Sunny Disposition

I noticed yesterday that my first calla lily of the year is blossoming. That always brings me joy! They are my favorite flower - the simple lines and purity - the classic spiral shape - just gorgeous! I feel very peaceful just looking at them.Given the cold and stormy weather conditions in much of the rest of the country I hadn't been posting pictures of our nice warm conditions - didn't want to pour salt in the wound, but when I said that to David last night, he said, "What do mean you're worried about making THEM feel bad?!" He's suffering from a bit of "snow envy" over here - well - more than a "bit," actually.Since my post yesterday was so serious and to some degree negative, I thought I'd put up a sunny, joyful post today (BUT will warn you there is more deep math-education discussion to come!! It IS serious and has to do with whether our future is going to be sunny and bright - metaphorically speaking.)I thought I should pull back for a shot of the palm tree behind the orange tree - this being California - albeit north-central California and not beach countryThe oranges are particularly tasty this year - good crop! Come visit and you can have one! :-)

The Truth in a Calm World

The house was quiet and the world was calm.
The reader became the book; and summer night
Was like the conscious being of the book.
The house was quiet and the world was calm.
The words were spoken as if there was no book,
Except that the reader leaned above the page,
Wanted to lean, wanted much most to be
The scholar to whom the book is true, to whom
The summer night is like a perfection of thought.
The house was quiet because it had to be.
The quiet was part of the meaning, part of the mind:
The access of perfection to the page.
And the world was calm. The truth in a calm world,
In which there is no other meaning, itself
Is calm, itself is summer and night, itself
Is the reader leaning late and reading there.

-- Wallace Stevens (1879-1955)

Image: Young Woman Reading by a Window - Delphin Enjolras

By Any Other Name

A new primary school (oops) has opened in Sheffield, England.

The reason I put "oops" in that sentence is that they are not going to use the term "school," because it is too negative. Parents, for instance, have negative associations with the word "school." Instead it will be called "a place of learning."

The Plain English Campaign has called this "ridiculous." THEY, at least, don't mince words.

Among other things the head teacher expressed, ""There are no whistles or bells or locked doors. We wanted to de-institutionalise the place and bring the school closer to real life."

Well, I'm glad there are no locked doors, but the rest sounds frighteningly like some things that were tried in the US in the 1970's such as open classrooms where students got to choose whether to go to lecture or to a section of the course that was taking a test or to sit in on a different section of the class that was having a movie that day and so on. The goal, of course, should be to make people feel happy and empowered, right? After all, won't students be more motivated to learn if they have more choice and more control - makes sense, right?

Um . . . no . . . it was an unprecedented disaster.

(Side-note: A local high school recently seemed like the Winchester Mystery House when they discovered a classroom that no one knew about and that had no doors and windows. You see, this school had started as one of these open school with no walls between classrooms. Once it was realized the open plan was a fiasco, walls were put in, thus creating closed classrooms - one of which obviously became a little TOO closed - and a return to normal "school"ing. I'm guessing those who did the remodel were graduates of the open plan . . . but . . . I digress . . .)

It seems the paramount concern in society these days in so many areas of life is that we don't want anyone traumatized by "negative associations." I just hope our world survives these days of political correctness, warm-fuzzies, and false self-esteem (if my children come home with one more trophy, medal or certificate I'll scream!), and I hope that IF we do survive there will remain at least a modicum of intelligence and knowledge in the human race.

A school by any other name had better still be a school.

Find the Cube

Well, it's back to reality. While I'm reminiscing about my much-beloved and just-ended vacation, you can use this post as a challenge. In how many pictures can you spot a Rubik's cube?

GAMES - as always - were a big part of the holidays.
Ooh! NICE Rook hand Anthony!Catch Phrase!We had a chance to get in some Heroscape, which always makes Jacob happy!It's a pretty cool game!Here is our Christmas tree.We had a lovely lasagna dinner at Mom and Dad's (Grandma and Grandpa's).Caleb even brought our pet mice (as members of the family) and had gifts for them too!Notice the little pink treat to the right of Munin's face.The joy of giving (and getting! :-)!! We had our own little party at home too.I'll even put up a picture of myself.I got lots of cool geeky math and gaming stuff - YEA!!The mice got to be in the living room for this party too!The mice got worn out from all the partying and had to relax.This gift is SO Jacob!!And I'm happy to say the oranges on our tree are finally ripe. YUMMY!

So, that was it - lots of parties, gifts, sleeping in, movies, games, (also church services, of course - the reason for the season - but I don't have pictures of those!).

OK, how many times did you see the Rubik's Cube in the pictures??

Some Things Time Cannot

How do you pick up the threads of an old life? How do you go on, when in your heart you begin to understand there is no going back. There are some things that time can not mend. Some hurts that go too deep, that have taken hold.

-Frodo Baggins (Lord of the Rings)

There is a new post on DAVID's site (click at right).
It shares some progress he's made recently!

Again, It Starts

Coming Behind, Gone Before

Today is a day of joy and of reflection for me - so many thoughts -

The lines have fallen to me in pleasant places; Indeed, my heritage is beautiful to me. Psalm 16:6

Today was a day that brought back many memories and thoughts of ancestors and heritage and God's faithfulness. Today our oldest son, Anthony, made public profession of his Christian faith in front of our church congregation.As I sat there witnessing his profession it seemed to me like his baptism had been only weeks ago! It was a powerful thing to see the promise of baptism blossom.Then I thought back further than his baptism. I thought back to the generations that have gone before him on both sides of both sides of his family. It made me think of a cord that has been being woven together for centuries that is stitched through the fabric of our lives -- through the fabric of Anthony's life.

Lord, you have been our dwelling place throughout all generations. Psalm 90:1

On my side of the family he has Dutch Protestant and Portuguese Catholic heritage going back for a very long time.

O God, our help in ages past,
our hope for years to come,
our shelter from the stormy blast,
and our eternal home!

O God, die droeg onsvoorgeslacht
In nacht en storm gebruis,
Bewijs ook ons Uw trouw en macht,
Wees eeuwig ons tehuis!

On the Dutch side, his great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great grandfather, living in Groningen in the Netherlands, braved financial hardship and political danger, risking his own life and that of his son, to follow his faith. He sent his son Wibbo Hommens (aka Homerus Wigboldus)to Heidelberg University in 1593 to learn the Calvinistic teaching and become a minister. This was at a time when the current Spanish governor was taking over cities in the area and persecuting protestants - a time in which several ministers, members of the nobility and others in positions of influence in Groningen were forced to flee and live for some time in another country. Below is the ministerial stamp of Homerus Wigboldus made in 1601 when he began his ministry in Midwolde, Netherlands.On the Portuguese side too stories of faith have been handed down. Anthony's great-great grandparents came from the Azore Islands to California. They immigrated before the Panama Canal was built (before 1914). As they came around Cape Horn there was a terrible storm, a storm so fierce that it broke the mast of the ship. There was great fear that the ship would sink. Anna and Manuel prayed and made a "promesa" to God that if He spared them and brought them to California that once they were established they would return to their village on the island of Terceira and feed all the people of the village. God did protect their lives and bring them safely to California, and they fulfilled their promesa, returning to their village in early 1930.


Their faith heritage has continued and is embraced in the current generation as well:On Anthony's dad's side of the family there is a reunion every three years for all the descendants of his great-great-great grandparents. The theme of the reunion is always "Find Us Faithful," a song which was sung during the service today in honor of that heritage.The theme comes from the song whose chorus is:

May the ones who come behind us find us faithful;
May the fire of our devotion light their way;
May the footprints that we leave
Lead them to believe
And the lives we live inspire them to obey.
Oh may all who come behind us find us faithful.

Here is a picture of our branch of the family from the reunion in 1998:

In 2007 the reunion took place on what would have been Anthony's great-great-great grandpa's 125th birthday, so we had a 125th birthday cake!

Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us... Hebrews 12:1

At Anthony's profession today I could not help thinking of the great cloud of witnesses he is surrounded by who are cheering him on and who have laid a foundation for him that stretches back generations and centuries. It is like a thread spun together over those centuries that stitches our lives together today and ties us together with the past and the future - and most of all with our faithful God of all our generations.

O God, die droeg ons voorgeslacht
In tegen spoed en kruis,
Wees ons een gids in storm en nacht
Een eeuwig ons tehuis!

O God, our help in ages past,
our hope for years to come,
be thou our guard while troubles last,
and our eternal home!

Timeless(time)ness

"When time from time shall set me free."

- e.e. cummings

Charlie Brown and the Meaning of Christmas

Ahhhh...memories of childhood! :-)

Yet

Oh yet we trust that somehow good
Will be the final goal of ill,
To pangs of nature, sins of will,
Defects of doubt, and taints of blood;

That nothing walks with aimless feet;
That not one life shall be destroyed,
Or cast as rubbish to the void,
When God hath made the pile complete;

That not a worm is cloven in vain;
That not a moth with vain desire
Is shrivelled in a fruitless fire,
Or but subserves another's gain.

Behold, we know not anything;
I can but trust that good shall fall
At last—far off—at last, to all,
And every winter change to spring.

So runs my dream: but what am I?
An infant crying in the night:
An infant crying for the light:
And with no language but a cry.

Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809-1892)

In a Fog

Fog is my favorite weather. I couldn't resist getting outside and going for a walk in it.The white background makes such a nice canvas for color! I can't wait until our oranges are ready - any day now!Technically it is still autumn, at least for another week or so . . . . . . but the buds on this tree make it seem like spring already wants to make an appearance!I feel very cozy when walking in the fog.Can you find the sun in the picture below? (It is right in the center.)One last splash of color from this foggy day:

Leave to Wonder

A god and yet a man?
A maid and yet a mother?
Wit wonders what wit can
Conceive this or the other.

A god and can he die?
A dead man, can he live?
What wit can well reply?
What reason reason give?

God, truth itself, doth teach it.
Man's wit sinks too far under
By reason's power to reach it.
Believe and leave to wonder.

-- Anonymous (15th Century)

The Face of God

"In 1741, Handel composed Messiah and what we know now as the Hallelujah Chorus. While designing and composing Messiah, Handel was in debt and deeply depressed; however, the masterpiece was completed in a mere 24 days. Despite his mental and financial state, the Hallelujah Chorus’s birth story is a glorious one. After Handel’s assistant called for him for a few moments, the assistant went to Handel’s work area because he received no response from Handel. Upon entering the room, the assistant saw tears emerge from Handel’s eyes. When the assistant asked why Handel was crying, Handel proclaimed, 'I have seen the face of God,' while lifting up the composition of the Hallelujah Chorus . . ." (Story of the Hallelujah Chorus)

I have read elsewhere that Handel had visions and angel visitations when writing Messiah. After having sung it again today, I am not surprised at all. It is while singing Messiah that I too, more than at any other time, see the face of God. I was struck today that although Handel died more than 2 centuries ago, his work is as alive today as ever; to sing it feels to me almost like transcending time. As with every year, this day is truly Christmas Day for me.

Age and Wisdom

The more sand that has escaped from the hourglass of our life, the clearer we should see through it.

Jean Paul (1763-1825)

Says it All

Virtual Visit

I find watching water to be very relaxing, so I took this little clip while we were in Pismo so I can watch the ocean (virtually) anytime I want.
Come join me on the beach!!