a purposeful life

We learn language by putting words to images.  We learn how images have common content and can be represented by the same word.

For the word soul, pre-VII, I would say a fine crystal goblet.  Grace then was a fine wine that could fill the goblet.

Today I envision my soul more like a plastic cup absent-mindedly placed in a microwave - misshapen, with a hole, unable to hold any liquid.

When I meditated on this though, it came to me that this image could have a use.

Consider a woman who grew up Christian.  She leaves home to become a missionary.  She travels far and learns to be a teacher.  She grew in grace and age.  She is moved by the people in the city where she teaches.  She redirects herself into a ministry of presence - to witness to them.

She feeds on the Eucharistic and directs herself to any in need, not to teach or heal but just to accompany them on their journey, whatever and wherever it might lead.

So how does Mother Teresa illustrate the images above.  Each day God poured grace into her, like fine wine.  She chose to let it flow through her to those whom God loves.  She cared not to retain it for her own consolation.

The paradigm for this is Jesus.  He too became battered and misshapen as his journey ended.  He too had holes from which poured his blood to the consolation of the world.

Jesus in the garden and through the next day lived his life darkly, but with purpose to the end.  Like Jesus, Teresa had dark moments but moved through life with purpose.  She can be said to have been an alter Christus, offering herself up for the glory of God.

Cleanup on aisle 9 & Nuclear rocket power

First this guy is brilliant.  http://whatif.xkcd.com/7/

But I have a possible correction to xkcd.  DOE was formerly AEC.  One of their labs was Los Alamos with a side order of Sandia.  They were the first to test bombs in the SW desert.  Killed John Wayne early, or at least accelerated his death from smoking cigarettes.

In my nuclear years, I saw a video or a fail of theirs.  They built a nuclear rocket.  They then set up a camera and turned it on.  When it failed, it spit chunks of plutonium out the back.

"Cleanup on aisle 9"

signed

I'm not Sheldon

Domestic tragedy

I found a pile of small grey feathers between the driveway and the wood pile in front.  Their scattered pattern suggested violence.  Up above on the power wire sat a single dove.  I don't see raptors near the house but have seen them near the office several miles away.

Violence in our midst disturbs us yet it goes on in nature all around us.

It all depends on your point of view

At this link, it is claimed that GA is the second worst state to live in when retired.

On the other hand, there is a partial state exemption from state income tax on interest, dividends, withdrawals from IRA/401K/..., and a bit of earned income for seniors.  Worth more than $1k/yr to typical golden ager.  Plus in my county, no property tax on house from school district or city I live in, except of cost of fire, police and some bonds.  70-80% discount.

Dear Wells Fargo

I am not banking w/you because I chose you.  You bought Wachovia, who bought SouthTrust, where I banked when I first moved to GA.

I like the local branch in Kennesaw GA, now and back when it was Wachovia, and SouthTrust before that.

But I am doubting your wisdom.

I have worked in financial services now for 1.5 decades.  I have done so previously in my 5 decade career in IT.  I am an investor, including several financial/financial services firms, and have been for over 4 decades.  At the moment, that part of my portfolio is overallocated.

1. I got an email from your head of mortgages.  This is right off a bit dodgy.  But to send an email w/a link to a website that is not identifiable from the URL as a Wells Fargo website is just stupid.  I don't think you want to encourage your customers to do risky things, do you?  You don't want them to become victims of identity theft, do you? Well, taking unverified links can lead just to that.  Someone should go to either a timeout, the dog house, or the penalty box.  Someone who understands compliance and information security should have vetted that email.  And responsibility should be taken at a higher level rather a lower level.


2. I have a number of accounts w/y'all.  I received notice from you that you were changing your service fee policy.  I understand this.  Congress nailed issuers of debit cards and you lost a considerable amount of income.  But:
   
   At least 4 decades ago, banks automated customer relationship management by inventing CIF applications, which tied information about all accounts in the relationship together.  One of the benefits of this was to be able to calculate the profitability of the relationship, instead of just the accounts, something intelligent bankers once did by hand.  This allowed identification of profitable relationships, which hopefully WF still sees as a desirable goal.
   
   From what I have learned from the helpful people at the branch and your letters to me is that you seem to have abandoned that idea.  While helpful people found a way around the problem (techie nerds like myself call this a work around - others might call it a jury rig, or something unprintable and unmentionable), is this any way to run a bank?  Most institutions today are trying strengthen customer relationships, e.g by cross selling other products.  You have sold me 4 of your products, multiples of some.  They have been useful in solving challenges in various parts of my life.

For now I am still a customer.  You admirably have made less stupid mistakes than your larger competitors. And banks I might have used are not available to me to use.  But I think I can rule you out as an investment and will not recommend you to others as same.

I would say good luck but you know you need more than luck these days.

So be very careful out there in the jungle that is the world.

Sincerely yours

thePup

on rape

It is polite to say to someone "I understand" or "I'm sorry" or perhaps on fb 2day omg.

For some things, though, empathy is not enough and understanding in not possible.

I suspect being a victim of rape is in that category.

However, I do understand more than I did months ago.

A neighbor broke into my house.  Smashed a window, stole a few things, including a laptop.  I still don't feel safe in my own house.  I still carry my new laptop w/me at all times.  When entering the house, I check all the windows to see if any are smashed.

No one touched or harmed my body but my mind has been messed with.

I am on my computer much less often and blog seldom.  Not just time but motivation.

I suspect I will be a different juror if ever I am picked again.

And I understand someone running around his neighborhood w/a gun just because neighbors have been robbed.

I look in awe at people who maintain sanity after rape.

Oremus

the new Sherlock Holmes

saw the latest Sherlock Holmes movie w/Kat last night.  good movie, great acting, good writing, good plot.  but how far the culture has taken us.

when we sat down the previews were running.  since they are matched to the assumed demographic of the movie, they were astonishing if you haven't been to the movies much.  not only was the level of violence very high, but the darkness of the themes was stunning.

then came the movie.  first I was surprised (but should not have been) that SH now has a love interest.  the bomb she is carrying is part of the plot but her death is mostly gratuitous - setting up the character of the new Moriarity.

The second LI is stunning - the gypsy sister of a person who will be an important pawn of M.  Her presence is crucial to the second 2/3 of the movie.

The sub-theme of evil industrialists is de rigeur now but is getting tiresome.  I guess the theory is when you can give a reason for evil, use pandering.  shows a lack of imagination.  but is consistent w/the high level of visual violence, even if it is toned down by slow/stop motion.

the overall appearance of the movie is of a triumph of a culture of death.  of maybe we are so jaded we respond only to excess or as one of my favorite authors said in a different context:

The novelist with Christian concerns will find in modern life distortions which are repugnant to him, and his problem will be to make these appear as distortions to an audience which is used to seeing them as natural; and he may well be forced to take ever more violent means to get his vision across to this hostile audience. When you can assume that your audience holds the same beliefs you do, you can relax a little and use more normal ways of talking to it; when you have to assume that it does not, then you have to make your vision apparent by shock -- to the hard of hearing you shout, and for the almost blind you draw large and startling figures. ― Flannery O'Connor, Flannery O'Connor : Collected Works : Wise Blood / A Good Man Is Hard to Find / The Violent Bear It Away / Everything that Rises Must Converge / Essays & Letters