Roger O Green

Bleah

Tegan had a blogpost, the title and the sole content of which was “Bleah”. I can relate.

The daughter and I both are suffering our seasonal allergies. The ragweed count has been low, but the grass has been moderate, and three days ago, was high. More than anything, this affects the sleep. I might spend nine hours in bed, but the first hour I spend coughing. Then when I DO get up in the morning, I’m logy. Everything aches and the legs feel as though they weigh 1000 pounds apiece.

The wife was so concerned about the daughter that she took her to the doctor, who confirmed that it was allergies, not a cold, that she has been suffering from.

My work computer I’ve had to shut down at least once every single workday for the past week and a half. And Ctrl-Alt-Del doesn’t work; I have to hard boot it. Seems to have something to do with Adobe.

At home, every time I go back to the computer, there is an “unresponsive script”, even when I’m looking at something not very graphical, such as my Gmail. I seem to have downloaded an unauthorized version of Windows somehow; “You may be a victim of software counterfeiting,” I’m told by my computer. I got a replacement printer, but it isn’t recognized by the computer.

And I put air in the bike tire on Thursday, but by Sunday, it was flat; now I need to take it to the shop, because I don’t know what’s wrong.

The good thing about feeling lousy is that I get more work done in the office. I have to concentrate really hard on what I’m doing, lest I lose track, and the bottom line is that I’m more efficient because I’m necessarily more focused.

I’ll miss choir rehearsal tonight, so I can attend this, but that’s not all bad, since my throat’s so scratchy, I can’t sing a thing right now anyway.

So, bleah. Regular blogging will return tomorrow. Guaranteed, actually, since it’s already done. Then Saturday’s done in my head. Sunday, I answer questions.

This too shall pass.

ROG

That Equinox Tradition! Ask Roger Anything!

Ask Roger Anything comes at a really opportune time. Answering your questions really revs up the batteries. Leave your questions in the comment section, or if you’re really shy, e-mail them to me.

I don’t know about other bloggers, but I need the relationship that blogging can provide. Often, and this is both counter-intuitive and slightly nerve wracking, I’ll go look at other blogs when I “should” be working on my own. This is not so I can steal from them, though a meme or six has come that way, but because I need the electronic esprit de corps.

A little bit ago, I noted that I don’t really write this blog and that I often have the content of a piece go in a different direction than I had initially planned. Likewise, I learn a lot from commenting elsewhere, including about me.

From Gordon’s noting the passing of a friend, I learned how much I regretted dropping – 20 years ago! -a methodology that I used to use to keep up with friends. From ADD’s piece on creator rights, I realized that there is a parallel between those who want to protect the status quo (“they signed the damn contract; it’s their own fault”) and some forms of Christianity, which I will call fundamentalism (not a great word, really, but understood – or misunderstood well enough for this purpose). Whereas trying to create a more equitable distribution of wealth fits into (my) loosey-goosey “liberal” theology that suggests that getting to the right end is more important than the literal reading of “the law”.

So back to the issue at hand, just about anything goes. I do not recall a question yet that I did not answer, and answer with the truth; the whole truth and nothing but the truth will cost extra.
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Brian at Coverville played my John Hiatt-Elvis Costello request, the lowest rated song on the show, alas!
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Also Musical: Jaquandor’s ten film scores, or filmscores.
ROG

J is for Jesus

I suppose a couple caveats in order: I am a Christian, but I have no desire to proselytize. Conversely, I have no desire to mock the faith. Surely one or more people will think I’m doing one or the other.

I thought this Time magazine cover(#) was a fairly accurate representation of what Christianity looks like; it depends on the point of view.

Take, for instance, the physical characteristics of Jesus. He was not depicted in art until decades after walking the earth. What did Jesus look like? Looking in the Bible, there appears to be no description whatsoever, except an interpretation of Isaiah 53:2, which says, “He has no form or majesty that we should look upon Him, nor appearance that we should be attracted to Him”. If this is in fact referring to Jesus, and the subsequent verses of the chapter are used in Messiah (Handel) as Jesus verses, then this Jesus fellow was rather plain-looking.

There’s a lengthy Wikipedia description about the depictions of Jesus. My favorite section is on this point: “But when the pagan Celsus ridiculed the Christian religion for having an ugly God in about 180, Origen (d. 248) cited Psalm 45:3: ‘Gird thy sword upon thy thigh, mighty one, with thy beauty and fairness.’ Later the emphasis of leading Christian thinkers changed; Jerome (d.420) and Augustine of Hippo (d. 430) argued that Jesus must have been ideally beautiful in face and body. For Augustine he was ‘beautiful as a child, beautiful on earth, beautiful in heaven’.” So humans, using their own sensibilities, created the appearance of Jesus in their own image of what he (or He) must have looked like. The beard and long hair was copped, ironically, from the image of competing “gods”.

So, the “standard” look of Jesus is understood to look something like this:

But of course, there are blond Jesus portraits:

In many homes, in the 1960s United States, there were pictures of Jesus that looked more like this montage:

Some folks saw the depiction of a black Jesus as a source of pride, while others called it blasphemy. Given the Biblical directive way back in Genesis that God made humans in God’s image, it seems as though people feel compelled to return the favor.

I was going to continue on a slippery slope of the differing philosophies of various Christian denominations, and the various depictions of Jesus as everything from a Pascal (sacrificial) lamb to a guy who turned over tables in righteous anger, but instead I’ll just leave you with this delineation of church memberships in the United States.

Oh, and this story: back in 1995, when I was still a Methodist, I was in a class called Disciple, where we poured through the whole Bible in 34 weeks. Among other things, one week’s exercise was to go to a faith community different from your own; getting out of one’s comfort zone is something I am in favor of.

As it turned out, there was a Coptic church in Albany at the time. The Coptic church is the Egyptian Orthodox church. The service, mostly in Arabic, but some in English, lasted over three hours! After the service, I had a conversation with a knowledgeable member. Everyone who participated in communion drank from the same cup; they did not worry about communicable diseases because the Lord would not let that happen in the Sacrament. As a non-Orthodox, I was not invited to partake of communion, although a Roman Catholic, who believe in transubstantiation, could have. In fact, the gentleman, in the nicest possible manner, assured me that I was going to hell for my Protestant beliefs. It was all VERY interesting how different the teachings of Jesus can be interpreted.

(#) First three images from LIFE, for personal non-commercial use only
ROG

One Long Meme (Part One)

Sunday Stealing again. Some of these questions assume that I would be eligible to date, which I am not, biut I’m answering them anyway in the spirit of the meme.

1. The phone rings. Who will it to be?

Lately, it’s been a prerecorded message urging me to vote for one candidate or another. Thank Allah the primary was last Tuesday. Also, I love caller ID.

2. When shopping at the grocery store, do you return your cart?

Generally. There are a couple waystations in the parking lot that I might use instead. In fact, when I see a shopping cart out in the street a few blocks away, and I’m heading to, or even near the grocery store, I’ll walk it back.

3. In a social setting, are you more of a talker or a listener?

Depends. Mostly a listener unless I’m asked or if I have something significant to say.

4. Do you take compliments well?

Depends. If it’s something over which I have no real control over, such as my looks, then no; seems somehow superficial. If it’s something I accomplished, then usually yes, but just don’t overdo it.

5. Do you play Sudoku?

No. I sussed it out and decided that either I would find it too frustrating or too boring.

6. If abandoned alone in the wilderness, would you survive?

Probably not. Likely would eat some lethal berry and die.

7. Did you ever go to camp as a kid?

Yes, and I did not enjoy it.

8. What was your favorite game as a kid?

I loved all sorts of card games: canasta (with my grandmother and great-aunt), 500 rummy, pinochle (with my parents), gin rummy (with my grandfather), bid whist (with my parents); that’s pretty much chronologically how I learned. Also played Scrabble a lot.

9. If a sexy person was pursuing you, but you knew she was married, would you?

Too complicated. Not worth it.

10. Could you date someone with different religious beliefs than you?

Well, yeah, but it would break down in due course.

11. Do you like to pursue or be pursued?

Be pursued. I’m lousy at reading signals.

12. Use three words to describe yourself?

Curious, introspective, aural.

13. Do any songs make you cry?

Lots of songs make me cry. There are church hymns. The Barber adagio (about 6 minutes in an 8 minute version). Some old songs bring me back to a great moment. I had a whole coterie of songs that I would play when I had a romantic break up, including First Night Alone without You by Jane Olivor and Stay With Me by Lorraine Ellison.

14. Are you continuing your education?

Every day is an education.

15. Do you know how to shoot a gun?

I’ve only fired a shotgun once.

16. Have you ever taken pictures in a photo booth?

Used to do at the Woolworth’s all the time, when there WAS a Woolworth’s.

17. How often do you read books?

I start and stop. Read for days at a time then not for a couple weeks.

18. Do you think more about the past, present or future?

Present. I remember the past well enough, and the future’s just not knowable.

19. What is your favorite children’s book?

Bartholemew and the Oobleck by Dr. Seuss. Speaking truth to power. And oobleck is green.

20.What color are your eyes?

Bloodshot. Er, I mean Brown.

21. How tall are you?

5″11 5/8″ when I got measured by my draft board.

22. Where is your dream house located?

I was kind of waiting for Bernie Madoff to give me one of his. Actually, I have no idea how to answer that. There are characteristics I’d like (movie viewing room for one), but I don’t dream about houses. I think I’m a renter at heart, though we’ve owned our current house for nine years.

23. If your house was on fire, what would be the first thing you grabbed?

Probably a folder with a bunch of CD-ROMs containing photos.

24. When was the last time you were at Olive Garden?

This summer. Someone gave us a gift certificate. Before that, before we were married and that’s a decade.

25. Where was the furthest place you traveled today?

To work via the Y.

26. Do you like mustard?

I love mustard. I use it on every sandwich meat except poultry. It goes into deviled eggs. Here’s something revolting: when I was a kid, and I had to eat canned beets, I would put mustard on beets. It’s not that I liked mustard that much; it’s that I HATED canned beets, and at least the mustard would mask the beet taste.

ROG

Guilding Light’s Out

The end of the 72-year run of the soap opera Guiding Light, started in 1937 on the radio, and since 1952 on television, probably got more play on CBS recently than the show has garnered in years. Stories on both 60 Minutes (along with Barack Obama and Teddy Kennedy, FCOL,) and CBS Sunday Morning showed that the institution was finally getting its due, even if it was to sound its death knell.

When I was a kid, my grandmother and my great aunt used to watch their “stories” almost every day. Binghamton, in the early 1960s, only had two TV stations, Channels 12 (CBS) and 40 (NBC), and only one was a VHS station that did not require rabbit ears, and that was the former, WNBF.

So they would watch Edge of Night and Secret Storm, which were on, if I remember correctly, at 3:30 and 4 pm, respectively. I saw them often enough that I was reasonably familiar with the story lines and characters. But the other CBS shows they watched, The Guiding Light and Search for Tomorrow, were on while I was at school. This bout of soap watching ended when I was old enough to go to my own home after school rather than to my grandma’s, at some point between fifth and seventh grade.

I did watch many of the soaps in February 1975, but I was depressed.

When I was a Census enumerator in 1990, after I had made my initial daytime passes to the homes, I had to concentrate on nights and weekends. So I was home a lot during the day. I caught on NBC a soap called Generations, followed by Days of our Lives and Another World. Generations got canceled in 1991, and Days had some plot line so ridiculous, even by soap opera standards, that I dumped it in 1992 or so. Another World I watched until a week before it ended in 1999, when Carol and I went to Barbados on our honeymoon. I could have taped them on the VCR, but there was only six hours of capacity, and I opted for prime time, season-ending fare. I keep hoping that the Soap Opera channel someday shows that last week of AW.

So, for some obscure reason, I watched the last episode of Guiding Light. It looks a LOT different than it used to. It’s mostly outside, for one thing, and they don’t appear to be using the same type of filming techniques.

There was a LOT of hugging in this episode, so much that if I had made it a drinking game, I would have had to have been rushed to the hospital with alcohol poisoning. To the degree I can tell, the lesbian couple are now happy because one member of the couple has made peace with her ex-husband, naming the baby she’s carrying after him; one of the actress used to be on Days. The black couple finally gets married on its fourth attempt; good thing, too, because SHE’S pregnant as well. Some time before this, the black couple walks in on the interracial couple in the midst of them about to have sex. One young woman going away to college in California is suddenly joined by a second young woman, because her mother made a phone call to get her instantly admitted; while it’s never stated where Springfield is, obviously it is far from California.

The only people in this show I know at all are the “supercouple”, Reva and Joshua, who have each been married nine times, three times to each other. Will they get back together for good? That gets resolved in a One Year Later motif.

Was it worthwhile watching? Maybe not; tying up all those loose ends seemed terribly convenient. But there’s something to be said for acknowledging a passing.
ROG