Okay friends, sorry for the hiatus!
I have been having quite the blast since last time I've posted, due to the visit by little brother. Good times all around! Ma and Pa Hovater came up for the easter holiday, and the time spent with family was a much needed change in the cycle up here in L Rock.
I have also been throwing some serious plastic these days out at Burns Park here in town. This is the current manifestation of my obsessive personality, and a fine hobby. Befor I go further, I should make clear that I mean the pasttime of disc golf. this plays just like ball golf, except that you are throwing a disc instead of hitting a little ball, and you are trying to get the disc in a metal basket lined with chains instead of a little cup. It is also much, much cheaper to play.
Today Shannon and I got a handful of students from each of our churches and paired them up for a scramble. a fine time was had by all, with no serious injuries (even though that one kid took one in the back...ouch!). It is believed that the upcoming holiday (KOGS is saturday) will for the first time ever include a midafternoon scramble tourney. A pair of putters will be the prize. I expect that competition will be fierce, and that many a tree will be cursed during the days events. The tree giveth, and the tree taketh away...
KOGS is lined up for saturday at Burns Park, and we expect that the grilling season will be opened in style. I hope to have a report up on sunday for those who are not able to make the feast. for those of you who are in Little Rock this weekend, come up to Burns around 10:00, and look for us at the shelter closest to the spoftball fields. Or, just roll down your window and smell the air...that will probably be the fastest way to find us.
Okay, enough for now. hope this finds you well, friends.
Peace.
Monday, March 28, 2005
Friday, March 18, 2005
Bama Falls
Milwaukee of freakin' Wisconsin 83
Alabama 73
Upset. that's a great, rich word.
It's all okay though, It seems like coach G has a good strategy for next year all lined up: "We've got to get better and we've got to get deeper," said Gottfried in the post game interviews. Whew. glad we're on top of it.
Seriously, I'm proud of the Tide and their improvement in the hoops since Gottfried came to the helm. We just seem like we've peaked a little too early the few years, last years tourney run notwithstanding.
Okay, heckle away, but if I'm bleeding, I'm still bleeding crimson.
Alabama 73
Upset. that's a great, rich word.
It's all okay though, It seems like coach G has a good strategy for next year all lined up: "We've got to get better and we've got to get deeper," said Gottfried in the post game interviews. Whew. glad we're on top of it.
Seriously, I'm proud of the Tide and their improvement in the hoops since Gottfried came to the helm. We just seem like we've peaked a little too early the few years, last years tourney run notwithstanding.
Okay, heckle away, but if I'm bleeding, I'm still bleeding crimson.
Tuesday, March 15, 2005
Hope 3 - Utility
Okay, there have been two reasons why I've delayed this post. One, sheer busy-ness. the offlien world and its silly demands. Tsk-tsk. Secondly, and perhaps more truly (I could have found the time were it not for this) the ongoing discussion with dante in hope 2 needed to be played out a little more, and still does. Nonetheless, here's the next installment.
The Utility of Hope
Okay, I believe this is a tricky element in speaking about hope (or her sisters faith and love) because of the capacity for self-manipulation. If we build a case for why hope is useful, we may be tempted to claim it even if we don't find it to be true. We may say that hope does good things for us (even if it's delusional) and be led to make ourselves hope as a trick of the mind, a way of sedating ourselves so that we may carry on with life. And isn't it just this sedating effect of religion that the world critiques and laughs at? It may indeed be stronger stuff than opium for the masses. This critique can not be answered, but only heard, and met by testimony, the witness of truthful hope.
All this notwithstanding, there is a place where hope does in fact have utility. It is useful in that it motivates action and sustains patience. Hope, (the reconition of wrong and the belief in possibility), gives action direction. It reacts against what it recognizes as wrong and and in the direction of what changes it believes to be possible. It perserves, knowing that while not all depends on my efforts, the tasks to which I set myself can matter, can hold significance. So hope provides a framework for praxis, for the practice of important things. It is a guiding and sustaining framework.
The total loss of hope (in either component, recognition or possibility) destroys this framework, breaks the posssibility for praxis. The structure for our action is leveled when we totally lose sight of either possibility or of the wrong. Is it possible that action at any level reveals the presence of some inherent hope in that direction? (If so then hope may be found in some surprising places!) Hope built awry or seen unclearly may provide faulty framworks that go off in unuseful directions or are unable to sustain weighty living, so there must be constant effort in pursuing clarity and truthfulness in hope. Faithfulness of praxis means allowing our structure of hope to be challenged and critiqued. It must be an open structure, with the possibility of being torn down and built anew.
So hope then has utility as a structure for action, guiding and sustaining it. But we lose one or both of the elements of hope, than our action may become distorted. can I propose the following scenaio of reality? Can it be that our churches have become separated from their true hope by allowing their recognition of wrong in the world to be distorted? In other words, our churches have lost touch with the things that are really wrong with the world, and this has led us to pursue the wrong courses of action. Meanwhile, some in the church who see correctly this wrong have lost touch with the possibility that it can be otherwise, and have thus been robbed of their own courses of action. and so we end up with a distorted church. this is my perception, my recognition. It may need to be clarified, torn down, rebuilt, or redecorated. but is coupled with the beilief that this status is not the final word! This may be what the church is, but it is not all she can be, not all she will be. This is my belief in possibility.
Next: Hope 4 - Identity.
The Utility of Hope
Okay, I believe this is a tricky element in speaking about hope (or her sisters faith and love) because of the capacity for self-manipulation. If we build a case for why hope is useful, we may be tempted to claim it even if we don't find it to be true. We may say that hope does good things for us (even if it's delusional) and be led to make ourselves hope as a trick of the mind, a way of sedating ourselves so that we may carry on with life. And isn't it just this sedating effect of religion that the world critiques and laughs at? It may indeed be stronger stuff than opium for the masses. This critique can not be answered, but only heard, and met by testimony, the witness of truthful hope.
All this notwithstanding, there is a place where hope does in fact have utility. It is useful in that it motivates action and sustains patience. Hope, (the reconition of wrong and the belief in possibility), gives action direction. It reacts against what it recognizes as wrong and and in the direction of what changes it believes to be possible. It perserves, knowing that while not all depends on my efforts, the tasks to which I set myself can matter, can hold significance. So hope provides a framework for praxis, for the practice of important things. It is a guiding and sustaining framework.
The total loss of hope (in either component, recognition or possibility) destroys this framework, breaks the posssibility for praxis. The structure for our action is leveled when we totally lose sight of either possibility or of the wrong. Is it possible that action at any level reveals the presence of some inherent hope in that direction? (If so then hope may be found in some surprising places!) Hope built awry or seen unclearly may provide faulty framworks that go off in unuseful directions or are unable to sustain weighty living, so there must be constant effort in pursuing clarity and truthfulness in hope. Faithfulness of praxis means allowing our structure of hope to be challenged and critiqued. It must be an open structure, with the possibility of being torn down and built anew.
So hope then has utility as a structure for action, guiding and sustaining it. But we lose one or both of the elements of hope, than our action may become distorted. can I propose the following scenaio of reality? Can it be that our churches have become separated from their true hope by allowing their recognition of wrong in the world to be distorted? In other words, our churches have lost touch with the things that are really wrong with the world, and this has led us to pursue the wrong courses of action. Meanwhile, some in the church who see correctly this wrong have lost touch with the possibility that it can be otherwise, and have thus been robbed of their own courses of action. and so we end up with a distorted church. this is my perception, my recognition. It may need to be clarified, torn down, rebuilt, or redecorated. but is coupled with the beilief that this status is not the final word! This may be what the church is, but it is not all she can be, not all she will be. This is my belief in possibility.
Next: Hope 4 - Identity.
Friday, March 11, 2005
Even if you wanted to...
...you couldn't post helpful comments below. It's a blogger-wide issue that just happened to coincide with my shift to the mac. whoops. Thanks to those of you who tried and ended up sendind email. I got an email from the suport folks at blogger saying they were working on it.
Bama beats Ole Miss today...Roll Tide!
Bama beats Ole Miss today...Roll Tide!
blogger issue
Hey, this is a call for a little blogger help...I switched to a mac powerbook this week due to the previously mentioned demise of my PC latop. I'm up and running, now, but I have a problem that I've just noticed, and it is puzzling the heck out of me.
when I read some blogs, like Arbuckle's or the second chance, my browser lets me read the posts, and if I click on the date at the bottom of posts, then it lets me read what other people have posted. BUT, when I click "post a comment" it opens up another window, one that says, "blog not found". which results in the rather unfortunate and frustrating situation of being able to read comments but not reply to them. any ideas on why this is happening? Do I have a preference set wrong on my machine, or what do you think? Help!
when I read some blogs, like Arbuckle's or the second chance, my browser lets me read the posts, and if I click on the date at the bottom of posts, then it lets me read what other people have posted. BUT, when I click "post a comment" it opens up another window, one that says, "blog not found". which results in the rather unfortunate and frustrating situation of being able to read comments but not reply to them. any ideas on why this is happening? Do I have a preference set wrong on my machine, or what do you think? Help!
Tuesday, March 08, 2005
sorry friends
Friends, brothers, blog readers,
PLease excuse my tardiness...my hard drive decided to eat itself this past week, and that has had the unfortunate consequence of keeping me away. As such, this will be unfocused, covering several bases.
Good discussion still in the hope 2 thread, check it out.
What an eventful week I've had! I gained another year of age, and have played a substantial amount of disc golf. I'm beginning to have mediocre skills finally. Those trees at burns park are eating my lunch. If anybody want to go toss for a while, or are interested in learning the game, give me a holler, I'd enjoy spreading the love.
Random fun event of last week: Dr. Seuss day at Pine Forest elementary. I got to be a guest reader. The kids were dressed up and one girl had the most amazing hair going on I've ever seen. two feet straight up, I'm sure of it.
Similar Random fun event of last week: I had the pleasure of being a moderator for the regional quiz bowl tournament. Let me just say that these particular high school nerds (said affectionately, as one of their own kind) were amazing. I was stunned at the stuff they knew, and sometimes at the stuff they didn't. I really was getting my groove on reading those questions, too. Alex what's his name from jeopardy has nothing on me. Skills, serious skills.
My boys from bama got a couple of good wins, too, and that made for a good week. All in all, life is going well, if pretty busy, with the minor exception of the death of my notebook. (Viewing will be from 6:00-8:00 at roller, graveside on wednesday 10:00 AM).
Okay, that's all from general notes on life. Coming tomorrow: Hope 3.
PLease excuse my tardiness...my hard drive decided to eat itself this past week, and that has had the unfortunate consequence of keeping me away. As such, this will be unfocused, covering several bases.
Good discussion still in the hope 2 thread, check it out.
What an eventful week I've had! I gained another year of age, and have played a substantial amount of disc golf. I'm beginning to have mediocre skills finally. Those trees at burns park are eating my lunch. If anybody want to go toss for a while, or are interested in learning the game, give me a holler, I'd enjoy spreading the love.
Random fun event of last week: Dr. Seuss day at Pine Forest elementary. I got to be a guest reader. The kids were dressed up and one girl had the most amazing hair going on I've ever seen. two feet straight up, I'm sure of it.
Similar Random fun event of last week: I had the pleasure of being a moderator for the regional quiz bowl tournament. Let me just say that these particular high school nerds (said affectionately, as one of their own kind) were amazing. I was stunned at the stuff they knew, and sometimes at the stuff they didn't. I really was getting my groove on reading those questions, too. Alex what's his name from jeopardy has nothing on me. Skills, serious skills.
My boys from bama got a couple of good wins, too, and that made for a good week. All in all, life is going well, if pretty busy, with the minor exception of the death of my notebook. (Viewing will be from 6:00-8:00 at roller, graveside on wednesday 10:00 AM).
Okay, that's all from general notes on life. Coming tomorrow: Hope 3.
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