Vocabularious Circumstances

Last week, I was leaving school and I saw our chaplain as I was walking to my car. I gave him the usual: "Have a good weekend, Father."

Just as I said that, I wondered what would happen if word frequency counters were attached to people. We all must, by varying professions and life circumstances, use certain words with more frequency than others do.

"Father," for instance. Most people have fathers, but even out of those people, a great number rarely use the word "father." They might use "dad" or "pop" or whatever else. But, as a guy who works in a Catholic school, (and who went all of his life to public school and, therefore, still feels a need for formality when talking to priests -- a need that seems, ironically, much less urgent in those I know who went to Catholic school) I must use the world "father" with exceedingly more frequency than most people.

Or what about the word "note"? As a musician, I am sure I use the word more than most, but I wonder what the percentage of difference is... We all have passed "notes" and we all write "notes" to coworkers about things and we all have used the word "note" in reference to music, but I wonder to what degree my use of the word exceeds that of others after years of playing, composing, taking lessons, giving lessons, etc...

Well, I'll just sit back and wait for the direct-to-brain computers to come out. Once we all have ports in our heads, I'm sure we will be able to track this kind of thing with relative ease. Which would be totally worth it.

What word do you think you use more than anyone on the planet?

"Be thine own palace, or the world's thy jail"

The slide into mass-thought is inevitable. There is no hope of avoiding it. This is not a strong statement that I am making in order to set up some optimistic reversal at the end of this post. There is no hope of avoiding it.

When I write against the twisted, zombified version of "community" that people talk about today, it is not in the wish that "things will change." They won't. The general person has resigned him or herself to the idea that "community" is everything; that he has no need of privacy or anonymity; that she needs to actually own nothing -- just pay for it and keep it "on the cloud." People are cool with YouTubing things from their bedrooms, dirty socks on the floor and pictures of the grandparents on the nightstand notwithstanding. Why should the world not see my bedroom? Why should I clean my bedroom for the stupid world? 

The other day, in an in-class debate, a student used this argument: "If you have nothing to hide, why do you care what the government sees of your phone records?" Clank. [That was the sound of my jaw hitting the floor.]

A Spur to the Horse of Thought

The human head, if flipped over and equipped with a handle and maybe a spout of some kind would hold --what? -- less than a gallon of water? Yet, we all know it can hold infinity, really -- with no modifications at all.

With that in mind, I give you this tidbit upon which to meditate; a dish towel out of which to squeeze an ocean, if you will:

There are many ways to live a life.

Now, walk the miles within a postage stamp.

Lucifer, Fallen?

So, this Fred Phelps character died last Wednesday night. If he was indeed evil, he certainly seems to have accomplished what he wanted to. People's reactions to his death prove it.

The guy did nothing to promote affection from any rationally-thinking person and he helped to solidify the ever-strengthening stereotype of the judgemental, irrational Christian. However, fittingly, Phelps died on the Catholic Feast of St. Joseph -- a day on which the Church readings include the story of Joseph's example: when he decided not to publicly judge Mary for her pregnancy by (as far as he knew at that point) some other guy. I'm not one to go overboard with "signs" and stuff, but, you have to love the poetic coolness of this...

But -- the reactions? He has brought out of people the same angry, vicious judgement that he promoted himself. I won't even repeat some of the things I have heard on Facebook or Twitter. Does he deserve to be hated? Maybe -- but, he sure sowed some seeds here and I would hate to see them grow...

I'm not going to preach, but when righteous anger (of any kind and from any side) takes the form of hate-speech, the Devil wins -- whether you see the Devil as the dark side of human nature or as Lucifer, fallen.

I'm glad that one horrible, violent, angry source of negativity has left our world, but I'm not going to start on a "burn in Hell" rant. That's would be me, losing. That would be me joining the Church of Judgement.

My Massive Musical Success (Part 2)

People need each other, for basic reasons. Root reasons. Primal reasons.

Most basically, we need each other for survival. This, no doubt, originated with ancient humans standing back-to-back and fighting off beasts with nine-inch teeth. Then, talents were discovered and someone took the role of hunter; another, the cook; another, the healer, and so on... We still operate that way.

Less basically, while the hunters were out looking for wild Whateverbeast, they got to talking (or grunting) and then one slipped on a paleo-peel of some kind and they cracked up about it, and "the friendship" was born. And that night, as the tribe sat around the fire, gnawing the last of the goodness off of the Whateverbeast bones, a man connected eyes with a woman and he offered her the last of his marrow and romance was born...

Everything spiralled off of these things, right? Necessity became safety; safety became comfort; comfort became "society."

This part of it, I get. (At least, I think so -- you tell me what you think.)