Quote of the Week...from Alberto Salazar

We may train or peak for a certain race, but running is a lifetime sport.   ---Alberto Salazar

Alberto Salazar was known for excelling at the marathon in the early 1980s...now he is a track coach and running instructor.  This quote of his is true, with an important qualification. After all, a lot of folks, especially as they age, may find themselves physically unable to continue running even if they enjoyed it earlier in their lives.  That having been noted, what Salazar said resonates with me: when I look at the calendar and see an upcoming race, that motivates me to want to train more for it.  But when I sit back and reflect upon running, it is the daily activity and my experiences while training that ultimately define it for me.  My problem is that I have numerous little afflictions that come up from time to time, requiring me to take a few days off from running.  I also live in northern Florida, which for much of the year features hot and humid weather and works against just stepping outside anytime and jogging for a few miles.  I have run my share of races at different distances, but it has been the times when I regularly went out running on my own that ultimately that have brought me the most satisfaction.  This summer has been especially noteworthy for its heat and mugginess...I'm hoping that September will bring more hospitable conditions, if only slightly.  And with that, here's my August, 2018 running report...

In August I ran a total of 72 miles with 5 miles being my longest single run.  I missed 4 days from running due to an upper respiratory infection, which I'm still struggling to completely recover from (one of those little afflictions I earlier referred to).  I'll turn 62 in October and I'd like to take my running to a higher level by covering longer distances while at the same time adjusting my regular running pace to a level that is more conducive to where I am at in life.  I'd like to continue participating in races as they come up, but with the main goal of getting through to the finish line without so much stress on how fast I run them.  If I'm to successfully see running as a lifetime sport for me, as Alberto Salazar claims, then I'll need to make a few adjustments here and there...

8/26 Sermon on "Theology for Dummies", Pt. 4

At The Family Church here in Gainesville, senior pastor Philip Griffin continued his series discussing the basics of the Christian faith, humorously titled Theology for Dummies with a message about the Holy Spirit. His scripture reference of focus was John 14:15-26, which you can click on to read via Bible Gateway...

Pastor Philip brought up three questions: who is the Holy Spirit, what does He do in my life, and how do I receive Him? The Holy Spirit is one of the Trinity, i.e. the three persons that God manifests himself through, the Father and Son being the others. Philip added that He is personal and can both help us to fulfill God's plan for us and be grieved when we turn our backs on Him.  The Holy Spirit makes his home in me, a believer, and is my advocate/comforter/counselor, one who comes alongside and declares truth.  And, as our pastor stressed, he also empowers me to do His will. In answer to that final question...how do I receive the Holy Spirit...Pastor Philip listed three steps: trusting my life to Jesus, surrendering it to him so that the Holy Spirit will fill me, and remaining in Him so that He will produce fruit in me...

You can view this sermon, in which Pastor Philip greatly expands on my paltry summary and adds a lot of other interesting material, by clicking on the following link to the church's YouTube video website: [TFC Videos].  The Family Church is at 2022 SW 122nd Street and holds its Sunday morning services, consisting of praise and worship music, the weekly message, and prayer, at 9 and 10:30.  There are numerous programs for discipleship and learning offered, as well as weekly small group meetings at different times.  Looking forward to the next message... 

Weekly Short Story: Appearance of Life by Brian Aldiss

I'm already familiar with the science fiction writing of Brian Aldiss: one of my all-time favorite short stories is his 1957 Let's Be Frank, which I discussed on this blog back at the start of the year.  Appearance of Life, which appeared in the anthology Donald A. Wollheim Presents The 1977 Annual World's Best SF, is another tale that probes deeply into the ultimate nature of reality and consciousness.  As such, I found its ending difficult to completely grasp, both what the protagonist discovered and how he reacted to it...

It is far, far into the future and humanity has extended itself into the distant reaches of space, filling star systems with its civilizations.  In the process, the discovery of a bygone species, the Korlevalulaw, has led to speculation as to their nature...their biology must not be like ours since their worlds would not have been habitable.  On one such planet, Norma, is a giant enclosed tunnel belting it, thousands of miles long and a mile or two wide on the interior.  Upon discovering it to be empty within, the idea was hatched to make it into a museum of our history, placing within it old spaceships and relics...in chronological fashion...from eons past.  The unnamed narrator is a Seeker, whose role is to take the information and experiences he collects in his travels and derive a whole from these parts.  While visiting this museum nested within the alien structure, he discovers two ancient personalized conversation cubes...one from a husband and the other from his wife...and sets them to each other.  The resulting conversation presents an "appearance of life" in them, although they are in essence only technological projections of their former real selves...at this point the Seeker has an epiphany and discovers the "secret of the universe"...

Brian Aldiss apparently likes to speculate about metaphysical topics, and Appearance of Life is an prime example.  I remember a couple of old Twilight Zone episodes that reflect what I believe he was trying to express here: the first was The After Hours, where a young woman goes to a large department store to return an item, only to eventually discover that she isn't who she thinks she is.  In the other, Five Characters in Search of an Exit, five people dressed in different roles (clown, soldier, hobo, ballet dancer, and bagpipe player) find themselves together at the interior bottom of a tall smooth cylinder...they're not what they seem to be either.  In like fashion, Aldiss used the two cubes to illustrate a similar, albeit much-more sweeping speculation about humanity's true nature...intriguing, but I'm not buying it.  Still, it's a worthwhile reading adventure, pretty deep in the metaphysical department: go for it if that's your area of interest...

Tuesday's List: Proposed State and Local Amendments for November Election

A few days ago Alachua County's Supervisor of Elections Kim Barton sent to me, under my alter ego's moniker "Resident", a detailed list of the Florida State Constitution amendments to be voted on in the general election to be held November 6. Along with these thirteen proposed changes are two Alachua County questions and two proposed revisions to Gainesville's city charter. So, you can see that there's more to citizen participation in their government than picking their own representatives: sometimes we can directly make an impact on issues we care deeply about.  I like this because...let's face it...I might go for one political party over another because they side with me on some crucial issues or their general philosophy of government resonates with mine, but on many issues I may be completely at odds with their positions.  By having these amendment questions I can cut through all that and address each one for myself.  It also gives me a greater appreciation of what lawmakers have to go through when handling legislation...it can get pretty doggone complicated.  The brochure I received from the elections supervisor also included brief summaries of what each amendment is about...I may be discussing a few of them in future articles leading up to the election.  By the way, the deadline for registering to vote in the 2018 general election is October 9...early voting will be October 22 through November 3.  And oh, by the way, if you're reading this before the polls close at 7 pm this evening, have you voted yet in today's primary election?

Here's that list...I alternately highlighted each entry in blue and red to help the reader visually distinguish them from each other... 

PROPOSED STATE CONSTITUTION AMENDMENTS
1 INCREASED HOMESTEAD TAX EXEMPTION
2 LIMITATIONS ON PROPERTY TAX ASSESSMENTS
3 VOTER CONTROL OF GAMBLING IN FLORIDA
4 VOTING RESTORATION
5 SUPERMAJORITY VOTE REQUIRED TO IMPOSE, AUTHORIZE, OR RAISE STATE TAXES OR FEES
6 RIGHTS OF CRIME VICTIMS; JUDGES
7 FIRST RESPONDER AND MILITARY MEMBER SURVIVOR BENEFITS; PUBLIC COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES
8 SCHOOL BOARD TERM LIMITS AND DUTIES; PUBLIC SCHOOLS
9 PROHIBITS OFFSHORE OIL AND GAS DRILLING; PROHIBITS VAPING IN ENCLOSED INDOOR WORKPLACES
10 STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT STRUCTURE AND OPERATION
11 PROPERTY RIGHTS; REMOVAL OF OBSOLETE PROVISION; CRIMINAL STATUTES
12 LOBBYING AND ABUSE OF OFFICE BY PUBLIC OFFICERS
13 ENDS DOG RACING

ALACHUA COUNTY QUESTIONS
1 CHILDREN'S TRUST OF ALACHUA COUNTY AUTHORITY TO LEVY ONE-HALF MILL AD VALOREM TAXES
2 HALF-CENT SALES SURTAX TO IMPROVE SCHOOL FACILITIES

CITY OF GAINESVILLE CHARTER AMENDMENTS
1 GAINESVILLE REGIONAL UTILITIES AUTHORITY
2 CITY COMMISSION ELECTIONS AND TERMS OF OFFICE

Just Finished Reading My Ántonia by Willa Cather

Willa Cather is another author that I had never heard of...until I happened to be browsing at my local Books-a-Million store when I came across her 1918 novel My Ántonia.  Flipping through it, I saw it dealt with rural pioneer farming life in Nebraska around the turn of the century...not exactly something I was at all familiar with.  So I decided to read it and just finished.: here's my reaction...

The way Cather set up the narrative to this story is interesting.  The "original" anonymous narrator runs into an old friend, Jim Burden, and together they recall their childhood life in a rural Nebraska town years earlier.  The name of a Bohemian immigrant girl named Ántonia gets brought up, and Jack reveals that he is close to finishing writing her story.  Later he sends a completed copy, which forms the body of the book, written in the first person from Jim's perspective...

After he was orphaned in Virginia, ten-year-old Jim rides a train west to Nebraska to his grandparents' farm to live with them, accompanied by a farmhand boy named Jake Marpole.  The hard work there shapes Jim's character and he grows close to his grandmother and grandfather.  Down the road a bit, a new family has just immigrated from Bohemia (the Czech-speaking part of the then-Austria-Hungary Empire) and are living in poor conditions in their shack of a home with poor food...the Burdens set out to meet and help the Shimerda family.  Fourteen-year old Ántonia is one of the children, and, like many others in this family, is rather headstrong and proud.  But a friendship forms between her and Jim as they learn each other's culture and language.  In spite of the book's title, though, the story isn't as much about Ántonia per se as it is about how immigrant families deal with their often very difficult adjustment to a different life in America.  Sometimes one of the spouses didn't want to move...the father in this case...and, at least as was the case back then, people with high professional and social standing in the "old country" found themselves either disrespected according to their former position or even placed by others as being "lower class", quite a drop and a problem many had to deal with, along with language barriers.  But Jim, his grandparents, and others in the community pitch in to help this family survive and have a more optimistic future after that first dismal (and tragic) winter...

My Ántonia is not exactly what you would call an action thriller, but rather a literary snapshot of an era in our history in which life was tough and people took responsibility for their own lives while pulling together in times of trouble to help each other out.  I found it refreshing and liked it...maybe you would, too...

Intensely Tumultuous Political Times Looming

Before I continue, I want to take this time to salute a great American hero, John McCain, who just passed away yesterday from cancer.  He devoted his life to public service, first as an Naval combat pilot in Vietnam, shot down and held as a POW for many years there and suffering terrible privation and torture.  Later, he entered politics and served with distinction in the United States Senate.  He ran for president twice, both times demonstrating the maturity and respect toward his adversaries that the current White House occupant sorely lacks.  I'll miss him...

Regardless of your political philosophy or what you may think about our current president, you should agree with me that the rest of this year will be loaded with passionate and divisive rhetoric coming from all sides of the national political landscape.  In a few days, Trump's Supreme Court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh, will begin his confirmation hearing in the Senate...there is fierce opposition from the Democrats, who fear that his seating will tilt the court to positions that are anti-women, anti-worker, anti-regulation, and anti-environment while protecting the president from being held legally accountable for any alleged misdeeds.  So yes, you can expect a lot of emotion flying about in the news over Kavanaugh alone.  But Robert Mueller's independent investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election and possible collusion with them by the Trump campaign seems to be entering a period of cascading "flipping" of people like former Trump attorney Michael Cohen, National Enquirer CEO David Pecker, and Trump's personal and business financial chief Allen Weisselberg, who may have detailed knowledge to share about the president's role in various dealings that are being examined.  Trump, his attorney Giuliani, and his cheerleaders in the media like Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh are responding to it all by calling the investigation a witch hunt, the FBI and Department of Justice full of corruption, everything negative reported about him in the media being "fake news", and that Attorney General Sessions should be investigating Hillary Clinton and the Democrats, not Trump.  And so it all goes around, and this story about the two women being paid hush money to help Trump win the election, along with Michael Cohen alleging that his client directed him to break the law, is just ratcheting up the fervor.  You can hardly turn on CNN, Fox, or MSNBC and get coverage of the issues that Americans are concerned about...not that I'm complaining too much: after all, this is all news, too: still, other things are going on in the country and the world and it would be nice to hear a greater diversity of stories.  As for your reactions to all this, I just say believe what you want to believe...whether you're a follower of conventional journalism or Trumpworld's Orwellian alternative facts, I'm sure there's some media "pundit" out there willing and able to spoon-feed for you all the talking points you need to armor yourself with regardless of your perspective...

So what's going to go down with this Mueller investigation and will Trump fire Sessions after the 2018 midterm elections and then try to shut Mueller down?  By the end of 2018, we should have a clearer picture about what's in front of us...there are rumblings about a move to initiate impeachment should the Democrats take the House of Representatives, although the Senate would almost certainly never vote to convict and remove Trump (two thirds vote required there).  I've always said that the best scenario would be for Mueller to issue his final report and vindicate Trump of impeachable wrongdoing...this prolonged scandal business wasn't good for the country with Watergate and it isn't now, either.  Unfortunately, I sadly suspect that when everything does finally come out, our president is going to have some major problems on his hands.  No, I didn't vote for Trump and I think his character is repulsive, but he is my president and needs to tend to the nation's business...and, dang it, I agree with some of his policies.  As for Brett Kavanaugh, I like the guy and feel that in a less politically-charged time he would be more accepted.  Yes, he's a conservative: the conservative candidate won the presidential election and nominated him...my beef is that when we had a liberal president and a court vacancy, the Republican-controlled Senate refused to consider his nominee.  The Democrats in the Senate are still rightfully offended by that reprehensible action by Majority Leader Mitch McConnell in 2016, but Kavanaugh shouldn't be treated the worse for it...

Just Finished Reading Middlemarch by George Eliot

George Eliot was the pen name for Mary Anne Evans, an English writer who felt the need to make it seem as if a man wrote her stories in order for that male-dominated nineteenth-century literary society to take them seriously.  I just finished reading her novel Middlemarch, which I encountered a little while ago while browsing through my local Books-a-Million...the paperback edition has a whopping 1,436 pages!  So yes, this was an epic of a book...just finishing it gave me a feeling of accomplishment.  The story, set in the imaginary English town of Middlemarch and the outlying rural areas, centers around the families Vincy, Brooke, and Garth...along with the idealistic young physician Tertius Lydgate and the sanctimonious and parsimonious banker Nicholas Bulstrode.  While the novel, set around 1830, treats various issues like class distinctions, land reform, religion's role in society, and making the responsible practice of medicine more science-based, the intertwining stories of three couples drive the narrative.  Dorothea Brooke is a "higher class" young woman who eschews her privileged position to marry a much older man, Edward Casaubon, a frustrated Biblical scholar whose writings are already considered obsolete before they are even submitted and published...he curtly rebuffs her attempts to assist him and the marriage slides from there.  Casaubon's younger cousin Will Latislaw develops an impossible, painful love for Dorothea...sounds like a conflict brewing here. Doctor Lydgate finds and marries Rosamond Vincy, pretty, immature, and self-absorbed...each of the two eventually find their previously held adoration of the other falling into disillusionment.  And then there is Rosamond's brother Fred, a financially irresponsible young man with a bad habit of owing other people money...will he be able to win the heart of his childhood sweetheart Mary Garth?  And then there's something fishy going on with Bulstrode: what's he trying to hide, anyway?

I only scratched the surface of some of the many characters and subplots in Middlemarch.  The author did a masterful job of presenting the perspectives of the major participants and showed them to have a depth and complexity that reflected how people really are: a mixture of good and bad, strong and weak...I think that was my favorite thing about it, along with how often people make the wrong assumptions about others' motivations.  It was also interesting to see how people can fall under faulty reasoning and make momentous, often disastrous, decisions that effect them for years and even a lifetime.  Middlemarch is considered to be a masterpiece in English fictional literature: I liked it, but have to admit that it probably would have carried more meaning to me had I been an Englishman reading it back in 1871 when it was first published...

Quote of the Week...from Erma Bombeck

If a man watches three football games in a row, he should be declared legally dead.  
                                                                        ---Erma Bombeck

Erma Bombeck (1927-96) was a famous humorist of the late 1900s who poked fun at suburban life of that time.  Her above comment could apply to me during football season...especially on Saturdays as the college football schedule usually starts at noon and doesn't finish until early Sunday morning.  Add to that my interest in soccer and baseball and you have someone who, at least one day of the week (I work Sundays when the NFL plays most of its games), is pretty much stuck in the recliner with my eyes glued to the set.  Usually: events and opportunities come along from time to time and I'm not fanatical about having to watch football...but some days it just happens to turn into a long, long string of games.  I've noticed something peculiar both about football as well as other team sports: if I'm not especially interested in who will win a particular game, then I tend to become more interested in following it from beginning to end...I wonder if others have the same experience.  And I don't bet money on anything...that's one vice that I learned to avoid by directly seeing its effects on others.  As for this 2018 season, which is about to begin...

I root for Florida, Miami, and Florida State in that order in college football while I support the Florida NFL teams Miami, Tampa Bay, and Jacksonville in like fashion.  By far I like to see the Gators and Dolphins do well, something that hasn't generally been happening too much in recent years.  UF does have a new head coach in Dan Mullen and he seems determined to bring back a robust offense to a team that hasn't had one since 2009 during the Tim Tebow era.  As for the Miami Dolphins, I have little hope of them sustaining any kind of success with their dull "player's" coach Adam Gase and their equally dull quarterback Ryan Tannenhill…this franchise is suffering from severe apathy and complacency in the crucial leadership positions, although it's apparent on the field that many if not most of the players care deeply about doing their utmost to win.  Who knows, maybe they'll do well enough to sneak into the playoffs, but I'm not holding my breath waiting for it.  As for the Gators, I'd just like to see them (1) have a good offense, (2) be competitive in each game they play, and (3) play a bowl game at season's end...I don't think that's asking too much, do you?

8/18 Sermon on "Theology for Dummies", Part 3

At The Family Church here in Gainesville, senior pastor Philip Griffin continued his sermon series Theology for Dummies, in which he explains different aspects of the basics of Christianity.  This past Sunday he delivered a message titled Who is Jesus?, using a number of different Bible passages...I'll list them at the bottom of this article...

In asking the title question, Pastor Philip gave some possible answers that have been floated around by people: Jesus is a prophet, a good teacher, the archangel Michael, a general cosmic presence, etc.  Looking at scripture, Philip laid out a different answer: Jesus is fully God, he became fully man, he was born of a virgin, he was an atoning sacrifice for our sins, he rose bodily from the dead, and he will come again.  The Colossians verse mentions that Jesus was firstborn over all creation, meaning he is supreme and full of authority and power. By fully becoming a man, as Philip continued, Jesus experienced the troubles and painful experiences that we go through, making worshipping him easier than a distant, aloof God.  Our pastor stressed that Jesus's virgin birth was important in that it broke the chain of original sin passed down from Adam...my one question would be what about Mary, his mother...wasn't she also a descendant from Adam?  By dying on the cross, Jesus substituted himself for us as the death penalty for our own sins as we confess them and accept him as savior.  When Jesus rose from the dead, Pastor Philip pointed out, it was his real body and around 500 eyewitnesses saw him alive...some, like Thomas, touching him, and others eating with him.  And Philip concluded, Jesus has promised to come again...he is preparing a place for us and will return at a time that none of us know...

You can watch this message on the church's YouTube video website...just click on the following link: [TFC Videos].  The Family Church is located at 2022 SW 122nd Street, holding its Sunday morning services at 9 and 10:30.  There's the always interesting message, great praise and worship music, prayer, and chances to sign up for different programs held during the week and on Sunday, including small groups in which the weekly sermon is discussed.  I like the hospitality room where I can get some good coffee before the service.  I'm looking forward to next week's message...

Here are the Bible passages that Pastor Philip used in his message.  Look them up if you have a Bible, or click on Bible Gateway to use that wonderful website's search engine...just cut and paste the passage you want to read...

Colossians 1:15-17
John 1:1-3
John 1:14
Matthew 1:18
Luke 1:34
Romans 3:23
Isaiah 64:6
Hebrews 9:22
1 John 2:2
1 Corinthians 5:3-8
John 14:3
Mark 13: 32, 35

Weekly Short Story: The Test by Richard Matheson

Richard Matheson, a respected twentieth century writer of science fiction and horror in his own right, is more known for his stories for television, most notably The Twilight Zone.  His 1954 short story The Test is more of a social commentary than it is science fiction: the sci-fi angle is there because it is a scary look into a possible future...the movie Logan's Run took this story's main theme to even greater extremes.  The Test appeared in the retrospective anthology Isaac Asimov Presents The Great SF Stories 16 (1954)…

Les and Terry are the father and mother and Jim and Johnny are the children, but the character of focus here is Les's 80-year old father Tom.  In this dystopian future scenario, the elderly are considered to be an excessive burden on society and its resources...consequently, every five years they are required to undergo a rigorous set of tests to ascertain their mental and physical viability.  If they fail, they are sentenced to death and if they pass, they get a five-year reprieve until they have to repeat it all again.  Les and Terry feel burdened by having Tom around, but also feel guilty about what will happen should he fail his test, which is quickly approaching...so Les repeatedly coaches his father with little hope of him passing.  What happens...well, once again here is where I suggest you read the story for yourself...

The Test was written after Social Security was enacted, but before Medicare and Medicaid became law.  Growing old can be difficult enough by itself without the feeling being imparted that the elderly are useless and need to be "dealt" with somehow.  The measure of how much a society deserves to exist can be made by how they take care of those unable to fend for themselves.  In our country we have two different models for this: the capitalistic one that encourages special tax-free retirement savings accounts that will be available through retirement, as well as an improving technology and enhanced medical care brought about by free enterprise, and the collective one in which the government provides safety nets like Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid to ensure that the people's basic needs will be met as their aging progressively limits their abilities.  Mixing these two together along with family support seems to be a good formula, but the specifics are often hotly contested politically.  I think each generation, from the very old to the very young, needs to be treated within society with dignity and valued not only for what they may have done in the past or may have to offer in the future, but also as active members in the present.  In The Test, Tom was 80...that's not so far off from where I'm at now, so maybe I'm a little bit biased in favor of the old folks, seeing how I'm becoming one myself.  This sobering tale should serve as a wake-up call for anyone who thinks the world belongs to a certain age span and not beyond...

Tuesday's List: BuzzFeed's 51 Best Fantasy Series Ever Written

Being a fantasy fiction fan, sometimes I browse the net to see how others rate the best series and look into any recommendations.  Some of the "best of" lists aren't very good, in my opinion, but after looking over BuzzFeed's best fantasy series list (by Tanner Greenring, Jack Shepherd, and Isaac Fitzgerald), I decided to reproduce it here...you can read excellent write-ups after each entry by clicking on the website: [BuzzFeed].  The series I haven't yet read I highlighted in blue, and the ones I have read I've used red.  One glaring omission from this list is Daniel Abraham's wonderful The Dagger and the Coin series...I'd rate it near the top.  Also, at the bottom of this list is the remarkable series The Magicians by Lev Grossman: that's my favorite fantasy series of all (just avoid the TV adaptation if you can).  Well, here's that list...

1 THE KINGKILLER CHRONICLES by Patrick Rothfuss
2 THE STORMLIGHT ARCHIVE by Brandon Sanderson
3 A SONG OF ICE AND FIRE by George R.R. Martin
4 THE LORD OF THE RINGS by J.R.R. Tolkien
5 THE LIGHTBRINGER by Brent Weeks
6 HIS DARK MATERIALS by Philip Pullman
7 DISCWORLD by Terry Pratchett
8 THE FIRST LAW by Joe Abercrombie
9 THE SWORD OF SHANNARA TRILOGY by Terry Brooks
10 DEMON CYCLE by Peter V. Brett
11 THE RIDDLE-MASTER TRILOGY by Patricia A. McKillip
12 MISTBORN by Brandon Sanderson
13 GENTLEMEN BASTARD SEQUENCE by Scott Lynch
14 THE INHERITANCE TRILOGY by N.K. Jemisin
15 LIVESHIP TRADERS by Robin Hobb
16 HARRY POTTER by J.K. Rowling
17 THE SWORD OF TRUTH by Terry Goodkind
18 THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA by C.S Lewis
19 THE EARTHSEA CYCLE by Ursula K. LeGuin
20 THE FIONAVAR TAPESTRY by Guy Gavriel Kay
21 RAVEN'S SHADOW by Anthony Ryan
22 THE BROKEN EMPIRE by Mark Lawrence
23 A LAND FIT FOR HEROES by Richard K. Morgan
24 OUTLANDER by Diana Gabaldon
25 THE WHEEL OF TIME by Robert Jordan
26 MALAZAN BOOK OF THE FALLEN by Steven Erikson
27 THE BLACK COMPANY by Glen Cook
28 ELEMENTAL LOGIC by Laurie J. Marks
29 THE CHRONICLES OF AMBER by Roger Zelazny
30 THE AVALON SERIES by Marion Zimmer Bradley
31 THE MERLIN QUINTET by Mary Stewart
32 THE DARK ELF TRILOGY by R.A. Salvatore
33 THE ELRIC SAGA by Michael Moorcock
34 REDWALL by Brian Jacques
35 TEMERAIRE by Naomi Novik
36 INHERITANCE CYCLE by Christopher Paolini
37 THE RIYRIA REVELATIONS by Michael J. Sullivan
38 PRINCE OF NOTHING  by R. Scott Bakker
39 DRAGONLANCE by Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman
40 THE CHRONICLES OF THOMAS COVENANT by Stephen R. Donaldson
41 THE POWDER MAGE by Brian McClellan
42 THE ONCE AND FUTURE KING by T.H. White
43 THE BARTIMEUS SEQUENCE by Jonathan Stroud
44 THE GORMENGHAST SERIES by Mervyn Peake
45 THE ABHORSEN TRILOGY by Garth Nix
46 THE DARK IS RISING SEQUENCE by Susan Cooper
47 THE FARSEER TRILOGY by Robin Hobb
48 THE TRAITOR SON CYCLE by Miles Cameron
49 DREAMBLOOD by N.K. Jemisin
50 THE RIFTWAR CYCLE by Raymond E. Feist
51 THE MAGICIANS TRILOGY by Lev Grossman

2018 Atlantic Hurricane Season, Calm Now But Entering Peak Period

As we approach the end of August this year, it's a good idea to remind ourselves that we are also entering the most intense period of the Atlantic hurricane season.  Last year in late August/early September we had the one-two punch of Harvey in Texas/Louisiana and Irma in Florida, and then Maria devastated Puerto Rico during the second half of September...followed by Nate hitting the U.S. in Mississippi after causing several deaths in Central America.  So far this year we've only gone through the "E" storm: Florence, Gordon, Helene, Isaac, and Joyce are to be the next ones, hopefully none of them destined to cause any degree of damage or danger.  But although it's been relatively mild in the Atlantic in 2018, it only takes one direct hit by a strong hurricane to change everything.  I'm going to keep an eye on the weather forecasts to see what might be brewing out there: they're predicting no tropical activity in the North Atlantic for the next 48 hours, so for the time being we're off the hook. Still, a prudent inventory of hurricane supplies and some modest stockpiling might be in order at least until we pass this peak phase of the season...

Local State Senate Race Shows Rift in Democratic Party

Last Monday I was discussing on this blog the different candidates in August 28's primary election for different races when I came across Florida's State Senate District 8 seat, currently held by Republican Keith Perry.  I mentioned then that I didn't know anything about the two Democratic candidates vying in the primary for that job: Kayser Enneking and Olysha Magruder.  Well, after looking though my mail yesterday, I stand corrected about them: I got literature from both sides.  Kayser Enneking sent a positive piece describing her former status as Medical Director for the UF Surgical Center, along with her promise to look after the health interests of Floridians...including expanding Medicaid, focusing on the opioid epidemic, and working to make health care and prescription drugs more affordable.  Olysha Magruder sent out an attack ad accusing Enneking of being the party establishment's favorite, listing the funds that she received from it for her campaign...implying that Magruder herself wasn't as fortunate with the donations.  And she criticized Enneking for being an "out of touch millionaire": that for me was perhaps the most telling thing about this ad.  On the other side, Magruder presented herself as "a local educator and activist" who has long fought for "progressive values".  H-m-m, I'm seeing a dovetailing of this campaign with much of what's going on in the Democratic Party elsewhere in the country...

The young New York state political neophyte with the complicated name who recently upset a sitting Congressman in their Democratic primary got a lot of people talking, but probably what really got the rift going between the party's so-called "establishment" and more leftist "progressives" was the close contest in 2016 between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders.  Apparently, we're seeing something like this develop in Florida's District 8 between Enneking and Magruder.  I expect more campaign mail from these two in the next few days: early voting began yesterday and things will most likely ratchet up between the two candidates.  But when Magruder disparaged Enneking for being a millionaire...sorry, folks, I can't support anyone espousing this kind of nonsense.  Medical professionals who, over the span of their career, take care of their money will most likely become millionaires...that criticism made me suspect that Magruder feels that no one has the right to be wealthy or that having money disqualifies one for leadership.  And that kind of talk, my friends, will never do: she's out!  As for Enneking, if you've read this blog any amount of time you'll know that I tend to vote Democrat and the good doctor, at least as far as I can see at this point, seems like she'd make a good state senator.  On the other hand, I happen to like Keith Perry and think he's been faithfully doing the best job he could do...if Enneking wins this primary contest against Magruder, I'll have to do some serious soul-searching: not the case if Magruder wins...

Just Finished Reading The Bands of Mourning by Brandon Sanderson

Brandon Sanderson is one of my favorite authors of fantasy fiction, and he is currently engaged in writing two different series that I am trying to keep up with: Mistborn and The Stormlight Archive. I have found it easier to go through a series when it's already been completed: then I can go straight from one book to the next without having to wait the required time...often lasting several years...for the next installment to come out.  Sanderson, unlike some other writers I know (like George R.R. Martin), however, has been disciplined and prompt with his writing...still, I suffer from memory drain between each book's publication.  The Bands of Mourning, which I just finished reading, is the third volume of the Wax and Wayne series, which itself is a subset of the Mistborn series.  I originally thought that it was going to be the final book in a trilogy, but no, there's still at least one more to go...

On the fantasy world of Scadrial, certain gifted humans have the ability to digest different metals and temporarily use them for specialized superhuman abilities, called "allomancy"...along with associated talents called "feruchemy" and "hemolurgy"...this is the premise for Sanderson's Mistborn series.  With The Bands of Mourning, western-style-lawman Waxillium Ladrian, actually a noble lord in his home capital city and an allomancer/feruchemist, continues to fight his uncle Eduarn, member of a subversive group of criminals and disgruntled nobles called "Set" and who has long held Wax's sister Telsin prisoner.  With Wax are his long-time sidekick Wayne, officer Marasi, and Wax's fiancée Steris...as well as MeLaan, a "kandra"...a creature that can change its form to look like others.  Their exploits, as well as their developing personal stories and revelations about the mysteries of their world, take them far away to find the Bands of Mourning, which will impart all the special gifts to anyone who possesses them: the Set seek them for their own nefarious ends...or is there something else on their mind?

Much more significant to me than the actual story in The Bands of Mourning were its characters and their relationships to each other.  Sanderson is a gifted writer who obviously believes in deep, interesting characters that the reader can identify with.  The progression of Steris from Wax's overly formal fiancée-by-contract to his genuine love interest as she reveals new aspects of her personality was one of the most compelling features of this story, which continues in the next book, titled The Lost Metal...set to come out sometime early next year. Hope I don't forget too much before then...

Quote of the Week...from Aretha Franklin

Sometimes, what you're looking for is already there.            ---Aretha Franklin

I was saddened yesterday morning to find out that Aretha Franklin passed away...many times she brightened up my often melancholy outlook with some incredible music.  More than that, though, was her wonderful, genuine personality...she said lots of good stuff over the past 50+ years.  The above quote I picked without exactly knowing the context in which she spoke it, but that's often the way with quotes.  I don't think, by her focus on the present, that she meant for people not to try and improve themselves or seek a better life for others...Aretha was always a big advocate for positive change.  The way I see it, a lot of us have problems with discontent and comparing ourselves unfavorably with others...maybe "they" have more wealth, perceived popularity, recognition, travels and adventures, and so on.  However, the only life we will ever experience is that which we have now...and sometimes it's a good idea to stop and reflect on what we have to be grateful for and not on what's all going down around us or who seems to be unfairly doing better than us.  It's good to believe in a better future and work for it, but it's equally good to savor the present and what we already have...advice that I too often forget to take for myself...

8/11 Sermon on "Theology for Dummies", Part 2

Continuing at The Family Church here in Gainesville with his series Theology for Dummies that seeks to more clearly explain the basic principles of Christianity, senior pastor Philip Griffin presented a discussion this past Sunday titled The Attributes of God.  Using various passages scattered throughout the Bible, he described the Lord in ways that mean the most for us as we worship him...

Pastor Philip listed God's main attributes: always there, all-powerful, all-knowing, all-loving, and all-righteous.  Furthermore, in regard to the above, God never changes.  Philip pointed out that God that doesn't only reside at church but is everywhere...even in places that we may find ourselves "hiding" from him. His omnipotence is demonstrated by his having created the universe.  His knowledge extends to what is in our hearts, even before we express it through our words or actions.  God is not vengeful or angry, our pastor stressed, but his love is powerful and personal and overcomes evil...which points to his righteousness and fairness in seeing people without distinguishing among whatever demographic groups they happen to belong to.  And, Pastor Philip added, God's non-changing nature is demonstrated in four areas: his Word, character, love for us, and purpose for our lives...all directed to us both collectively and as individuals.  His Word never fails to have application in our lives, and we need to do what is right, be honest, and be faithful: God is always these things.  And Philip reminded us that while human love wears out, God's doesn't: when we know that God always loves us, we don't need another human being to define love for us.  And finally, as our pastor concluded, God takes even our mistakes and misdeeds for his own purposes, to glorify him. Turn control over to God, whose plan for salvation is through Jesus: the way, the road, the path...

You can watch this message on the church's YouTube video website...just click on the following link: [TFC Video].  The Family Church, located at 2022 SW 122nd Street, holds its Sunday morning services at 9 and 10:30.  Along with the weekly message is praise and worship music, prayer, and further opportunities for learning and discipleship.  Lots of friendly folks are there to chat with before, between, after services, and there is a hospitality center with coffee and treats as well.  Let's see what Pastor Philip has to say next week...

And here's a list of the Bible passages Pastor Philip used in this message...in the order he presented it. I recommend you use the Bible Gateway website to read them if don't have a Bible handy...

Psalm 90:2, 139:7-10
Jeremiah 32:17
Hebrews 4:13
1 John 4:8
Psalm 89:14
Malachi 3:6
Hebrews 13:8
Isaiah 40:8
Matthew 24:35
Deuteronomy 32:4
Hebrews 6:18
Psalm 145:13
Romans 8:39
James 1:17
Romans 8:28
Psalm 125:1

Weekly Short Story: To Walk a City's Street by Clifford Simak

Clifford Simak is one of my all-time favorite science fiction writers...his 1972 short story To Walk a City's Street is just another of several I have enjoyed over the years.  It appears in the anthology The 1973 Annual World's Best SF with Donald Wollheim (also a science fiction writer) the book's editor and publisher.  Simak's tale examines the desire that so many of us have...and it largely drives the food supplement industry...of a panacea that will eliminate illness and prolong our lives.  Ernie is a homeless man at some point in the not-so-distant future (from the author's 1972 perspective).  With their enhanced ability to collect accurate, specific data on the population's health by geographical area, the government health authority is able to determine that the immediate run-down, poverty-stricken urban neighborhood around homeless Ernie is completely disease-free.  Further investigation narrows the cause to Ernie himself: this simple man apparently is a carrier of good health and it wears off on anyone he contacts.  So the smart guys in Washington come up with the idea of hiring Ernie to walk up and down different heavily populated urban streets, in areas where there seems to be a higher level of sickness.  The results are coming back positive, sickness is being eliminated wherever he goes...but Ernie is also beginning to resent and resist his new life...well-paid and provided for he might be...missing his old friends and neighborhood in spite of his previous poverty.  Ernie's handlers are able to control him for the most part, but then they receive a sobering message about that old neighborhood of his.  I won't tell you how it all ends, but you should expect a sharp paradigm shift here...

One of the things I love the most about Clifford Simak's stories...and it distinguishes him from a lot of other sci-fi writers...is that he has a heart for his characters: Ernie's sweet, innocent personality comes out quickly in this very short tale, and even the government men assigned to accompany him on his walks are shown to have their own particular feelings and lives.  I've found writers who are able to accomplish this to be my favorites...it's probably the main reason I've read most of Stephen King's fiction.  But back to the notion that there is a panacea floating around out there that can rid us of our ailments if we can only pinpoint and corral it.  Our bodies are ecosystems within themselves, and the microscopic life permeating them have extremely complicated relationships.  If a drug is administered to kill off one type of invading bacteria but kills off other necessary bacteria, then the door is open for something else to invade the body.  When considering this complexity other data such as illness levels among the population don't necessarily line up in agreement, as Clifford Simak's story illustrates.  Also, it was clear to me that the terror of possible sickness and death...and the prospects of reversing it all...clouded the ostensibly scientific and objective process of those seeking to better the world through someone like Ernie.  What if there are carriers like him around...I encourage you to read To Walk a City's Street for yourself...

Tuesday's List: Soccer's English Premier League...Current & Previous Teams

I began to earnestly follow the English Premier League in international soccer in the fall of 2014, so I'm a relative newcomer to it.  The Premier League began in 1992, although the same clubs competed at the highest level...some for decades...within other leagues before that.  The Premier League contains twenty teams and determines its annual championship by who wins the regular season title.  Also, each year the three lowest finishing clubs are relegated (demoted) to the next lower league, which is inappropriately called Football League Championship. In turn, that league's top three finishers are promoted to the Premier League for the following season.  Because of this, there has been a bit of turnover: since 1992 the English Premier League has seen a total of 49 different clubs!  Yet there are some (Arsenal, Liverpool, Chelsea, Everton, and Manchester United) who have been there all 27 years.  Using a very good Wikipedia list (here's the link), I rearranged the teams to first list this year's lineup of 20 teams (arranged in order of finish the previous year, with the last three being the promoted clubs) and then the other 29, the latter listed in order of number of seasons participating in the Premier League.  Following each club's names, in parentheses, is its highest ever finish in the league.  To me the English Premier League is the best soccer league in the world.  Its top teams measure up well with the best of other leagues while there is top-level play even between the lower clubs.  The new 2018-19 season began a week ago: I'm looking forward to another exciting time watching the matches on NBC Sports, whoever happens to be playing...

2018-19 SEASON TEAMS
MANCHESTER CITY (1)
MANCHESTER UNITED (1)
TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR (2)
LIVERPOOL (2)
CHELSEA (1)
ARSENAL (1)
BURNLEY (7)
EVERTON (4)
LEICESTER CITY (1)
NEWCASTLE UNITED (2)
CRYSTAL PALACE (10)
BOURNEMOUTH (9)
WEST HAM UNITED (5)
WATFORD (13)
BRIGHTON & HOVE ALBION (15)
HUDDERSFIELD TOWN (16)
SOUTHAMPTON (6)
WOLVERHAMPTON WANDERERS (15)
CARDIFF CITY (20)
FULHAM (7)

PREVIOUS PREMIER LEAGUE TEAMS
BLACKBURN ROVERS (1)
SUNDERLAND (7)
MIDDLESBROUGH (7)
BOLTON WANDERERS (6)
LEEDS UNITED (3)
WEST BROMWICH ALBION (8)
STOKE CITY (9)
COVENTRY CITY (11)
NORWICH CITY (3)
WIMBLEDON (6)
CHARLTON ATHLETIC (7)
SHEFFIELD WEDNESDAY (7)
WIGAN ATHLETIC (10)
QUEENS PARK RANGERS (5)
BIRMINGHAM CITY (9)
PORTSMOUTH (8)
SWANSEA CITY (8)
DERBY COUNTY (8)
NOTTINGHAM FOREST (3)
IPSWICH TOWN (5)
HULL CITY (16)
READING (8)
SHEFFIELD UNITED (14)
BRADFORD CITY (17)
OLDHAM ATHLETIC (19)
BARNSLEY (19)
BLACKPOOL (19)
SWINDON TOWN (22)

Main Candidates in August 28th Primary Election in Florida & Alachua County

If you're planning to vote in the upcoming primary election on August 28th (early voting August 18-25), you might want to know some of the candidates running in the various races here in Alachua County, Florida, and the United States Congress.  Since it's a primary election...other than judge and school board seats...registered Republicans and Democrats have been receiving their own different sample ballots.  And although there are lots of choices in the respective races (especially for state governor in both parties), it's generally acknowledged that there is a small number of leading contenders, which I'll discuss here...

For Florida governor, which Republican Rick Scott is vacating after eight years because of term limits, the Republican primary leader...according to polling...is U.S. Representative Ron DeSantis (endorsed by Trump), followed by Adam Putnam, currently our Commissioner of Agriculture.  These two have been fighting a brutal mail campaign with each accusing the other of selling out conservatism.  On the Democratic side, Gwen Graham, daughter of former Florida governor and senator Bob Graham, is ahead of businessman Jeff Greene.  Greene is coming out very strongly against Trump, especially regarding gun control, while Graham is touting her stances for education and the environment.  For the U.S. Senate seat currently held by Democrat Bill Nelson, the incumbent is running unopposed...his Republican opponent in November will almost certainly be Governor Scott, who has token opposition in this primary.  For the U.S. House of Representatives District 3 seat, comprising Alachua County (among other areas), Republican Tea Party incumbent Ted Yoho is opposed by Judson Sapp, who claims to be more pro-Trump than Yoho. With the Democrats, Yvonne Hayes Hinson, Tom Wells, and Dushyant Jethagir Gosal are on the ballot...I don't know who the favorite is here, but Hinson seems to be winning with the most campaign signs so far.  There are primary elections in each party for the state's Attorney General and Agriculture Commissioner seats.  The State Senate District 8 seat, currently held by Republican Keith Perry who has no party opposition, on the Democratic side has Kayser Enneking facing off against Olysha Magruder...whoever they are.  There are also State Representative primary elections for each party: District 10 for the Republicans and District 21 for the Democrats (at least as far as my own precinct is concerned). For the Alachua County Commission District 2, Randy Wells is running against Marihelen Wheeler in the Democratic Primary election...

There are two nonpartisan judicial races, one for the 8th Judicial Circuit, Group 8 and the other for County Judge, Group 2.  Also, three school board races are on all ballots.  District 1 has incumbent April Griffin vs. Tina Certain, District 3 has incumbent Gunnar Paulson against Judy McNeil and April Tisher, and District 5 has incumbent Rob Hyatt going against Paul Wolfe.  I probably should have been paying more attention here, but with the judges how am I supposed to know who to vote for?

It will be interesting to see what the voter turnout is for this primary election.  A high turnout would be encouraging, but I'll believe it when I see it...

Just Finished Reading Indignation by Philip Roth

Philip Roth, one of whose quotes I discussed a couple of days ago, is probably best known for his novels Goodbye Columbus and American Pastoral.  He was a keen observer of the American scene during his time (1933-2018) and did a lot of it from the perspective of a Jewish man living in the northeast.  Indignation, from 2008, sticks to this pattern as his protagonist, Marcus Messner, is a young Jewish college student from Newark, New Jersey, where he spent much of his youth putting in long hours helping his father, a kosher butcher, at their shop.  But although he had positive experiences at Robert Treat, his local college, Marcus's father has become unbearably overprotective and accusatory, even locking him out of the house one night because he thought his son was up to no good...when in reality he was just studying at the library.  So Marcus transfers to a small public college, Winesburg, in Ohio to escape his father's impossible presence.  But before we go any further, I must mention a crucial detail: it is 1951, the military draft is still in effect, and war rages in Korea with substantially large casualties for those fighting there. Marcus fears induction into the draft and that war without a college deferment, so he assiduously studies and maintains a strong A average...even though he works several hours a week as a waiter to defer some of his parents' expenses in sending him there.  It seems that Marcus is always trying to do the right thing, but those around him seem equally determined to undermine his studies and future...is he fated to end up in one of those Korean foxholes, attacked and killed by the Chinese?  Roth wrote this story from a unique perspective, which I leave for you to discover should you choose to read it.  Instead, I'd like to discuss one aspect from Indignation that made an impact on me: the draft, a protracted war, and how young men of the time viewed it all...

When the American participation in the Vietnam War started in earnest in 1965, I was eight going on nine.  By early in 1966, it was all escalating with no end in sight, and I was in the fourth grade.  We had a special class at the time in Nova Elementary School (Davie, Florida) that focused on what America was all about and was designed to foster patriotism among us.  One day while this was going on, a number of us met in the library's conference room with the librarian (I can't for the life of me remember her name) and one of our team teachers, Mr. Johnston, who was a big military enthusiast who collected all sorts of memorabilia and medals.  The two stood there explaining to us how important it was to fight in Vietnam...the librarian was very proud of her son, who was one of the soldiers over there, and said in effect that it was a great thing to give up your life for your country, making it seem to me at the time like an inevitability.  I knew nothing about the draft or college deferments then, but that meeting really creeped me out, young as I was.  While I was in my mid-teens, the war was still dragging on, with Nixon succeeding Johnson in prolonging it.  But by the time I was eligible to be drafted, not only had the war ended, but so had the military draft!  Looking back, I realized very strongly how the government was plucking young men out of their lives and sending them to be targets of the enemy...to draw out their fire, so to speak...in order to pinpoint their location so that we could hit them from the skies: a very cynical strategy.  I imagine something similar was used in Korea as well.  Anyway, if you were a teenager or college-age young man living during these times of conscription and seemingly endless war, you couldn't imagine the cloud hanging over your life...

Still Bemoaning Rise of Facebook

I've written before about how I bemoan the rapid rise of Facebook and its disastrous effect on independent personal blogging.  Just when millions of people were increasingly posting blogs and connecting with interested readers across their community, country...and even the world, here comes this social media website that reversed the trend, drew away most of those bloggers, and made interpersonal internet communications primarily a matter between people within a predetermined social circle of friends, family, and associates.  My blog is NOT a Facebook blog...the only reason I put a link to it on this site is to make it available to what readers are left: not doing so would be like just walking outside and reading it to the air, unlike a decade ago when people actively explored the blogosphere and my articles made Google's search engine at a higher level.  I am disappointed but not surprised that Facebook not only is suppressing certain postings among its users that are more conservative or Christian, but also that even within the already established group of Facebook Friends on my account it uses an algorithm that prevents most of them from even accessing it unless they deliberately (and inconveniently) click on my account...

I felt that during the first decade of this century the internet was evolving toward a truly cosmopolitan system of communications that bypassed censorship and gave people the chance to freely exchange their philosophies and opinions with each other.  Instead, it seems we now have something in Facebook that is stagnant and condescendingly paternalistic with its meddling into its users' chosen topics and its assumptions as to who gets to read them.  I do appreciate those who are able and choose to read my blog through the link I provide on Facebook, but looking at the big picture I wish it had never come about.  Who knows what amazing, sophisticated networks of worldwide communications we would have developed instead had independent blogging just been allowed to run its natural course...

Quote of the Week...from Philip Roth

You cannot observe people through an ideology. Your ideology observes for you.
                                                                            ---Philip Roth

Philip Roth, who sadly passed away this past May, was an influential American writer both of fiction and non-fiction...his first major work was the novel Goodbye Columbus.  I've just finished reading his 2006 book Indignation: more on that in a day or two.  He interested me enough to look at some of his past quotes, which I accessed through the website A-Z Quotes.  I picked the above one because it spoke to me as to how too many people handle their take on the news...

This has been going on for years: I'll watch some politician or public figure give a speech or interview, and I come away from it with a few details but more importantly their general philosophy on the subject being discussed.  Then I'll tune in to the cable news channels and talk radio and get drastically distorted spins on what was said, often accompanied by the speaker being trashed in the most personal terms. As someone who has learned to think for myself...whether or not you happen to agree with my conclusions...I find that many, if not most people derive their opinions not from the source event but rather from the spin that their "side" has generated in interpreting it.  Note that I'm not distinguishing the political left from the right in this regard: I see it going on everywhere!

Let's consider the last two presidents: Barack Obama and Donald Trump.  You couldn't dream up a pair who have such a different way of looking at things and treating others...to some extent it's necessary to take their personalities into account when they speak on different matters.  I have listened extensively to both and have found areas of agreement, as well as disagreement, with each one.  But too many people, I'm sorry to say, either regard Obama as all-good and Trump as all-bad, or the reverse, depending on how they are ideologically inclined.  First comes the ideology, usually strongly welded to a political party...if it's one of the "bad guys" they'll belittle their positive accomplishments while casting aspersions on their motivations as well as alternately ridiculing their stupidity and accusing them of being sneaky and despotic.  Their own "good guy", of course, is beyond reproach...why, if you dare to criticize then you're both a traitor and a fool...

I thought school was supposed to teach us how to think, not how to parrot others' thoughts...

8/5 Sermon on Theology for Dummies, Part 1

Last week at The Family Church here in Gainesville, senior pastor Philip Griffin began a new sermon series that he humorously titles Theology for Dummies...not that we're all dummies, you see, but that sometimes a potentially cumbersome topic like theology needs to be broken down and simplified to its more basic elements so that all can understand.  In this message, Destructive Beliefs & Life-Changing Truths, Pastor Philip discussed the importance of using Biblical scripture as the authority guiding our lives.  Using 2 Timothy 3:1-5, 14-17 as his scriptural focus (click on the passage to read that whole chapter via Bible Gateway), he broke his message down into two sections: destructive beliefs and life-changing truths...

Pastor Philip provided three of the more pervasive destructive belief systems people face today: individualism ("I call the shots"), hedonism ("I do what feels good"), and relativism ("I decide what is right and true").  He pointed out that with individualism, it is okay and admirable for one take a personal responsibility for his or her own behavior as long as they don't make this philosophy the authority in their lives.  Hedonism in itself leads to moral numbness as well as a progressive lust for more while the fulfillment becomes progressively diminished, as our pastor pointed out.  And relativism may be the most insidious of the three as people may deceive themselves into believing they are living upright, moral lives in accordance with God's designs but refuse to accept any absolute standards...

As for life-changing truths, which supplant those negative beliefs, the overriding theme is the authority of scripture.  Philip stressed that the Bible is our authority, reliable, necessary and sufficient.  While the Old Testament stands as the original Jewish scripture, the New Testament was composed by those who lived during the "eyewitness" period of history when many around them had personally experienced Jesus's presence on Earth.  Philip added that scripture's authority cannot save...only God can do that...but it can give wisdom that leads to faith.  And he concluded that the Bible thoroughly equips us for every good work...

You can watch this message by clicking on the following link to the church's YouTube video website: [TFC Videos].  The Family Church, located at 2022 SW 122nd Street, holds its Sunday morning services at 9 and 10:30 am with praise and worship music, prayer, discipleship and learning opportunities...and of course the weekly message.  There's coffee in the hospitality room before and between services, too.  Let's see how Pastor Philip breaks down theology in simpler terms for us next week...

Weekly Short Story: Window by Bob Leman

I've read my share of stories about windows or portals into other dimensions and seen enough of the same on TV and in movies...Bob Leman's 1980 short story Window is another one.  It appears in the anthology Donald A. Wollheim Presents the 1981 Annual World's Best SF (DAW Books).  I can't discuss this sixteen-page story without giving way much of the ending, so if you're planning on reading it you're probably better off stopping here and coming back afterwards...

In Window, our military is working with some scientists on a secret project.  The most eccentric of these scientists, Culvergast, has a research station out in a remote woods clearing.  News of a most extraordinary development reaches Gilson, a skeptical government official, and the colonel on duty informs him further and takes him to the site.  He can hardly believe what he sees: in the place where the research facility once stood is a cubical extraction of another place, with its own weather!  In the middle stands a Victorian-style house much like those of the late 1800s.  Reeves, an assistant working there, reveals that there is a family living there, but they can't see out to our world.  Anything crossing the barrier between that zone and "normal" reality is instantly cut off and never seen again...with one exception. For about five seconds every fifteen hours, a hole in the barrier forms through which objects from our world can successfully pass through.  Threatened with the prospect of outside scientists and officials coming soon to interfere in the project, Reeves desperately flings himself through and lands on the other side.  Funny, turns out that the people living there aren't really people at all as we would define the term: they transform into vicious carnivores, attack him, and eat him in front of Gilson and the other horrified observers...

The story reveals that Culvergast had been researching telekinesis and seemed to have come up with the principle that underlies this ability for those practicing it.  He then tried an experiment which went awry, causing his disappearance and the presence of the now-terrifying creatures.  I will leave the very end of Window, which has elements of apocalypse to it, for you to read if you're still interested in it after all I've revealed.  I got two things from this story: one, when you open up a doorway into a new, strange place whose nature is largely unknown to you, you're also opening up a doorway from that place into your own world...this type of venture carries with it consequences.  Two, a lot of us are revolted at the site of a predator chasing down, catching, killing, and then tearing into its prey...but that's how creatures survive.  We try to separate ourselves from this brutality by compartmentalizing the farming, slaughtering, and butchering of our food, but we're no different from the monsters in Bob Leman's story in the end.  And does being a vegan really change all that, I wonder...

Tuesday's List: August 28 Primary Election in Alachua County

The state of Florida holds its primary election on Tuesday, August 28...just three weeks from now.  Voters will have several decisions to make on their ballots, although some races are unopposed...at least at the primary stage.  Depending on which party you're registered in, you will receive different ballots with your party's candidates on them to choose from...along with nonpartisan races on all ballots.  Here are the positions up for primary voting...I used the Alachua County Supervisor of Elections website to obtain them:

U.S. SENATE

U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES DISTRICT 3

FLORIDA GOVERNOR & LT. GOVERNOR

FLORIDA COMMISSIONER OF AGRICULTURE

FLORIDA ATTORNEY GENERAL

FLORIDA STATE SENATE DISTRICT 8
FLORIDA CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER

FLORIDA STATE REPRENTATIVE DISTRICTS 10, 20, 21

CIRCUIT 8 JUDGES GROUPS 3, 4, 5, 8

ALACHUA COUNTY COMMISSION DISTRICTS 2, 4

ALACHUA COUNTY JUDGE GROUP 2

ALACHUA COUNTY SCHOOL BOARD DISTRICTS 1, 3, 5

ALACHUA COUNTY SOIL & WATER CONSERVATION DISTRICT: GROUPS 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

From what I can gather at this time, unopposed primary races for Republicans are: Florida Senate District 8, and Florida Representative District 21.  For Democrats the unopposed primary races are US Senate and Florida Representative District 10.  In that body's District 20, Clovis Watson (Dem) is unopposed for both the primary and general election...a coronation of sorts.  With the Alachua County Commission District 4, Ken Cornell will likewise "run" unopposed throughout as will this county's Soil & Water Conservation District 3 candidate Danielle Sullen: don't expect to get to vote on these seats.  As for the judges up for consideration, how is anyone supposed to know which candidate to vote for: any constructive advice is welcome.  Other than mentioning the names of the individuals assured election because no one saw fit to oppose them, I deliberately left out the names of the candidates involved in contested contests, either now or for the general election in November.  That's because between now and August 28 I plan to discuss some of them on this blog...stay tuned. 

And no, there isn't a sexy presidential race on the ballot with idols and villains to choose from...just most of your government!  Voting is voluntary, unlike jury duty (unless you belong to one of the exempted categories of humanity).  So naturally since it is voluntary, the government has gone to some pains to make it more convenient, either through absentee ballots, early voting, or polling stations conveniently located near most everybody's residences.  As for early voting in Alachua County, the Supervisor of Elections site lists five locations:

Supervisor of Elections Office

515 N. Main Street, Gainesville

Millhopper Branch Library

3145 NW 43rd Street, Gainesville

Tower Road Branch Library

3020 SW 75th Street, Gainesville

Legacy Park Multipurpose Center

15400 Peggy Road, Alachua

Melrose United Methodist Church

5802 Hampton Street, Melrose

Early voting at one of the above locations will be from Saturday, August 18 and last through Saturday, August 25 with the voting hours on all days being 9 am to 6 pm...

Just Finished Reading Mean Streak by Sandra Brown

Sandra Brown is a prolific romance and thriller writer, rapidly churning out books each year under her own name and others.  I'd never read anything of hers until I recently checked out her 2014 novel Mean Streak from my local public library.  Previously, I had avoided romance literature and thought that this particular book would veer away from that genre.  To some extent it did, but Brown nevertheless felt the need to inject graphic romantic interludes that she apparently is comfortable with in other novels. It seemed a bit awkward because they really weren't necessary to advance the story or the characters...I'm guessing that a lot of Sandra Brown's fans expect this stuff with her books and so there it is.  Aside from that, I liked the suspense and mystery as Emory, a married young woman doctor in Georgia, after falling during a solo twenty-mile training run in the high wilderness along the North Carolina border, wakes up in a strange man's isolated cabin.  This man, who claims to have found her unconscious and brought her back to care for her, refuses to take her back down the mountain to civilization because of the fog.  Emory strongly suspects him of having attacked and abducted her...who is he (he won't name himself) and why does he seem to be hiding way up here?  Meanwhile, Emory's husband Jeff, who is having an affair behind her back with Alice (one of her physician colleagues), comes under suspicion from the local sheriff's office when she doesn't return after a few days missing...

I thought Sandra Brown had a terrific story here, and it wasn't until I was about three quarters of the way through it until I began to suspect who turned out to be the culprit...Mean Streak, more than anything, is a mystery thriller...with some seedy romance thrown in.  If that's your preferred kind of reading, go for it!  She is a good storyteller...maybe I'll explore other books of hers, although that might not happen for a little while...

Yet Another Star Trek TV Series Coming

It doesn't look as if the Star Trek franchise as it relates to television series will ever be a thing of the past, only found through reruns or Netflix, and news has been released as to future plans.  Entertainment Weekly, through my MSN computer newsfeed, has announced that Patrick Stewart will return in a new Star Trek series, donning one again his beloved role of Jean-Luc Picard from Star Trek: The Next Generation.  Picard will be portrayed later on in his life, which makes sense unless Stewart plans on going through Botox or extensive makeup work for every filming.  CBS plans to broadcast it as a regular network series...I'm looking forward to it, although in all frankness I still have yet to view most of the episodes in the previous  Star Trek series.  I saw all of the original series episodes starring William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy, a fraction of Stewart's Next Generation, and very few of Deep Space Nine or Voyager.  I watched none of Enterprise, which wasn't allowed to conclude its run before being cancelled, nor of Discovery, which is has been on CBS since last year and predates even Enterprise on the Star Trek timeline.  I'm interested in the new series, though, because I'm a fan of Stewart and came to prefer the Next Generation episodes in which he was the main actor...sometimes they could get a bit sidetracked and, in my opinion, boring when they focused on one of the side characters.  Well, we'll see what comes of this...

Just Finished Reading Deliver Us from Evil by David Baldacci

I was first introduced to David Baldacci...who tends to write cloak and dagger spy novels...when I checked out one of his books from my local public library.  It was from his Camel Club series but wasn't the first book...causing continual annoyance throughout it whenever a reference to something or someone from an earlier book was given.  I vowed then to subsequently be careful not to start reading a novel in mid-series, but sometimes I goof up and do it anyway...Baldacci's 2010 novel (once again spy-oriented) Deliver Us from Evil is the most recent example.  It's the second in a developing series featuring the protagonist A. Shaw, a tough, smart guy in the James Bond mold who works for a shadow troubleshooting arm of our government.  There are pros and cons to getting involved in a series, both from the author's and from the reader's viewpoints.  An author, when discovering that his or her "first" book has taken off in popularity, can often decide to expand it into a series that is almost guaranteed to continue to rake in the sales every couple of years or so with each new story.  One the other hand, authors doing this can find themselves the target of criticism if they're perceived to be tardy with their expected output...look at the flack that George R.R. Martin is receiving (largely from me) with his delay in finishing his next A Song of Ice and Fire ("Game of Thrones") book.  Readers, for their part, if they take a liking to the series, can count on a rewarding string of reading adventures. But if it's suspense-based, they already know that the series protagonist is in no real danger and will survive to the next installment.  And they have to take care to read the books in chronological order lest they miss the continually developing background story...even if, like Baldacci's novels or that Kinsey Millhone series of the late Sue Grafton, each book has a separate, self-contained main story line.  My irritation with the missing background story to Deliver Us from Evil notwithstanding, I still enjoyed it while keeping in mind that it is largely escapist literature with an intrepid, though flawed, hero struggling though personal issues to save the day. The story has three adversarial groups: how will they align?  There's Shaw and his superior/helper Frank, the bad guy Evan Waller...an evil businessman who makes money through human trafficking and who has a suspected past in the KGB, and a vigilante assassination group working first to rid the world of Nazi war criminals and then to bump off anyone else they don't particularly like.  The "protagonist" of this organization is Reggie Campion, a young woman with her own past to deal with.  How Shaw, Waller, and Campion come together...well, guess you're gonna hafta read that for yourself...

I give a qualified recommendation for Deliver Us from Evil, but you probably would be better off first reading its predecessor, titled The Whole Truth.  Apparently, that introductory book in the series contains more about journalist Katie James, who also appeared in the book I just read but wasn't as central a character.  I like David Baldacci's writing...I also just recently read a standalone novel of his titled One Summer...so far I haven't found anything I dislike...

Quote of the Week...from Confucius

It doesn't matter how slow you go as long as you don't stop.         ---Confucius.

I have to mention up front that Confucius, the famous Chinese philosopher of antiquity, did not live in a technologically advanced, industrial society where work is evaluated by productivity, i.e. how much and how well one produces the required product as a function of time, sometimes measured down to the second.  In my job, I wouldn't be considered a good employee were I just to slowly go about my assignments with no regard to how long I take...your situation, if you happen to be employed, is probably similar...and the consuming public in today's world of instant gratification seems to have lost any semblance of patience.   But you don't have to be an active member of the work force to be affected by time limitations and the need to go a little faster and be prompt.  If you're going to school, you often have to do your assignments at a brisk pace and quickly pack into your brain the material needed for tests. Appointments are pervasive in our lives...juggling them around in our schedules can sometimes involve rushing around, the opposite of Confucius's exhortation. If you like sports, chances are that going fast is an important element for success with whichever team or athlete you're following...including possibly yourself if you're an active participant.  And if you're driving down the road, going slow in itself can present a safety hazard to others if your speed is far below the surrounding traffic flow.  So in today's world the above quote has to be taken with some significant qualifications.  Still...

I think what Confucius was getting at is the importance of continuity in our lives.  For example, if you've read this eleven-year old blog of mine for any amount of time you'll know that I am an avid runner...yet speed rarely enters into this activity as I am more interested in covering distances.  That, I believe, is a wise priority since I'm almost 62 and my days of personal record times are a thing of the past.  Yet as I age, I can still cover those distances with slower running...and mix that running with walking breaks.  But continuity also matters when you consider instilling daily habits.  I believe that if you make a daily routine out of consistently doing something that will enhance your life and possibly others'...even if you do whatever it is slowly...then that element will become a integral part of who you are even if you're not setting speed records.  No point in doing everything at a breakneck pace...there's already enough outside pressure going on without us doing this to ourselves...

7/29 Sermon on Upward Habits, Part 7

Last Sunday at The Family Church here in Gainesville the sermon series Upward Habits continued, with the discussion centered on prayer.  Presenting the message was Gbola Adesogan, an elder at our church and a powerful and persuasive speaker...I was unable to attend due to travel at the time, and the sermon wasn't available on YouTube because of licensing issues.  But I was able to get hold of the sermon notes and, although I would have greatly preferred to hear Gbola's talk directly, they will have to do for this article.  The scripture of focus, which you can read through Bible Gateway by clicking on it, was John 5:2-9...

For his message about praying consistently and tactically, Gbola brought up four foundational points: prayer is urgently necessary as God commands it, there is a strategy to effectively pray, those praying show certain attitudes and postures, and prayer should be intentional.  Since it is, after all, the foundation of Christ's ministry and it helps us experience God, prayer is clearly necessary...Gbola added that it protects us, shapes plans and events, and is the key to all problems and challenges. With strategy, he stressed the importance of recognizing and targeting the true enemy while exalting God and not one's own problems...and also provided the acronym ACTS (adoration, confession, thanksgiving, supplication) to help as a memory device for the elements of prayer.  Attitudes and posture of those praying? Gbola listed many: surrendering sin and grudges, awe for God, focus, attentiveness, connection to God by faith, passion, humility, and in the end giving God...and not oneself...the credit for answered prayer.  As for intentionality, preparing for prayer requires...as our speaker continued...setting aside a time and place, fasting if necessary, and being willing to pray with others...including one's spouse... or in a group setting.  Of course, this very rough summary of Gbola's message reflects his notes and not his actual presentation...I'm sure that I would have included some of his spoken comments had I been able to hear them.  Oh well, the notes were pretty good, and there may be a chance I'll eventually get to watch the sermon if those issues get resolved.  The main thing is that prayer is important and should be approached seriously, intentionally, reverently, and with humility...

The Family Church, located at 2022 SW 122nd Street, holds its Sunday morning services at 9 and 10:30 with the weekly sermon, praise and worship, prayer, discipleship and learning opportunities, and many friendly folks eager to welcome you.  There's a hospitality room where you can get coffee and treats before and between services...I usually make a beeline for it when I first arrive.  Looking forward to this Sunday's service...

Weekly Short Story: Unaccompanied Sonata by Orson Scott Card

Sometimes I come across a story whose intended meaning may be very different from what I get from it...science fiction writer Orson Scott Card's 1979 short story Unaccompanied Sonata is a case in point.  It's a part of the anthology The 1980 Annual World's Best SF (DAW Books), but you can probably get access to it elsewhere...

The setting is Earth at an unspecified time in the far distant future.  A utopia of sorts has settled upon humanity, with children rigorously tested as to their inclinations and talents from infancy until they turn two...and then assigned life-long roles in which they will most be "happy" and content, productive members of a society that no longer accepts discontent and violence among its members. Christian Haroldsen is born into this world and quickly is revealed through his many tests to be a musical prodigy...and then taken from his parents and sent into isolation in the woods where his musical development will be completely original and unaffected by the works of others...he is now one of the Makers.  There are other people who have been tested and assigned the role of Listeners...from time to time they will visit nearby and listen to the music Christian has made and plays on the complex keyboard instrument provided him.  But one day a Listener slips Christian some music by Bach...his own music slightly changes as a result, catching the attention of another group: the Watchers.  When confronted with this "violation", the story turns down a darker path...making an already suspect "utopia" in effect a very disturbing dystopia...

Unaccompanied Sonata resurrects the age-old notion of people being sorted into classes or castes in which they are expected to live out the rest of their lives...the testing early on supposedly places them in areas in which they will thrive, but are people really like that?  Don't we all diverge from time to time and rebel a bit?  And since when does whatever one is inclined toward as a baby determine their life's course?  Then again, this system does seem to curb society away from war and violence...but why not instead just implement a very intensive universal education of nonviolence and positive interaction among the very young instead of this battery of aptitude tests?  So I'm consequently somewhat dissatisfied with Card's tale...but it did remind me of a trend I've noticed in today's real world...

I like to study foreign languages, although I'm not much of a linguist.  When folks encounter me studying out in public...say in a coffee shop...I often get a quizzical reaction and the automatic question: what am I going to do with it?  The same goes whenever I'm "caught" doing math problems out of a textbook or workbook, as if I am somehow operating outside their notion of the kind of person I am "supposed" to be.  It all seems a bit silly to me...I'm enjoying the challenge of progressively learning new things for their own sake without a special agenda in mind.  But to certain others, just studying in some fields in itself bothers them...there has to be an end game to it all.  The screwed-up utopia in Unaccompanied Sonata is controlled by powerful elements in society who have taken upon themselves the assignment of what people are allowed to engage in...even to the point of what music they can listen to. That "end game" becomes the driving, imperative force with undue pressure placed upon children as their futures are laid out for them by the tests they take, after which they are place in specialized areas beyond which they are NEVER to venture.  Not cool, I say...as R.E.M.'s lyricist Michael Stipe wrote in their hit song Losing My Religion, "Life is bigger...it's bigger than you, and you are not me": let us all be vigilant and watch out that well-intentioned social engineering never progressively supplant our precious liberties...