Weekly Short Story Review: A Subway Named Mobius by A.J. Deutsch

A few years ago I was a very enthusiastic reader of classic science fiction short stories, amassing many collections of "year's best" books.  In one such book, Isaac Asimov Presents The Great SF Stories 12 (1950) (DAW Books, 1984), there appeared A Subway Named Mobius by A.J. Deutsch, an astronomer not known for his writing...at least in the realm of fiction.  Deutsch, who lived from 1918 to 1969, would later be honored for his astronomical work with a moon crater named after him.  But you can all put your telescopes back into storage...the Deutsch crater is on the far side of the moon...

In the mathematical field of topology, the Möbius strip, represented by a strip of paper twisted back on itself and fastened to form a continuous loop, is often given as a seemingly impossible example of an object with only one surface...continue going along the paper and you will eventually cover both "sides".  With A Subway Named Mobius, Deutsch postulated that a sufficiently complicated system, such as the subway in a large city (in his story it's Boston), can also create an apparent physical paradox with the addition of an element that changes its mathematical structure.  And this indeed happens after a new shuttle run is added to the system and one of the trains is discovered to be missing in transit.  Where did it go, how are its passengers, and what will happen to it? The investigators had better find out quickly, for time is running out...

This story is not your typical science fiction tale, for we're not talking about future dystopian societies, alien encounters, or space exporation here: it is this immediacy, this sense that something so bizarre could occur in our own everyday, humdrum lives that gave it such an appeal to me.  And the ending was nothing short of brilliant, making me wonder why Deutsch didn't feel motivated to write more fiction...who knows, maybe they would have honored him with a crater on "our" side!  I noticed that this story is on the Internet on a couple of sites in PDF format.  I don't know whether his copyright expired, but I have a feeling that A Subway Named Mobius has slipped into public domain...so why not Google it and read it for yourself?

Tuesday's List: Ranking R.E.M.'s Studio Albums

It looks as if I'm about to begin yet another weekly feature on this blog: lists of things...usually of my favorites in some category of the arts...in today's case a list of the American alternative rock group R.E.M.'s studio albums as I rank them according to personal preference.  This includes not only their regular LPs but also their initial EP titled Chronic Town...and excludes Eponymous which is mostly rejected studio outtakes.  R.E.M., for most of their history (they supposedly called it quits in 2011), had four members: lyricist and lead singer Michael Stipe, bassist Mike Mills, lead guitarist Peter Buck, and drummer Bill Berry (who retired due to health issues in 1997).  I first heard an R.E.M. song while watching MTV back in the early 1980s when they actually showed music videos...the haunting, beautiful South Central Rain (I'm Sorry) was my introduction to this talented and important band.  Well, here goes my list, from most favorite to least favorite...each album (in capitals) is followed by the year of its release...and then I list, in order of liking, my three favorite songs on it...

1 OUT OF TIME (1991)
    Half a World Away
    Endgame
    Low
2 AUTOMATIC FOR THE PEOPLE (1992)
    Find the River
    Man on the Moon
    Drive
3 GREEN (1988)
    The Wrong Child
    Pop Song '89
    Turn You Inside Out
4 MONSTER (1994)
    Let Me In
    I Took Your Name
    What's the Frequency Kenneth
5 UP (1998)
    Suspicion
    Walk Unafraid
    At My Most Beautiful
6 CHRONIC TOWN (1982)
    Stumble
    Wolves, Lower
    1,000,000
7 REVEAL (2001)
    Imitation of Life
    The Lifting
    I've Been High
8 MURMUR (1983)
    Pilgrimage
    We Walk
    9-9
9 NEW ADVENTURES IN HI-FI (1996)
    E-Bow the Letter
    Electrolite
    Undertow
10 FABLES OF THE RECONSTRUCTION (1985)
    Maps and Legends
    Can't Get There From Here
    Driver 8
11 COLLAPSE INTO NOW (2011)
    Walk It Back
    Blue
    Every Day is Yours to Win
12 ACCELERATE (2008)
    Man-Sized Wreath
    Supernatural Superserious
    I'm Gonna DJ
13 DOCUMENT (1987)
    Strange
    Finest Worksong
    Welcome to the Occupation
14 LIFE'S RICH PAGEANT (1986)
    Cuyahoga
    What If We Give It Away?
    Fall On Me
15 AROUND THE SUN (2004)
    Electron Blue
    Aftermath
    The Ascent of Man
16 RECKONING (1984)
    South Central Rain (I'm Sorry)
    Harborcoat
    Camera

May Brings On Hot Weather and Malady

Well, it looks as if the brief period of cool (for May) weather we've been enjoying may soon be ending, with the summer heat finally taking over for good here in northern Florida...although at least there seems to be a pleasant breeze blowing about right now.  In other parts, though, the coolness has been lingering: I was watching a live Earthcam of Midtown Manhattan last night and the many folks out there roaming up and down the streets were generally bundled up.  But I'm not planning on going up north anytime soon and I might as well get used to temperatures creeping up during the day into the 90s and never quite cooling down enough at night...

During the last few days I've been experiencing some health issues...it's amazing what a thin, fragile world we live in with our bodies subject to all sorts of breakdowns.  Yet most of us take our good health for granted until we wake up one morning sick or in pain...or both.  When you're sick or injured, health tends to blot everything else out of your mind until you feel that you're on the road to recovery...or at least a reasonable state of equilibrium with your malady.  I've gone through this sort of thing this past week and a half...will my recovery be complete or will there be setbacks to have to deal with?  One thing for certain:  the month of May, 2017 hasn't exactly been one of my favorites up until now...maybe getting outside in the sunshine will do me some good...

Just Finished Reading The Rise of Endymion by Dan Simmons

Having read Robert Jordan's nearly interminable fourteen-volume Wheel of Time fantasy series, twelve volumes of the actually interminable Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind (now ongoing with seventeen books already out), and the apocalyptic monstrosity called Left Behind by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins, I've pretty much had my fill of protracted series in literature.  The exceptions are those series, many of them mysteries written by folks like Sue Grafton, Janet Evanovich, Ruth Rendell, and James Patterson, in which each book contains a complete story...making it possible to read them out of order.  The way I see it now, if you can't get your point and the story across in four volumes max (well, maybe five if the books are short), then you just might want to consider breaking it all up and instead write completely separate stories.  And this ridiculous situation with George R.R. Martin's series A Song of Ice and Fire ("Game of Thrones") and his refusal to get on with his writing, coupled with his lack of vision as to how to eventually end it all, is beyond the pale.  So when I came across the Hyperion Cantos science fiction series by Dan Simmons, I was gratified to have in front of me a complete set contained in four volumes.  And I just finished reading the final one, titled The Rise of Endymion...

It is a thousand years into the future and the human race has long settled among the vastness of our galaxy, with the fate of our own mother planet Earth a great mystery.  The strange pilgrimage of the Seven to the remote planet of Hyperion back in the first book is still of paramount importance three hundred years later as Raul Endymion, who grew up there, finds himself on a seemingly impossible quest to escort a hunted young woman through the known populated universe as she changes the course of history...while at the same time fighting an AI (artificial intelligence) presence that has manipulated and threatened humanity for those thousand years. Now if you're thinking that this is all some kind of ripoff of The Matrix, keep in mind that Neo's movie debut happened in 1997, the same year that the Hyperion Cantos series ended...if anything, The Matrix was guilty of ripping off Dan Simmons...

There's no way I can further describe the characters and situation of The Rise of Endymion...at least in specifics...without giving away the series, which I strongly recommend as a great science fiction work.  I will say this much: the Hyperion Cantos series...and especially this final volume...delves pretty deeply into religion and philosophy.  This is not literature that you will want to rush through, although at times the author's detailed descriptions of the nearly impossible-to-fathom technology he has envisioned can be a bit difficult to endure.  But especially as you approach the end of the last book, I think you'll appreciate the extra time and attention you spent trying to understand it all...

So yes, I liked Dan Simmons' Hyperion Cantos a lot and consider it now to be one of my favorite sci-fi book series...but not my all-time favorite, which still happens to be the relatively unknown Otherland series (also four volumes) by Tad Williams.  And of course no list of favorite science fiction series would be complete without Isaac Asimov's Foundation and Arthur C. Clarke's Space Odyssey...

Kentucky Derby Sneaks Up on Me Again

I first began to follow the Triple Crown of American three-year-old thoroughbred horseracing back in 1968, when the names Forward Pass, Dancer's Image, and Stage Door Johnny became the headlines.  Since then, I have tended to forget the three races comprising this tradition...the Kentucky Derby, Preakness, and Belmont Stakes...until mid-spring each year when once again the whole process renews itself.  Ultimately, the goal is to see whether one horse can win all of the extremely competitive races, making it a Triple Crown champion.  In my lifetime of sixty years, I've only seen four of these: Secretariat in 1973, Seattle Slew in 1977, Affirmed in 1978, and...finally, after a gap of 38 years...American Pharoah in 2015.  By far the most impressive horse I've ever seen was Secretariat, which blew away the rest of the field in the Belmont by well over thirty lengths.  But today, few are thinking about the Triple Crown...instead they are looking at this year's lineup and probably marveling at the lack of any clear-cut favorite...

At last look over the field of twenty entrants, Classic Empire was the slight favorite at 4-1, followed by McCraken and Always Dreaming, each at 5-1.  Then it's Irish War Cry at 6-1.  After these four, the odds get appreciably longer...however, I have a hunch (for what it's worth) that Gormley, at 15-1 and with an intriguing name (always a factor in my choosing which horse to root for) just might be the proverbial dark horse in this race.  But if I were to consider just the "top" four, I'd pick Classic Empire...although I also dig the name "Irish War Cry".  Then again, one of the biggest longshots in this year's Derby is Battle of Midway, probably not owned by anyone Japanese...

Today's Kentucky Derby is set to take place at 6:34 pm Eastern Time.  NBC will be broadcasting it and is already showing several hours of pre-race programming.  I'm writing this article from my "favorite" Starbucks in Magnolia Parke here in Gainesville, but I think I just might head on home afterward to watch some of that hype and analysis...

LATER...my hunches were wrong...no surprise there: Always Dreaming, which ended up as the betting favorite, started out fast and took advantage of its relatively inside post position and hugged the rail, thereby covering less distance then its rivals...finishing strong on the rain-soaked, muddy Churchill Downs track as 2017's Kentucky Derby winner.  A couple of longshots finished second and third and then Classic Empire crossed the line in fourth place, several lengths behind the winner...Gormley was in the middle of the pack of finishers.  Now it's on to the Preakness as the topic of discussion will be Always Dreaming's prospects of keeping hopes for a Triple Crown winner alive this year...

Quote of the Week...from David Bowie

I realized the other day that I've lived in New York longer than I've lived anywhere else. It's amazing: I am a New Yorker. It's strange; I never thought I would be.              ---David Bowie

No doubt about it: there's something quite special about New York City.  Being by my nature something of a homebody, I admit to not being very enthusiastic when Melissa and I planned a brief trip to Midtown Manhattan along with our daughter Rebecca back in 2010...but my experience there left a lasting impression on me and, more than any other place that I've only been for four days, I still have a sense of "home" about it.  Here are links to my blog articles pertaining to that visit, written over the span of a couple of months after we returned:

Visited NYC, Back Today
My Running Experience in NYC
Junior's Restaurant Near Times Square
Manhattan's Transformation
Pedestrians Rule in Manhattan
Where Have All the Alleys Gone?
Drinking Starbucks on the Hudson, Going to Work in Brooklyn
NYC Museum Rush
My Circle Lines Harbor Lights Experience
Attempted Bomb Attack Near Times Square
Chinatown and Little Italy
Bigapplophobia Revisited
Visit to World Trade Center Site
NYC: The "Hands Out" City
My Gray Line Tours Experience in Manhattan
Central Park
Scents and the City
The Manhattan Experience: Streets vs. Buildings

I believe that a lot of folks, not just celebrity musicians like David Bowie or John Lennon (or the lesser known but very talented and accomplished Regina Spektor and Sufjan Stevens), have felt a kind of attraction toward the Big Apple and a reluctance to leave it.  Especially on the island of Manhattan, destinations are often within close walking distance...I once superimposed a street map of Manhattan on my own subdivision in Gainesville with our hotel there centered over my house: important places from Rockefeller Center to Madison Square Garden would still be "in" our neighborhood.  And whenever I read books set in New York, I find myself mentally walking in the same places as the characters.  Last night there was a hockey playoff game at Madison Square Garden between the New York Rangers and the Ottawa Senators: guess who I rooted for as my "home" team? 

I'd like to go back to New York sometime in the not-to-distant future.  Back in 2010, the new World Trade Center tower was under construction and hidden from view behind fencing...next time we're definitely going up to the top!  We also missed out back then on many other experiences, in particular the subway system...the time constraints of our visit in 2010 limited what we could do.  But from time to time I'd like to touch base with this incredible city and not go for so long between visits...

4/30 Sermon on 1 John, Part 3

Last Sunday's message at The Family Church here in Gainesville was the third part of a series, titled Let There Be Light and based on the New Testament book of 1 John.  This particular sermon, Changed, uses Chapter 2, Verses 6-14...you can read them through the following link to Bible Gateway: [link].  Being in the emergency room last Sunday morning, I wasn't able to attend the services then...but my church has a video channel on YouTube through which one can gain access to sermons past and present.  Consequently, I was later able to watch all of Pastor Philip Griffin's important message...and you can, too, through the following link to the pertinent YouTube site: [link]...

There was a lot of good stuff loaded into this message, and I'll list what I think were the main things that Pastor Philip said:

Knowing Jesus will change the way we live, love, and grow. 

The Old Testament command to love our neighbors as ourselves has been extended by Jesus to include our enemies and those toward whom we are indifferent...Pastor Philip pointed out that the Greek word for "hate" employed in the focus passage means both "detest" and "disregard".

It is necessary to talk about one's own experiences of discrimination and persecution...Philip recalled his childhood in Mexico and standing out there among the other children as being different...and thus subject to violent persecution, even to the extent that his life was threatened.  Although we can sympathize with those who have suffered discrimination, we can never fully understand the extent of their sufferings as they have experienced them.  But the love of Christ compels us to see life from others' perspectives and we are here to help one another.  If one part of the body (i.e. the Church) suffers, we all suffer.

The darkness of hate blinds us to God's great love and forgiveness as well as the nature of the true enemy, which is not of flesh but of spirit: the devil.

As Christians, doubting our forgiveness through Jesus diminishes his name.  The way to spiritual maturity is to go beyond overcoming one's own personal problems and to reach out and help others in their spiritual journeys, mentoring and discipling being two ways to achieve this.

Yes, this message contained much food for thought, meditation, and prayer.   I don't believe in dwelling on one's own past experiences to the point where they cloud the present, but Philip is right in that we each need to recognize how they...especially the experiences of persecution...have affected us, whether or not we want to consciously recognize it.  And to extend the meaning of hatred to include not just those whom we vehemently dislike, but also those whom we feel comfortable ignoring, was eye-opening...

Weekly Short Story Review: The Pacific Mystery by Stephen Baxter

I read British science fiction writer Stephen Baxter's short story The Pacific Mystery from the anthology The Mammoth Book of Extreme Science Fiction (Carroll & Graf Publishers, 2006) that I bought a few years ago from Books-a-Million, which featured (at least back then) a barrage of different Mammoth books containing short pieces from just about every genre of fiction...and even some nonfiction.  Baxter's contribution of The Pacific Mystery in Mammoth was surprisingly the first-time publication of this very intriguing story of alternate (or if you prefer, alternative) history...

Alternate history fiction delves into what might have happened if a crucial turning point in history had gone a different way, such as the South winning the U.S. Civil War or the Axis powers being triumphant in World War II.  The latter scenario was the backdrop of Philip K. Dick's alternate history masterpiece The Man in the High Castle...and it also underpins The Pacific Mystery.  But Stephen Baxter's story explains that the "bad guys" win because of a phenomenon that we in our own real world do not have: an endless Pacific Ocean...

When I was a little kid first learning about geography (and I was a fanatical map reader), I easily picked up on the duality of the vast Atlantic Ocean being on the eastern shores of the United States and the vast Pacific Ocean being on its west side.  Also, being a frequent visitor back then with my family in South Florida to the beach (first Haulover in 1958-60 and then Hollywood during the 60s and 70s), I internalized the idea of the "endless sea" by looking out at the distance over the Atlantic.  Yet in truth, the Atlantic Ocean, if you hold up a globe of our Earth, takes up a relatively small surface area while it's possible, if you look at that globe from the correct angle, to see the Pacific Ocean as occupying nearly half of it!  It is this monumental size of the Pacific, along with the strange two disjoint combat theaters of World War II, with the Japanese in the Pacific and the Germans in the Atlantic, that probably inspired Stephen Baxter to conjecture how the conflict might have turned out had the Pacific not just seemed "endless"...but actually was...

An advanced nuclear-powered airborne aircraft carrier takes off in the late 1940s from Nazi London and heads eastward, across Eurasia and out over the depths of the Pacific in search of America...kind of like a reverse Columbus.  It is this journey, recorded in a diary by British journalist Bliss Stirling, that forms the plot of The Pacific Mystery.  This story could well have been lengthened into novel form for the possibilities within it, but keeping it short like this, in my opinion, made its premise...and the probable explanation for the great mystery revealed at the end...much more impactful and memorable.  It has been one of my favorite short stories for several years...

NHL Playoffs in Middle of Second Round

I have been watching the National Hockey League Stanley Cup playoffs more this year than at any other time in my life...I'm getting to really like this sport that I've never even remotely come close to playing.  The closest I ever came to it was as a little kid, playing "field hockey" one-on-one with my sister in our backyard using croquet mallets and tennis balls.  Not exactly the scenario we see on ice, five-on-five with the breakneck speed, fights, collisions with the wall, violent body checking, and penalties!  I'm not all that interested in which teams win, but I'll pick one or the other to root for during a game, just to make it a little more interesting.  There are four series ongoing: New York Rangers vs. Ottawa Senators, Washington Capitals vs. Pittsburgh Penguins, Anaheim Ducks vs. Edmonton Oilers, and Nashville Predators vs. St. Louis Blues.  I'm pulling for New York, Washington, Anaheim, and St. Louis....other than the Ducks-Oilers series, which is knotted at 1-1, all of "my" teams are behind in their respective series.  Last night game #3 of the Washington-Pittsburgh series was a thriller, with the Caps struggling to avoid going down three games to none against the defending Stanley Cup champs.  They held a 2-0 lead going into the final two minutes of regulation, but then the Penguins, hampered by some crucial injuries, suddenly ramped up their offense and scored two quick goals, sending the match into overtime.  Washington recovered, though, and sank an early overtime goal to salvage their game and keep them competitive in the series.  Tonight will be game #3 between Ottawa and New York, with the Rangers behind 0-2 and hoping to accomplish what Washington did.  For myself, I would like to see each series go the full seven games, just in order to have more hockey to watch...

Just Finished Reading Lord of the Flies by William Golding

William Golding's 1954 novel Lord of the Flies is one of the most famous stories of the last century...and it has become a common high school English class reading assignment.  I know my sister Anita had to read it, but somehow my own teachers never got around to inserting it into their curriculum.  That's probably just as well, because having to read a book in order to get a good grade tended to make me resent it instead of appreciating it for its own worth, as I am now in a position to do. So perhaps a bit belatedly...but more willingly...I finally got around to reading Golding's crowning work...

I had already possessed a sketchy knowledge about what happens in Lord of the Flies for many years.  A marooned group of preadolescent English boys on an uninhabited tropical ocean island must fend for themselves, their plight having come about when the airplane transporting them from war to safety is itself attacked, the adults killed and the plane destroyed, leaving only the boys as survivors.  As they group together on the island and decide how to govern themselves and what should be their priorites, three figures emerge among the older boys: Ralph, who is elected chief and wants a constant fire set and tended in order to attract rescuers, Jack, Ralph's rival for leadership, who becomes obsessed with successfully hunting down the island's native pigs for food, and Piggy, a chubby, myopic, and asthmatic boy who, in spite of the taunts he receives from the others, possesses the greatest intellect and common sense of the bunch.  As the days go on, the boys' struggle for survival and rescue transforms itself into a power struggle for leadership and direction...ultimately turning into a conflict mirroring the outside world's "grown-up" war as the civilized society they were brought up in degenerates into savagery...

Without going into how the story ends...I encourage you to read it for yourself...I have two reactions from Lord of the Flies.  One is that the boys employed a system for speaking at assemblies: whoever held the designated conch shell had the floor and theoretically could not be interrupted.  However, poor Piggy could never be respected in this regard and was always being interrupted and derided whenever he spoke.  This reminded me of the double standards and favoritism people often face in supposedly orderly, "fair" processes when authority figures pick and choose by whim when and on whose behalf they decide to follow the set rules.  My other reaction to this story is how much it reminded me of how my (male) classmates behaved at my school's bus stop, from the fourth grade (when I began to ride a school bus) well into high school.  Bullying and scapegoating were rampant and there was a continuous struggle for who could be seen as the toughest...not a very favorable environment for me to start and finish the school day.  Yes, William Golding sure got it right...

My April 2017 Running Report

My running in April was curtailed at the end by something not directly related to it: chronic and often intense pain in my left arm.  Earlier today I had to seek medical treatment, and more serious concerns about my heart were then eliminated.  Still, my life for the next few days will be disrupted as I have to rest and recover while taking medication to keep the pain level in my arm bearable.  Needless to say, I won't be running anytime soon...

As for my running stats for April, I ran a total of 97 miles, a 4.1 mile run being my longest single run...and I ran on 26 days, missing some at the end due to the aforementioned problem.  Earlier in the month I had a chance to run a 10K race but have decided that running races early Saturday morning simply does not work when I am getting off from my often physically demanding job Friday at midnight, just a few hours earlier...future races will have to give me some more recuperation time from work than that.  In any event, my arm is the pressing issue for me right now and running is far down the list of my priorities.  I'll see where I stand on it in a few days...

Watching Hockey and Soccer While Resting Aching Body

Today has been one of those days when I've felt achy, happy to be off from work and at home.  In particular, my left arm has been hurting off and on the last few days...and especially today...as if someone had badly twisted it.  So here I am writing this, sitting in my recliner in front of the TV in my living room.  I just finished watching an exciting double-overtime National Hockey League playoff game between Ottawa and the New York Rangers...the Senators came from two goals down to win it 6-5.  Right now I'm channel surfing, waiting for 8:00 when Mexican soccer comes on two different channels: Univision and Galavision...the latter will feature "my" UANL Tigres as they try to sneak into the playoffs, with first-place Tijuana their opponent tonight.  In the meantime, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire is on one channel, Matrix Revolutions is on another...and, depending on how much of a glutton for punishment you are, the "news" channels are showing either a Donald Trump rally in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania or the White House Correspondents' Dinner, which the president is boycotting this year because he thinks he's being treated unfairly...poor guy.  Like I said, I'm waiting for the Mexican soccer...

Also starting at 8 is another National Hockey League playoff match and this one may be between the league's top two teams: defending champion Pittsburgh and this year's league-leader in the regular season, Washington.  I think I'm gonna be doing a lot of toggling back in forth between hockey and soccer  tonight...

Quote of the Week...from Ronald Reagan

Surround yourself with the best people you can find, delegate authority, and don’t interfere as long as the policy you’ve decided upon is being carried out.                  ---Ronald Reagan

The antithesis to this quote from one of the greatest presidents we've ever had at leading and positively influencing people would be the micromanager's creed: assume the people under you are stupid and incompetent, run around and interfere with their work continually, distract them by raising and emphasizing trivial issues, see the situation before you as static instead of dynamic...and then, when those over whom you are exercising authority consequently display little initiative or motivation, use that as an excuse to micromanage them further.  

Regardless of the nature of the organization or one's leadership title, any position of leadership is one of entrusted stewardship.  Leaders cannot allow themselves to fall to the tempting delusion that they ARE the position, and they need to demonstrate respect for those subordinated to them...just as they are entitled in turn to respect.  Micromanagers are like an infection in the organization, continually behaving disrespectfully to those around them and, in turn, breeding further disrespect from others.  A wise leader will be careful to notice when micromanagement is occurring and to quickly take steps to eliminate this danger to the vitality and mission of the organization...

Effective leaders, like Ronald Reagan, delegate authority and recognize the talents and intelligence of those working for them.  This, not micromanagement, is the template for effective management...

4/23 Sermon on 1 John, Part 2

This past Sunday at The Family Church here in Gainesville, senior pastor Philip Griffin continued his message series, titled Let There Be Light and based on the New Testament book on 1 John.  Part 2, The Truth about Obedience, focused on Chapter 2, Verses 1-6...shown here in the New International Version thanks to Bible Gateway:

2 My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. ² He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world. ³ We know that we have come to know him if we keep his commands. ⁴ Whoever says, “I know him,” but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in that person. ⁵ But if anyone obeys his word, love for God is truly made complete in them. This is how we know we are in him: ⁶ Whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did.

In his presentation, Pastor Philip laid out four aspects of obedience to God: the requirement: a surrender of the will, the motivation: a relationship with God, the reward: completion and confidence, and if we fall: Jesus is our advocate.  Throughout the passage, the author of 1 John emphasized the unshakable connection between knowing God and obeying his commands...i.e. knowing God gives one the capacity and motivation to follow his commands, and following his commands reveals that one knows God.  Because he was addressing his letter to fellow Christians, it is implicit here that John was indirectly rebuking some who were not following God's commands...and that this was truly a call for their repentance...available, as our pastor pointed out, through Jesus' advocacy on our behalf...

Verse 6, which insisted that we as believers walk as Jesus did, should direct us to his act of total obedience to his heavenly father when he allowed himself to be crucified, something that he strongly prayed that he would not have to do.  But he submitted and was obedient.  We may not have such a difficult road to walk in our lives, but the commands are still there as we have our sights set on knowing God...

You can watch this sermon and others via The Family Church's YouTube video website...just click on the following link: [link].  The Family Church is located at 2022 SW 122nd Street and holds its services at 9:30 and 11.  Besides the weekly message, the services have inspiring praise music and opportunities for prayer and joining discipleship groups....

Weekly Short Story Review: Deep Breathing Exercises by Orson Scott Card

Orson Scott Card is an author of many fictional novels and short stories, most known for his science fiction work...in particular, the very popular Ender's Game, which was recently adapted to the screen.  I own a collection of his short fiction, titled Maps in a Mirror: The Short Fiction of Orson Scott Card (Orb Books, 1990).  The book itself is 662 pages long, but the story I'm discussing today, Deep Breathing Exercises, takes up only 5. And it is one of the most intense short stories I've ever read...

Dale Yorgason is a young man living in Denver, Colorado with his wife and their two-year old son.  By all accounts they have a bright future ahead of them...and then Dale begins to notice situations when people around him are breathing in unison...all inhaling and exhaling at the same time.  This alone would be an incredible coincidence, but Dale also sees that these incidents portend something ominous...

In spite of the brevity of Deep Breathing Exercises, the events described in it are momentous.  Yet Card was able to skillfully develop the protagonist's character and explore the philosophical basis for arguments about predestined fate...and whether a warning from the future is even logically possible.  This story would be perfect for Twilight Zone and reminds me of Stephen King's best short fiction.  A good read, albeit pretty disturbing...

Public and Conversational Speaking

Do you think that you're a good speaker?  And what exactly does being a "good speaker" entail, anyway?  To me, this is an area that has been a major stumbling block in my life.  I apparently have little problem communicating my thoughts through writing, but when it comes to expressing myself by talking, my mind freezes and I stumble around like a complete idiot...unless I can get what I want to say accomplished by a very quick one or two sentences.  And then quickly retreat back into my personal world of self-imposed silence...

In the eleventh grade, back in the spring of 1973, I took speech class as a mandatory graduation requirement...something that I had been dreading for some time.  There are some folks who are natural hams and can't wait to get up before an audience...I remember "show and tell" from early elementary school and how some kids would recount what happened with them the previous day from the time they woke up all the way to when they hit the pillow at night.  But in speech class I discovered a problem besides my extreme shyness in front of a group: for communications to be effective, the message has to both be something that the speaker is interested in conveying and that the audience is interested in hearing.  I felt back then...and even now to an extent...that there is often a great discrepancy between what I feel is relevant and interesting and what others are attracted to.  With writing this blog, that doesn't matter since people can ignore it at their pleasure, stopping by from time to time to read about a topic I've written about that interests them.  But with speaking, it can be difficult to keep an audience focused on my message.  And it's not just me with that problem: good public speaking is a rare skill, greatly appreciated when experienced...

I feel the need right now to distinguish between public and conversational speaking.  In the former, a boring or rambling speaker may quickly lose the interest and attention of his or her audience, but isn't likely to be interrupted.  In conversation, though, it is often a verbal jungle out there with people interrupting and even simultaneously talking over each other.  A good conversational speaker needs to be a good listener and be prepared to allow the other to do the lion's share of talking, if that is where the conversation naturally leads.  And not to interrupt.  I have great need of improvement both in conversing and speaking publicly...why not figure out a roadmap for getting better in both areas?

With conversational speaking, it is important to find out what interests the other person and engage them about it.  Without interrupting!!! With public speaking, I've wrestled with my personal demons on this and think I have a solution: create my own spoken audio monologues on various topics of interest to me...i.e., the same way I tackle this blog...and put them out on the Internet.  YouTube may be a viable way to do this...I wouldn't necessarily need to video-record my monologues and I could post links to them that others could access.  Of course, this would be pretty uncomfortable for someone as habitually reclusive as myself, but sometimes you have to step out a bit in order to grow...

2017 NHL Playoffs Enter Second Round

I was thinking about writing an article today about hierarchical social structures and how some put in positions of authority over others confuse their own personal self-images with the posts they have been given temporary stewardship over, resulting in arrogance, micromanagement and disrespect toward those in subordinate positions...but seeing how I'm pressed for time right now, I think I'll defer what will probably be a lengthy essay to another day and instead briefly comment on the National Hockey League playoff picture, now that the first round is over...

I have loosely followed the NHL off and on since the early 1970s without really knowing the rules of the game...I'm a product of South Florida, never having touched a hockey stick, much less ice-skate (or roller-skate, for that matter).  I'm sure that if I had, then I would better appreciate how the players are forced to move on the rink and thus would be more aware of the subtleties of this game.  But I can still be a spectator, and now I think I've got the rules down...so bring on the hockey!  I haven't been able to follow very many games in this year's Stanley Cup championship playoffs as I work during weekday evenings and can only see the tail end of the late, western games after I get home past midnight.  Still, this past weekend and the one before, I was able to watch quite a bit...as a matter of fact, I saw at least a little action in each and every one of the eight first-round series...

Defending Stanley Cup champions Pittsburgh, as expected, handled Columbus and Anaheim, likewise heavily favored, took care of Calgary in short order.  Underdog Nashville, on the other hand, stunned Chicago in a four-game sweep and St. Louis surprised disappointing Minnesota in their series.  That's four series that were relatively short and lopsided.  The other four series all went 4-2 and were usually competitive and exciting...this 2017 first round set an NHL record for most overtime matches in a single round.  Although one of their two losses to defending Stanley Cup finalist San Jose was a 7-0 drubbing, Edmonton, in the playoffs for the first time in many years, won the close contests and beat the Sharks.  The New York Rangers, my remaining favorite now that the Blackhawks have been eliminated, slipped by Montreal.  Ottawa won a thrilling overtime game over Boston to advance, while Washington, sporting the best regular season record in the league, ousted upstart Toronto with its overachieving rookie lineup, again in overtime, to get to the next round...

And now here we are in round two with eight teams.  Two of the upcoming series, Pittsburgh vs. Washington and Anaheim vs. Edmonton, are between teams that had especially strong regular seasons and were regarded as favorites.  The other two, St. Louis vs. Nashville and Ottawa vs. the New York Rangers (especially the former), pit teams that some folks didn't think would have advanced this far.  Although I'm supporting the Rangers, I just enjoying watching any of the matches as they are played at this high level of skill and continue to learn more about the different strategies employed by the players to gain an upper hand over the opposing side...

Friends of the Library Book Sale Nets Some Interesting Finds

Yesterday was the first day of the semiannual Friends of the Library used book sale, always held at the same building on the 400 block of North Main Street here in Gainesville.  I made it down there early in the afternoon and browsed around...but not too much.  I picked up a book for Melissa, found a couple of interesting jigsaw puzzles, and hung around the foreign language section...totally ignoring the vast amount of fiction for sale.  I bought a compact Chinese-English dual-translation Bible with the text of both languages presented in simplified vocabulary...I have high hopes for it in my future studies.  I found a very old Hindi primer that I plan to use to practice writing out sentences and get myself used to thinking within the flow of that beautiful language.  And I made one more interesting find: a Turkish-English dual language reader, composed of several short stories...like the Bible, written in simple language...simple enough for me to pick out the Turkish words' meanings as well as the intricate grammatical constructions in that agglutinative language.  All of the books I bought were dirt-cheap, from 50 cents to a dollar each, and were small and thus very portable.  As for books of fiction...

I have been making extensive use of my local public library for reading fiction, generally eschewing purchasing books.  I also have a very extensive collection at home of short stories that I really should be reading more of...that's why I've started "Short Story Wednesday" on this blog when I review and discuss the more interesting examples of this important and underappreciated type of literature.  But I've gotten myself into the habit of going downtown to this book bazaar every six months and doubtless will be paying another visit in October.  Besides books and puzzles they sell used magazines, vinyl phonograph records, CDs, cassettes, VHS, and DVDs.  The sale will last through Wednesday, so there's plenty of time left for you to join in on the browsing...

Just Finished Reading Gone Again by James Grippando

James Grippando is a novelist who, like John Grisham, specializes in the legal fiction genre.  His Jack Swyteck series is about a defense attorney residing in South Florida, where I grew up.  So when I selected book #12 in the series, titled Gone Again, I was looking forward to some familiar hometown landmarks.  Although these turned out to be few and far between, I was intrigued by the story...skipping to the twelfth volume in the series was no problem as the main story was self-contained within the book, a story about a man on death row who Jack increasingly believes is innocent of his first-degree murder conviction of a teen-age girl.  Sashi was adopted from Russia (before Putin banned American adoptions of Russians) along with her younger brother into an American family...she had some serious psychological and behavioral issues, and the idea of sending her "back" to Russia had floated around between the adoptive parents.  Although her body was never found following her disappearance one day, she was assumed murdered through circumstantial evidence by the aforementioned convict, a serious felon and all-around "bad guy" before this case ever came up.  His execution is coming up soon, but now the adoptive mother has come out with her belief that he is innocent...on the basis that she is getting calls...with the caller always silent...from Sashi's cell phone number.  As Jack takes on the case, he discovers that there is much more to Sashi's disappearance and that organized crime, particularly with regard to human trafficking, may play a big role before it's all over.  But you'll have to read this book for yourself to see how it all plays out...

The last couple of times I visited Hollywood, where I grew up, Melissa and I would walk in the evening along the "Broadwalk" on Hollywood Beach, where there were eating places and live music performances.  As we strolled along, I would pick up bits of conversations from the other visitors, eerily noting that an unusual percentage of them were going on in Russian, not English or Spanish as I would have expected in South Florida.  I suspected that this area had become something of an ethnic enclave for Russians...Grippando confirmed this notion in Gone Again as he described the coastal area in northeastern Dade County...especially in Sunny Isles...north to Hallandale in southeastern Broward, just south of Hollywood Beach, as "Little Moscow".  In this area reside many from Russia, Ukraine, Moldova, and other East European countries.  It reminds me of the Indian "zone" south of Archer Road along SW 34th Street in my current hometown of Gainesville.  I think it would be fun to see if there isn't a street down there that is full of Russian restaurants and shops and where Russian is the predominant language spoken...

I enjoyed this first James Grippando novel of mine and am receptive to reading more.  But I'm unlikely to pick up another book of his anytime soon as I have several others to read first...

Quote of the Week...from Stephen Covey

Live out of your imagination, not your history.                 ---Stephen Covey.

You may be already know Stephen Covey from his blockbuster hit book The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People a few years ago...he's written several spinoff books since then.  So it's not surprising that he would have quite a few practical, uplifting quotes...I found the above one and would like to share what I think of it...

Each and every one of us has our own histories that are composed of the multitudes of experiences that have constructed our unique individual life tapestries...I cannot escape my own personal history as I go forward with my life.  But I also have the ability to consciously employ my imagination and reasoning to take the present moment and behave in a different way from what my past might otherwise dictate to me...and by so doing, I am not only fulfilling the essence of Stephen Covey's exhortation, but also changing who I am by adding something new and positive to my own life's tapestry.  For what I consciously do now will inevitably be part of my history, for better or for worse.  Using my imagination and doing things that are out of my comfort zone serves to widen my choices in the future and allow me more freedom to make it more fulfilling.  Also, by employing my imagination in deciding what to do in the present moment, I am digging more deeply into my own subconscious, where ironically some of my more pressing unmet needs from my past may be submerged...

There is one other thing I'd like to add to Covey's quote: it says to live out of your imagination...but I say that, being social creatures as we humans are, it's also all right to listen to the products of others' imaginings and, if discerned to be good ideas, to adopt them as your own and to live out of them as well...after all, isn't that what I'm doing with this quote?