (he did immediately, as a mandated reporter, report to his superiors hearing the allegation against one of his former assistant coaches, Jerry Sandusky) got caught in the crossfire.

I believe that probably the only area in which Coach Paterno was culpable was stated in his own words to the media: “This is a tragedy. It is one of the great sorrows of my life. With the benefit of hindsight I wish I had done more.” In one way or another, sexual deviancy by perverts affects us all and may be the catalyst that brings down the wrath of God and the downfall of this once-great nation.

A thoughtful recent editorial (09 November 2011) by the Christian Science Monitor says this:

“Sometimes such concealment is justified to protect a victim of sexual harassment, rape, or similar violation. States, for example, don’t release the names of people who make rape charges. And employees who complain about sexual harassment or sexual advances often want to avoid making waves or hurting their careers over such disputes.

“Institutions in many cases try to uphold individual rights, whether it is a presumption of innocence or a right to privacy. But such rights must also be balanced against the interests of other workers and society in general if an accused is truly a potential repeat offender.

“Simply paying money for a sex allegation to go away or easing the accused out of a position can result in someone else paying the consequences later.

“Courts are well placed to find that balance between rights and the collective interest. But such a judicious approach falters when a private institution doesn’t even make an attempt at it. Instead, it is easy to put reputation, stockholders, donors, or other concerns ahead of individual rights or prevention of crime.

“Colleges and universities like Penn State have a particular problem with cases of alleged harassment or rape. Young people are often sexually active or unaware of social and legal barriers for gender behavior. When should a school, for example, handle a sex-related accusation itself, rather than take it straight to law enforcement? Are schools even capable of discerning false accusations or whether someone is a real sexual predator?

“Both the Penn State and Herman Cain cases should stir every private institution to review its procedures for handling sex-related accusations. And managers need regular training to live up to the complex Supreme Court guidelines for determining sexual harassment.

“Institutional self-interest must be avoided if there is to be justice for either the accused or accuser in a sex case, as well as protection for others.”

In my mind the greatest crime against life, in our time, is that of abortion, but the crimes of sexual abuse and molestation of children by adults ranks up there with kidnapping and slavery as beyond the pale of tolerable human behavior. I hope my readers will, with me, be among the voices ‘crying in the wilderness’ for these things to stop.

Being Productive

You may have seen this before, but most good things need revisiting.

Persistence
Nothing in the world can take the place of Persistence.
Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent.
Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb.
Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts.
Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. (Ray Kroc)

Here is something that seems at first like a counterpoint to the above, but it may be just another approach to ‘persistence.’

Procrastinate
If at first you don’t succeed, give up immediately.
Move on to some other task until that becomes unbearable.
Then on again circling back around to the first problem.
By now, your sub-conscious will have worked on it; sort of like sleep but only cheaper.(Author unknown, found in the Wall Street Journal Magazine, Nov. 2011)

An interview I heard with author Jonathan Fields, who wrote a book titled Uncertainty, explored the same topic. He said “The really big insights and ideas usually come when we work really hard and then we step away. It’s the moments that we’re not working, the deliberate pauses that we create where we step away from work where the really big ideas and solutions and creations come to us.”

I agree. I often think best when I am not thinking. That is why, for me, dreams provide the best grist for productive mental output. But the grist for my dreams comes from my recent reading. Dreams provide for me the revelation that penetrates my consciousness that the regular activities of life may block.

Another way of saying essentially the same thing was said years ago by Stephen Covey in his book, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. He addressed the habit of taking time to ‘sharpen the saw.’ The ‘saw’ of our mind, our body, our ability to interact effectively with other people, all, I believe, could be enhanced by some of the same tactics suggested above.

The Civilization of Man

I know, before being told, that treatment of such a topic for such a small essay as will follow is being way too presumptuous. I was taught in graduate school that one must always delimit. But I believe that sometimes one needs to be jolted into consideration of ideas beyond the prosaic before being forced into the mold of delimitation. True, you can’t eat an elephant at a sitting; you have to take one bite at a time over time; but also true, you have to have the elephant to eat it. Good advice that I have tried to integrate into my life is that we must ever keep in mind the ‘big picture’ and not continually get “caught up in the thick of thin things.”

So, ahead with boldness. Consider the task of civilizing man. Not mankind. Just man—I’m talking about the gender ‘man,’ ‘maleness,’ much more so than ‘woman.’ But first, a little background:

I was, and still am—at least in my own mind—a teacher. For much of my life I taught mostly boys. I taught physical education—at least that is what the curriculum guide called it. But I knew that what I really was trying to teach was the whole boy—his mind and heart and spirit—as well as his physical body. I never did teach just ‘football,’ or ‘basketball,’ or ‘gymnastics’ or even physical fitness; these were simply the means, the media, the activities, through which I tried to teach the more important aspects of self-discipline, hard work, respect for self and others, rules on the field and in life; in short, I endeavored to teach character. I knew that boys would need it if they ever hoped to be successful with women, with their future vocation, with society and their place in the world, with themselves, and ultimately with God.

Therefore, here are just a few provocative ideas to get you started regarding man vis-a-vis women and man’s need for civilization. I will simply throw them out with no attempt at closure or even persuasion. That is up to you.

• I believe that the gender ‘man’ thinks fundamentally differently than the gender ‘woman’. Thinkers and writers have explored these differences from the beginning of mankind upon this earth. One example that explores this idea is a book popular probably thirty years ago: Men are from Mars; Women are from Venus (by John Gray, Ph.D). Men view things differently than do women. The earliest example is the response difference between a man—Adam—and his wife—Eve: Adam’s response to his Maker—‘I, me’—as contrasted to Eve’s—‘we, our’. Adam needed Eve to be his ‘help meet,’ meaning his finisher, to help him be fulfilled and complete. They were commanded to be ‘one.’ Adam was to provide and to protect; Eve was to refine and give life. Both were to work together in love.

• Men are inherently more violent than are women. Look at their recreations. Moreover, the proportion of men in prison to women in prison is remarkable. Why is that? I have read the review and heard an interview with author Scott Spencer about his new book, Man in the Woods which apparently addresses this assertion in a very insightful way. I look forward to reading the book.

• The ‘natural man’ (not necessarily, in my own mind, the ‘natural woman’) is an ‘enemy to God.’ I agree with this scriptural concept of indicting fallen ‘mankind,’ but ‘how so’ might this particularly be with the gender man? Could there be a gender difference?

• Governments are needed primarily to keep men in line. Therefore women as well as men are needed in government; their perspective is needed. I’m much in favor of women being men's counselors but not necessarily their head.

“Know then thyself, presume not God to scan; The proper study of mankind is man.”
(Alexander Pope)

“Trust not yourself, but your defects to know, make use of every friend and every foe.”
(Alexander Pope)

Footprints

“He who would leave footprints on the sands of time should wear his work shoes.” (LeGrand Richards)

I had this thought in my lexicon years before I had ever thought to do a weblog or leave some kind of memoir to my children or to my eternal record which I believe will be noted in each person’s heavenly ‘Book of Life.’ It was reinforced when I was courting my wife Cheryl. She sent me a card addressed to Wims. Queried as to what this (hopefully) endearing moniker meant she said, “It means that you have an invitation to Walk In My Soul.” Her soul. It implied to me that I, of course, had an obligation to walk carefully for the soul of another is sacred ground. I would have to walk carefully around the flowers she had planted and nurtured in the garden she had planted in the decades of her life before me. I have learned that you don’t want to clumsily leave footprints in the wrong places.

I have now done well over one hundred little essays in Omnium-Gatherum-Millerum. A few, I hope, have left footprints or a trail that others may choose to follow. Further, I hope that some of these essays, the deeply felt and well-crafted ones, have left the reader with a letter or two of my spiritual signature—a quality of my personality that remains, influenced by the giants in my life who have left deep footprints in my own soul and a path for me to follow. Following in their footsteps I hope that I may leave something that resonates with my readers that may give voice to some of the inchoate thoughts that they may have had.

What I do not want is the indictment that Tennyson (in a poem in the ‘Memoir’) gave to

“Your doctors, and your proctors, and your deans…
Against you, you that do profess to teach
And teach us nothing, feeding not the heart.”

A writer is identified in quality (and sometimes quantity) by his recurrent motifs. Like, I suppose, everybody, I seem to come back to familiar themes or more accurately variations upon a theme. Sometimes I come back too often, my wife tells me, especially to favorite stories or experiences or scriptures in my teaching. Of course she is probably right. But the fact remains that a speech, a sermon, an essay, a Sunday school lesson, even a conversation is usually forgotten, but what remains is the tone, the mood, the atmosphere, the feeling that is engendered or stirred up. The theme of my life—my values and aim—are hopefully emerging in these offerings, and I hope the good kernel that ‘feeds the heart’ comes to fruition and then the reader may blow the chaff away with a breath of charity.

So, I suppose I am all of a piece. As a daughter-in-law once said to me after reading something I had written, “That is so YOU.” I didn’t ask whether she felt it to be good; I hope it was. But some things you don’t ask.

Rats

I think, for the third and final time, that I’ve got rid of the rats in our attic. But I have come to the age, and prudence, and maybe some old rat, dictates that it might be better for me to say, ‘We shall see.’

I have had a running battle for many years with the rats. I have taken out a few by poison; two by a .22 rifle used at night with a flashlight; six by an electronic device; and a couple by conventional trap baited with blood. Our cat has caught one or two and lost a fight to one last year. A few months ago I was driven to discharge four shells from my 12 gauge double barrel into their tree nest outside our bedroom window and that helped for a month or so. I know they are still out there but at least they are not in here.

This reminds me of a Robert Browning poem, ‘The Pied Piper of Hamelin,’ 1842):

‘Rats!

They fought the dogs and killed the cats.
And bit the babies in the cradles,
And ate the cheeses out of the vats,
And licked the soup from the cook’ own ladles,
Split open the kegs of salted sprats,
Made nests inside men’s Sunday hats,
And even spoiled the women’s chats
By drowning their speaking
With shrieking and squeaking
In fifty different sharps and flats.’

So, while enjoying my respite from the rats, I will conclude by quoting another of Robert Browning’s wonderful poems: (‘Pippa Passes’, 1841)

‘The year’s at the spring,
And day’s at the morn;
Morning’s at seven;
The hill-side’s dew-pearl’d;
The lark’s on the wing;
The snail’s on the thorn;
God’s in His heaven –
All’s right with the world!’