[Yesterday: 2.5 miles (approximately) downtown Columbus]
I ran with a different group yesterday. One of the folks here in Columbus posted on the PossumTownTrotters facebook page that we would have a group run. And that is what I did.
I had a nice run talking and going along pretty well. Then I did a biff and hit the pavement. I was able to get going again and the people I was with were very kind to keep an eye on me. But I cut things off the next time I was near the vehicle and I went on home.
The only real result was some light scratching on a palm and a bit of blood on the opposite elbow. Today the elbow is stiff but not bad, the palm is back to normal.
I had a bit of a general biff in my on-line interview too. This was a “rando” conversation with Paul VanderKlay. He has a calendar on which he sometimes opens up dates for people to sign up. And I happened to go look one day a few weeks ago and there were dates available, which I had never seen before. So I grabbed one out of compulsion if nothing else.
The actual interview was fun but didn’t really generate any new insight for me. I did learn a bit about Paul and he heard from me and we got along just fine. So it’s two old guys having a conversation and that’s not a bad thing.
Well, I will say that it did show me that I’m not a very good conversationalist. My thoughts seem to run about three steps behind. We did more of a helical conversation as I took awhile to absorb and come up with replies. So we touched the same topics multiple times going in slightly different directions each time. I don’t know if that is the result of living in a slowed-down culture here in Mississippi… most likely it is just me getting older. Or maybe I’ve always been like that.
I lose track of my words also. That can be frustrating.
So yeah, I have proof that I’m not very good at this.
But I enjoyed the experience and I would love to talk to him again some time. That is unlikely to happen, but who knows, maybe it will.
I think I mentioned before that the reason I had been following him on YouTube was his long piece and subsequent follow-ups about same sex marriage and the destruction of many church denominations over homosexuality. He is a pastor in Sacramento at a Christian Reformed church, which is a denomination of historically Dutch descendants, mostly located in the upper midwest USA and parts of Canada. We don’t have CRC churches in the part of the country where I live.
The part that I find mystifying, and we did not get into during the conversation, was not that people would embrace homosexuality as a life choice, but that, having done so they would then seek positions of authority in organizations where that was explicitly rejected and undermine those organizations. That is a not a “live and let live” form of activity. A close analog is having girls join the Boy Scouts, or transgender (former men) being in women’s sports. It completely changes the organization they are joining.
I find myself also having that compulsion sometimes, like I need to put myself into some situation where my presence would destroy the situation… and not because the situation needs to be destroyed, but that I want something which I see happening there, and I can’t get to it myself.
I’m not unsympathetic. But it still is an interesting thing to me and something I wish I understood better.
And in Western Culture (so called), the move to same sex marriage has fundamentally changed the assumptions of what marriage is. It will probably never be the same. There was always some element, some reason for it, which involved procreation and that reason is no longer evident. It is the ultimate end of the road for generational “legitimacy” as a concept. It will be interesting to see if anything rises to replace it. I would suggest we try to at least keep genetic continuity information in some way, since that can be useful to the next generation. But that is pretty thin gruel compared to the lever of legitimacy and the assumption that parents should support their children… I think those things are seriously undermined now.
2 replies on “Better keep my day job”
Would another analog be minorities joining all white groups – whether that is sports teams or social associations or the military or schools? A few decades ago, neighborhoods could restrict those who could buy property in them based on race. High end country clubs and hotels could legally be “restricted.” (The sports thing is complicated – in women’s sports there is a testosterone regulation – and has been for years.)
In some states interracial marriage was illegal – and it would still be illegal. It was the SCOTUS that said states could not disallow such marriages in 1967. (We have someone on the SCOTUS who is in such a marriage. He’s conservative and often supports the “states rights” angle on decisions. The irony is not lost on me.)
We had a president with children by three different wives. What is generational “legitimacy” in this context?
The term “genetic continuity” is unsettling. “Useful to the next generation” how? I am not certain, but I think one of my ancestors was adopted. No continuity there.
The procreation focus is harsh – I have more than one friend who could not have children owing to physical all reasons. Are they lesser beings in this context? A dear friend of mine is 95 and never had children. She contributes to her community. Her career was in nursing, where she helped people in a direct and personal way. She chose not to have children.
We have over 8,000,000,000 people on the planet. I do not, personally, see procreation as being a concern.
JD Vance is a Roman Catholic. He says a lot of disturbing things. He is on record that teachers should have children. Childless teachers “brainwash” and “destroy” minds of children. Catholic school teachers are nuns. Few nuns have children.
By genetic information, I mean basic stuff like who one’s physical parents are. I would do that even for adoptions, have that available at some appropriate point as the young person grows up.
As for the other analogs you mention, I think those could fit. In some cases there is a resource that is being blocked or is being hoarded. Or maybe the organization with the prejudice is seen as needing reform.
I suspect most of the toppled christian denominations were the result of the reform angle, the people who drove the wedge into the organization probably felt they were doing a good thing. And probably also see the remains of the organization(s) as purified and improved.
I don’t really have anything to add about JD Vance or Catholics that don’t seem to follow what I think Catholics should follow.