"Common" sense

I teach at a Quaker school. I also am co-faculty advisor to a new interest group on campus. Today we announced the existence of our group. Our announcement was very carefully phrased, having been written and re-written over the last few weeks, and reviewed by both students and teachers. We thought long and hard on how this announcement should be made. During the rest of announcements? No, we didn’t want it to be lost among the others. It was too important for that. Just before assembly? No, we didn’t want it overshadowed. After consulting with a Quaker member of the faculty, as well as the head of school, we decided to give it at the beginning of Meeting For Worship.

For those who are not familiar with Quakerism, MFW is a strange thing. It’s the Quaker version of a church service, but nothing at all like church. There is no pastor. There is no altar. There are no hymns, prayers, or psalms. Everyone sits quietly, praying by themselves or meditating. If you feel “moved” to speak, you stand, do so, and sit down. There are certain rules, which are really more like guidelines, to speaking in MFW. You are not supposed to respond directly to someone else. You are not supposed to rally for a cause. You are not supposed to prepare anything ahead of time.

So making this announcement was going against the grain in a couple ways. We were promoting a cause, and we knew ahead of time what we were going to say. But, carefully prepared or not, it was straight from the heart, so we knew it’d be ok.

But it wasn’t. Some people are upset that we “broke the rules”. Some think we should have made it just another announcement, along with the others. Some think we shouldn’t have carefully crafted what we were going to say. Fortunately, at least one person said (and, I hope, many thought) that it is the message that is important, not the means of delivery.

To take this to further extremes, there are those people whose religious zeal is so extraordinarily strong that they overlook the message that religion purports to convey. These are the people who refuse medication for their children, because “God will provide”. Does this mean that it’s no problem for them to go jump off a bridge, because if God really wanted them to live He would arrange for a miraculous rescue?

I don’t presume to know God’s thoughts. I wouldn’t dare to say I did. But I’d like to think that there are certain gifts God gave us that we should not squander. We have the power and ability to develop medical procedures to cure “incurable” diseases. If we can overcome the letter of the law (“Thou shalt not kill”) and obey the spirit of the law (“Human life is important”), we can see that from a few stem cells can come hope for millions.

God gave us the ability to reason. If you are religious, you have to believe that He did that for a purpose. If we let blind devotion overcome common sense, we insult God and His gifts.

Dealing with reality

Maybe I'm getting more cynical as I get older. Maybe I'm being a curmudgeon. Or maybe I'm just paying better attention. It took 6 days before the U.S. promised any financial help to the tsunami-affected countries. When we did, it was $15 million.

Now, while $15 million would certainly solve a very many of my personal struggles, on a national scale it is a pittance. It comes to a nickel per citizen. Then critics in other countries called us "stingy" and rightfully so. So we upped the donation to $35 million. Finally, someone pointed out that the inaugural parties would cost more than that, so we finally pledged $350 million. (Even so, as a percent of the GDP we rank 27th among countries donating.)

I can't believe that after viewing the devastation, we can't do better than that. I can't believe that with people dying every day, our leaders don't have the tact and proper respect expected of them. It took an actual article in the media to convince Donald Rumsfeld to sign his name to consolation letters to families of casualties!

It is obvious to me that there is no compassion in the current conservativism. Any emotions shown are purely for political purposes. Any remorse is demonstrated only because citizens expect it, not because it is actually felt. Has our president shed one tear for any one of the brave men and women who have died in the Mideast?

I doubt it.

Oh yeah? Resolve this.

It’s been 2 months, 3 weeks, and 2 days since I last entered anything here. So much for last year’s resolutions. Maybe I should make some new ones?

1) Stop wasting my YMCA membership. Get there at least once a week.

2) While I’m there, exercise a little.

3) Stay organized by keeping appointments in a calendar.

4) Find my calendar.

5) Write in this blog, if not weekly, at the very least monthly.

6) Figure out how to keep the archive list from running off the page. (Help, Mark! Help!)

7) Find a quiet spot to do a little reading on occasion.

8) Try to remember that it’s not a good idea to cross a busy intersection with your nose in a book.

I’m not going to succumb to temptation by listing it, but I was considering keeping myself confused for an entire year by including “9) Ignore all New Year’s resolutions.”

Off-topic, as if there was one, last night I finished a fantastic article in the February 2005 issue of Discover. It’s the cover article, and I suggest you find it and read it. It’ll really put a bee in the creationist bonnet.

I followed that up with a conversation on the phone that has me convinced more than ever that running, jogging, marathons, and Gatorade are best avoided.