Archive for November, 2007

RANT – Beginning to hate air travel

Tuesday, November 20th, 2007

You know how some things are supposed to become easier the more you do them – right?

I find this is not the case for air travel. The more I travel by plane the less I can stand it.

First – security. More of a pain and a nuisance. Yes yes I know because of 9/11 and so on we need this. But come on – I have traveled to other nations with more airport security than we have and they do not make it quite this painful or humiliating. Heck – in India everyone gets searched/probed. But they take you behind a little curtain. Much more discrete. Less humiliating.

Second – delays and so on. This time I flew through Philadelphia (rather than Atlanta or Memphis or Houston – as usually I do). Thirty minutes delay from landing to gate. Forty minutes delay getting onto plane. Then fifty minutes delay from leaving gate to taking off. Geez. By the time we landed in Syracuse I had not eaten or had anything to drink for hours. I understand that Phillie is one of the worst. (My relatives all quickly said, “No – O’Hare is the worst”. They probably know from experience.)

Third – and this is the biggie – rough flights (turbulence). Oddly enough flying used not to bother me. Bumpy rides had a kind of “fun roller coaster ride” effect on me. Did not mind them much at all. But the more I fly the more bumps and drops and shakes frighten me… send my heart rate flying… anxiety attack levels… this time (Phillie to New Orleans) I wondered where the sick bag was (did not have one in front of me)… practiced my old martial arts breathing exercises to keep from losing it (whatever it might be). All I could think was, “Get me out of here… get this plane on the ground…. can’t wait for this to end.” Perhaps it is the ever inceasing ubiquitous nature of news in the Internet age. Every crash… every terrorist attack… every near miss – everywhere you go every website you visit there it is. You begin to see the world as full of terror and danger and death.

I am genuinely interested – how do you handle air travel? Especially in terms of turbulence and rough flights? I know that some of you reading this weblog travel by air regularly. (I go by plane occasionally – conferences mostly. Maybe 2-3 times per year.)

In New York until Monday

Monday, November 12th, 2007

My last grandparent Mary Warner died this morning. I will be traveling to Upstate New York this week and may not be posting anything to this weblog until I return.

But I don't like Spam

Wednesday, November 7th, 2007

This website has at least one popular and effective anti-spam plugin. But this week I noticed a comment – specifically a “pingback” – that looked like spam. Because the link takes one to a strange site that appears to be devoted to downloading free versions of commercial software. (Hmm.)

The old version of this site at rick.ramawright.net – which I have not looked at in months – had several posts advertising for cellphone ringtones. How they managed that I do not know.

So – I know I do not have a lot of registered readers or a lot of traffic. I am grateful for every last one. But I wanted you to know there is a chance that someone might post something that is legitimate (we are talking mainly about pingbacks) but to me looks like spam and gets deleted. If that happens – feel free to email me and let me know I made a mistake. I am going to set the spam blocker’s strictness one notch higher. Thanks for your understanding.

Letter to editor about intelligent design – PUBLISHED

Friday, November 2nd, 2007

Well. I did not expect my letter to the editor to be published!

Letter: Intelligent design, public schools (Baton Rouge Advocate)

What’s odd is normally I could hardly care less about the whole creation-evolution-intelligent-design debate(?). But when some guy says “all we want to do is…” and clearly there is an unstated agenda… you have to say something.

Sabbath (or) Holy Questions, part XXII

Thursday, November 1st, 2007

Sabbath (or) Holy Questions, part XXII

Richard M. Wright

The School of Shammai say, They may not sell to a non-Jew, or help him to load up or assist to load him unless there be time for him to reach a place near by; but the School of Hillel permit it (emphasis added). – Mishnah Shabbat 1:7

A well asked question (almost?) answers itself. – Wright’s Second Principle of Epistemology

Part of the genius of Jewish rabbinic tradition is that “tradition” – properly understood – is not (so much) content as it is process. The process by which the Jewish teachers figure out how to apply Torah on different matters in different situations. Last Sunday during Evensong I shared the Eastern Orthodox idea that tradition – properly understood – is not the content of revelation so much as the light by which truth is revealed (citing the famous American theologian George Florovsky). (Orthodox teaching is that the primary mover in this process is the Holy Spirit working in the worshiping community.) The result is what can be called content – specific ideas about what the Christian church believes and does. But that content has a certain fluid character. Truth is always the same – but how we understand and express truth may change from generation to generation. Beautiful. But also scary.

So as the Christian movement (re)discovers a theopraxis* of Sabbath the (re)new(ed) tradition will also have a certain fluid character. Hence holy questions.

Let me share several questions that have arisen within my family and with friends and colleagues concerning the what and how of Sabbath keeping.

One important principle – in my opinion and I rather like my opinion – of Sabbath keeping is spending time with family and friends. That being the case…

Can/should we then go eat at a restaurant together? Go to the movies together? Because another important principle is to avoid commercial activity – especially when that activity depends upon other people who are having to work during Sabbath (such as at the restaurant or at the theater).

Similarly it is appropriate to rent a video and watch it with friends or family? Not only does this potentially involve commercial activity (what if you rent before Sabbath or use something like Netflix) but you also get into the problem area of watching that big stupid screen.

Take that a step further. Should one play video or computer games on Sabbath? I will argue in a future article that an important part of practicing Sabbath is unplugging for one day. Television off. Ignore your Blackberry. Stay off the Internet. For many playing video/computer games is play – but it also kills interaction with family. (I am a chief offender and hypocrite. There are three people who live with me that will attest to this.) And does that mean Wii is Sabbath friendly?

Is it appropriate to play sports on Sabbath? I suspect that for many parents taking your child to a Sunday afternoon game can feel sometimes like work rather than fun. And yet for some people playing sports is very much how they have fun, relax, and play – also important principles for practicing Sabbath.

What about gardening? yard work? cooking? knitting? Again – avoiding work (which can be defined more fully) is probably the first and most important principle of Sabbath. (See Mishnah Sabbath 7:2 – “The main labors prohibited on the Sabbath are forty less one.” And gardening, cooking, sewing are specifically mentioned here and throughout the tractate.) But for some people such activities are a joy – not work. I love taking care of my plants. And sometimes I enjoy cooking. I was quite the international chef in graduate school. Polynesian chicken anyone?

This is just a sampling. Brothers and sisters – let us begin this process together. Why should the rabbis have all the fun?