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Over 150 newly-found and never-before-seen photos of JP’s 2002 European Adventure have been posted!

Photo Archive: 2002 European Adventure Photos

A recorded conversation between various items on my desk….

The Incident:
This morning for breakfast, I stopped at Sonic for a $3.20 smoothie…

I handed the car hop a $5 and was in the process of saying, “Just keep the change and give me $1 back” (an $0.80/tip). But as I was in the process of saying, “Just keep the change and…”, the car hop got this massive smile and happily shouted, “Thank you, sir!!”, as she ran back inside with my $5 bill (now a $1.80 tip for my mere $3 drink). The whole robbery, from start-to-finish, took about 10 seconds. I just sat there dumbfounded for a second, kind of perplexed. I was tempted to push the big, red button and ask for my $1 back, but I soon decided that would be too socially awkward; so I just left and went on my way, feeling violated and ashamed.

I told some people this morning about my tipping fiasco — and to my surprise — they barked at me for being too cheap!

The Question:
So here is my question: What do you normally tip at Sonic?

My wife, Thing That Holds Paperclips, used to work at Sonic in high school, so I know first hand that the car hops make minimum wage ($5.85/hr). This is, of course, different than a waiter at a (real) restaurant who depends mainly on tips for his/her salary. Therefore, typically, I will tip the car hop approx $0.50 / $0.75 when they bring me my food / drink. Personally, I think that is fair enough — perhaps even too much — considering they make full, minimum wage. Although I know there are other people who tip far more than I do; so I would assume — with these extra (unnecessary) tips — the car hops could potentially be making well over $10 / hr.

I guess my point being is that you don’t tip other people who make minimum wage. You don’t tip the McDonalds guy. You don’t tip the Taco Bell guy. So are we obligated to tip because they walk 15-20 steps to our car? I mean, they’re not like a waiter who will serve and wait on you for 30 minutes while you eat — take your order, bring your food, refilling your drinks, getting you napkins/condiments, etc. All they do is take 20 steps to your car! Is a tip even necessary? In my opinion: No. Nonetheless, I will still give a small tip because car hop tipping is evidently the status quo.

Anyway, what do you think? I told some friends of mine this story and they all think I’m heartless. Haha. Perhaps I am a bit jaded. Approx 3.5 years ago, I was working a minimum wage job myself.

Side Note: One day, my boss pulled me aside and told me that due to my college degree, I would be receiving a $0.10 raise. Ha!

When taking large boxes / heavy electronics to people’s cars, I never received a tip….. Nor did I ever receive a tip for assisting customers in the store, which at times, could be extremely annoying and difficult….. Then again, I never expected a tip. So why do car hops expect one?

Let me your thoughts on this socially awkward tipping situation……..

I think it is just one of those things that society has developed. That’s why I tip them. Like, why tip a pizza delivery man when there’s already a delivery charge? Why tip most people, from hair stylists to baggage handlers to cab drivers? I think it is just something in our culture.

But I see what you’re saying. It seems silly to tip the Sonic ladies, but I still do it. I usually just give them a dollar by default. Sometimes that means a dollar plus change. I never tip the dudes though.

Advice: I’ve also learned to alter my language. I’ll specifically say how much I want back. Like “Just give me 50 cents back.” or “You can keep a dollar.” It seems weird, but ultimately we’re both happy.

Another tip: Pay with credit card. The last few times I’ve done so, I was not able to write a tip on the receipt. I was like “What? Why not? I don’t have any money. Are you sure I just can’t add it on somehow?”

Also, you paid a 60% tip! You greedy bastard!

Ha - good points. You are correct about it being a societal norm.

You know, I’ve come to the conclusion that I essentially only tip for selfish purposes; typically not out of generosity. I only tip baggage handlers to hopefully ensure that my luggage makes it to its final destination safely. I mainly tip the hairstylist out of fear, thinking, “Thanks for not screwing up”.

Although, I admit, I do tip the pizza guy. Perhaps it’s just due to my love for pizza. For the pizza guy, even though I know they usually add a delivery charge into the price of the pizza — I still tip — I think it’s subconscious that I think, “Oh man, he drove all the way to my house and walked up to my front door” — that I feel guilty enough to tip him. For some reason, I can justify that more than I can justify the 10-20 steps from a car hop.

Exactly! I pretty much tip out of a combination of guilt and pity, lol! One, I would hate for them to think I’m a jerk. Two, I feel like they deserve more money than they are probably making. I have worked at various low-paying jobs and understand that it can suck working at those places when you make very little.

Well, Monitor 1, just because you didn’t receive or expect a tip at minimum wage doesn’t mean that you would not have appreciated it or even that you could not have used it. Even though carhops do make the required minimum wage; it is very, very difficult if not impossible to make ends meet on that salary. I don’t see what the big deal is as if an extra dollar is going to break your finances. You guys are cheap in my opinion.

Haha… no no, I fully admit I am cheap. That is a proven fact. (Thing That Holds Paperclips can verify — just ask). Lol.

I’m not against tipping, of course. I can remember working as a grocery sacker (also making min wage) and how happy I would be if I got a tip from someone. Certainly, free money is always welcome and appreciated.

My question isn’t whether or not you should tip the car hop (even though deep down, my answer is ‘no’), because as Calculator said, it’s a societal norm. For better or for worse, it is expected to tip.

Although, also on an anti-car hop side note, I still think tipping a grocery sacker $1 is still more justified than tipping a car hop $1. The sacker sacks your groceries, puts them in your cart, takes them to your car, and unloads them in your trunk / backseat — whereas the car hop doesn’t take your order, nor do they prepare your drink, they are simply “runners” going back and forth. They’re only at your car window for less than ten seconds! Nonetheless, for better or for worse, our society says we are required to tip them. Ridiculous.

My question is: “How much do you, personally, tip at Sonic?” I always find that awkward. I know people who say they often tip $1. But I find a $1 tip for a $1 drink, for example, to be highly excessive. So I might give $0.15 - $0.25. But then I am called a jerk. Haha. I find this whole Sonic situation so uncomfortable, I find myself tending to avoid the place.

Another Question:
On tipping in general — at restaurants, for example — I used to tip on service alone. Like, if the waiter did a great job, I’d leave a great tip… a satisfactory job, a satisfactory tip…. and if they completely bombed and did horrible, I would leave little to nothing at all. I saw tipping as a “perk” of the job — not a required payment.

Since being with Thing That Holds Paperclips, who also used to be a waitress, whenever we get our check, I just sign my name on the dotted line and leave the tipping to her. (This tipping debated has caused many, great arguments between us). From her former experience as a waitress, she would tell me that there may be larger circumstances at hand that we are not aware of. Perhaps our service is bad because the manager is horrible… or perhaps the people back in the kitchen are being ridiculous… they’re short-handed… the stove quit working… and so forth. She often reminds me that the bad service may not necessarily be the fault of the waiter, so we shouldn’t keep from leaving him/her a large tip for something that may be out of their control. What do you do?

Yeah, I tip 15% unless they were good, then I tip 20%. If they are bad, I might tip 10%, but I try to determine why they were bad. If it was because the food was cooked wrong or what not, then I just tip 15%. Tipping 20% is far more common with me though because it is a lot easier. Just move a decimal then double it. Here’s a typical example:

Me, paying with credit card, sees the receipt.

Total = $24.76
Tip = 2.47 * 2. For it to be easy on my brain, I say $2.50 * 2 = $5 tip.

24.76 + 5 = 29.76. But then I round it up to $30. So I write the tip as $5.24.

So really, I ended up paying a 21% tip.

Wow, I’m amazed.

Sonic girls (and guys) = get absolutely no tip. I pay with credit card and tip nothing. If I had to pay cash, I would expect all of my change back. These are generally high school kids - they don’t have to ‘make ends meet’. I mean - I can kinda feel for you if you’re an adult and having to work a high school job, but it’s not my fault - get a real job. At least get a job that can take you somewhere, not a dead end thing like that. (I know up until a few years ago, they were only paying $2.30/hr at Sonic when my brother worked there, but he said that he still made more than minimum wage overall with the tips, I do recall thinking that they changed some stuff around recently though. It could differ franchise to franchise)

Tipping a grocery sacker/carrier $1 seems much more prudent to me, but I can’t remember the last time someone helped me to my car with bags. Half the time I get stuck sacking my own stuff. Tipping ‘baggage handlers’? I carry my own bags. I guess in a cab if you have bags you should definitely (if not required) add a couple bucks to the bill, especially if the guy is putting them in/getting them out of the trunk. But as for tipping a cabbie for taking me from point A to point B? no way. half the time they take you a long way on purpose, and there are some places where there is no running meter viewable by the passenger (or perhaps at all). You just get to your destination and the cabbie pulls a number out of his ass that you have to pay. I have been in situations (with people more familiar) where they have paid less than what was requested because they knew the guy was ripping them off. I’ve also been with people who haggled with the drivers before getting in the car, usually asking for the rate to a destination, then telling them it was too high and we’d be willing to pay some lower amount. We’d keep doing that until we found someone who was agreeable. But a general tip - no way, those guys are mainly greedy bastards.

Pizza guy - I’d give them $1/pizza (roughly) for delivery; is there really a ‘delivery charge’? I NEVER order pizza. ever. I think maybe 1 time in the past 6+ years have I ordered pizza on my own to be delivered to my home. It’s one of those situations where I’d rather give the guy a $20 to pay for my $17.85 pizza and just say “keep the change” than wait for the guy to give me a single back. I’d rather be inside enjoying my pizza rather than wait.

Hair stylist - generally I tip, but sometimes it’s tough, especially if I go someplace that I know I will only visit once. I feel like a hair cut is something you don’t really appreciate for a couple days, and as retarded as I am, it’d be pretty easy to fool me into thinking I got a good cut only to have all my buddies tell me that one of my ears is now lower than the other. I tip if I plan on going back, but otherwise, just a couple bucks.

Restaurant tipping - I worked at a restaurant for a little while, so I do have some experience in the ‘industry’. And I’ve got to say, that a 15 or 20% minimum is just absurd in my opinion. No one deserves that much money just because they showed up to work in uniform and I got seated in their section by lottery.

My personal philosophy is that 15% is a ’starting point’ and that we work from there. Now outstanding service, 20% - no problem, and if there was something exceptional, like the server returned my meal because it was undercooked and then hooked me up with a discount or something like that, or if they forget they served me 5 beers instead of 4 - then I’d pretty much tip the difference in the bill on top. (forget to charge me for a $5 beer, then the tip is 20% + $5). I imagine we’re all on about the same page with good service.

But with the bad service, this is where it really gets me. Having spent some time in restaurants, I know that things can go wrong, and they aren’t always the servers fault. So the server isn’t always ‘to blame’ - but one thing that is the servers job, is to make sure that I have a good dining experience, they are the face of the establishment. They represent the entire restaurant to me, no one else does that. If the cook made my steak well done when I ordered medium-rare - I expect an apology from the server on behalf of the cook. I don’t expect to hear blame spread around or some long list of reasons as why it’s not the servers fault. For errorss a simple apology is all that is needed “I’m sorry about your order sir, the chef is rushing to prepare the meal correctly and I’ll have it out to you as soon as possible” - that’s it.

If servers want to expect a tip, then they should provide professional service (it is their profession for cryin’ out loud). I don’t give a sh*t if they’re short staffed today or there’s a back up in the kitchen or someother table is being difficult, etc.. warn me about that as soon as I’m seated so I can make an informed decision, my time is valuable. I’m choosing to spend it at your restaurant, make it worth my time. No blaming, no excuses, they should be knowledgable of the menu and shouldn’t look put out when someone asks for reasonable information on an item, or someone who expects to have their drink filled. Poor service really could get someone a 0% tip, but that is extraordinarily rare from me. Much more likely to get a 5-10% tip with something like that, but even then I have trouble with it. If someone really sucks at what they do, perhaps they shouldn’t be doing it. They should find something they’re at least up to par with. Otherwise they may as well just sit in front of the restaurant with a coffee cup begging for change.

I can kinda feel for people who have those sorts of jobs, but I think it is by choice. Just because they’ve made that choice and perhaps their compensation doesn’t adequately cover their standard of living is not because of me. To use that as a reasoning, I think there’d be a lot more people in the world that I would need to tip, like the people in the office who take out my trash or clean the toilets, the guys who mow the grass in front of my apartment, the guy who drives the train/subway, etc.. I know I definitely appreciate standard toilet cleaning/trash taking out more than I do 2nd rate service at a 3rd rate restaurant.

Calculator - tell your stories about the tip cups you set up at your places of work!

My TIP story:

At one of my former jobs, I made decent money. Slightly above minimum wage, plus I got to eat as much food as I wanted and drink all of the soda I wanted. I usually worked down in the kiosk downstairs which was hilariously awesome. I could sit on a bucket and do Calculus and no one would show up. But when I stood up, I would get customer and customer. Plus, I would have fresh food in a crate just waiting for the old stuff to sell. I would eat the fresh.

Anyway, one day I decided to put out two tip cups. I mainly did this to make the customer feel awkward. One cup said “Small Tips” and one said “Large Tips”, and they were in appropriately sized cups. I loved it when people scoffed at the idea of even tipping, but I would love even more is when they would have to decide where to put the tip. I would sometimes correct them if they tried to put $1 in the small tip cup or a few coins in the large tip cup. Sometimes that made them kinda mad, lol, especially if they were only putting in a few coins.

Anyway, I don’t remember how much extra it would net me. Usually like $3-$6 a day.

Also, why not tip the Sonic people? Using that logic, you could just not tip anyone at all. You could be “you know, if you wanted more money, you should have gotten a better job or negotiated for better hourly pay.”

That’s hilarious. You certainly have a lot of nerve; I would be too embarassed/scared to do that. I agree with you about the logic.

Hey Everyone! Well, as you can clearly see the old website has been given a new look! I’ve been meaning to have it changed for months now and just finally got around to it this weekend.

Also, we added a new feature — a Library! The Library is still under construction, as we’re still adding the list of books to the database, but hopefully it should be up and running sometime soon. Essentially it’s a (much faster) way for us to search through my enormous book collection.

Anyway, I think that’s all the news and updates I have for now. I haven’t posted in quite a while, so hopefully with the new look I’ll be inspired to blog more often. Hope everyone has a good weekend!

A couple of weeks ago, at my sisters’ birthday party, Eva and I were speaking with my Uncle. Among other things, we talked about the status of the Republican Party, the upcoming election, the Fair Tax Act, capitalism, free trade, and so on. Then my Uncle asked us if we had ever read any of Ayn Rand’s books. Although I had heard of Ayn Rand, I had never actually read any of her writings. (In fact, all I knew about Ms Rand is that I can clearly remember one of my high school English teachers bad mouthing her anytime her name was brought up). My Uncle said she wrote about many of the issues we were talking about, so I decided to give her a shot.

Although her most famous works are Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead, the only Rand book I have in my collection is one of her earliest works, Anthem. It was a short novella, so I just finished it last night and thought I would write a quick review about it.

In short, Anthem is set in a futuristic, post-apocalyptic world where perfect Communism reigns supreme. As the book says:

“We are one in all and all in one. There are no men but only the great WE”. (Page 19).

From the age of five, all children (who are raised in State-run institutions void of their parents) are taught to memorize and say the following creed:

“We are nothing. Mankind is all. By the grace of our brothers are we allowed our lives. We exist through, by and for our brothers who are the State. Amen.” (Page 21).

The main character of the story is Equality 7-2521 (as people are without of unique, individual names). In fact, the reoccurring them of the book is that socialism deprives people of all individuality. Masked as “true freedom”, socialism carried out to perfection eventually strips man of all known liberties – even his name. So much so, that in Rand’s fictional world, the word “I” itself becomes known as “The Unspeakable Word” and is punishable by death. Therefore, instead of saying “I am six feet tall”, the characters in Rand’s world would say, “We are six feet tall”, always referring to him or herself in the plural form, as if part of a giant collective. (Like tbe Borg in Star Trek).

For the first two thirds of the novella, Rand writes about Equality 7-2521 struggle against the Communist State and his (unlawful) desire to learn more and aspire for more than his fellow Brothers. He falls in love, sneaks away at night to study and conduct experiments, and eventually discovers electricity all on his own (presumably lost after what appears to be a past nuclear war).

Rand is really quite remarkable at her ability to draw you in. I found myself not wanting to put the book down, nervously wondering if Equality 7-2521 would be turned in or caught by the authorties. Nevertheless, he escapes with the woman he loves and seeks a new life beyond the Uncharted Forest. Unfortunately, this is where in my opinion, the book took a sudden and dramatic downslide.

***

Although I fully agree with Ayn Rand’s rejection and criticism of Communism, I’m afraid Rand didn’t lose all of her Marxist ideals in her flight from the Soviet Union. Perhaps the last third of the book focuses on Rand’s ideal that man is the pinnacle and summit of all creation. That a belief in a higher power burdens man from achieving true perfection.

She declares:

At first, man was enslaved by the gods. But he broke their chains. Then he was enslaved by the kings. But he broke their chains. He was enslaved by his birth, by his kin, by his race. But he broke their chains. He declared to all his brothers that a man has rights which neither god nor king or other men can take away from him, no matter what their number, for his is the right of man and there is no right on earth above this right.” (Page 102).

This reminded me of another book (and one of my favorite books, I might add) that I had read a few years ago called The Gods of Atheism, by Catholic priest, Fr. Vincent P. Miceli, S.J.. In his denouncement of Communism, Fr. Miceli stated:

[The Atheist] vows to enthrone man at the summit as his own God. […] Indeed, his denial of God is his choice of a crusade against God. [p.17]

Prometheus, the ideal Marxist man, revolted against the gods crying, “I hate all the gods”.

When he was punished by Father Zeus, Prometheus, far from being repentant and subordinate, answered Hermes, the servant of the gods, in the defiant words: “Be assured of this, I will never exchange my miserable lot for your servitude. I prefer to be riveted to this rock that to be the servile valet or errand boy of Father Zeus.”

Man is born and projected into history by his act of revolt against God, his “I will not serve! [p. 103-104]

Man is, therefore, his own immanent, dialectic movement and definition. He is his own goal and god. This glorification of man is the goal of Marxist, atheistic humanism. [p. 106]

Sure enough, and to my great disappointment, Rand followed in Marx’s footsteps. After Equality 7-2521 had escaped the tyranny of the State, he and his girlfriend settled peacefully in an abandoned house in the wilderness. Inside the immense house there was a vast library of books, were Equality 7-2521 read and learned about a whole host of things. One day, after reading for several days, he called out to his girlfriend (whom he called ‘The Golden One’) and said:

“My dearest one, it is not proper for men to be without names. There was a time when each man had a name of his own to distinguish him from all other men. So let us choose our names. I have read of a man who lived many thousands of years ago, and of all the names in these books, his is the one I wish to bear. He took the light of the gods and he brought it to men, and he taught men to be gods. And he suffered for his dead as all bearers of light must suffer. His name was Prometheus.

[…]

“And I have read of a goddess, … , who was the mother of the earth and of all the gods. Her name was Gaea. Let this be your name, my Golden One, for you are to be the mother of a new kind of gods.” (Page 99).

Unfortunately, this is where I have to break with the philosophy of Ms Rand. In response, I completely agree with the philosophy of Fr. Miceli who stated:

“When man becomes his own absolute center, then God becomes his hell, because God sets limits to man’s greatness. But once having attained autoerotic sovereignty, a monstrous metamorphosis takes place in atheist man. He begins to feed on his own fellow men, for they now are his hell, threatening to rob him of his freedom.

When God is rejected because he is seen as man’s hell, then man, whom God loves, suffers the same fate and for the same reason. There is a frightening resemblance between the atheist humanist as a cell of society and a malignantly cancerous cell in the human body. Both cells have thrown off any service of subordination to the healthy of the communities in which they thrive.” [p.463-464]

Ultimate rejection of a Creator will not give man more freedom. Rather, such a rejection will enslave man to his fellow man.

Homo Homini Lupus
“Man is a wolf to his fellowman”
Titus Maccius Plautus (c. 254–184 BC)

Well, I guess all this socialist talk sparked my interest…

Currently Reading: The Communist Manifesto

“Know thy enemy…”
Sun Tzu (c. 544 BC – 496 BC)

Note: Obviously, what occured at NIU is undesirable and unacceptable in our society. Looking forward, I present the following information.

According to NIU Campus Police Chief Donald Grady, the following timeline lists the events that occurred 14 Feb 2008 (see video link).

3:06 PM - shots ring out in classroom

3:06:29 PM (direct quote) - 2 officers are “already in the area of the scene”

3:08:59 PM (1.5 minutes later) - an additional 8 officers are on the scene and they immediately went in

Within that time (2 minutes) the shooter “managed to walk into the building, begin his shooting spree, and conclude it, before we were able to enter the building and stop it”

3:20 PM - school posts alert on internet of possible gunman on campus
3:50 PM - university reports there has been a shotting on campus with injuries

4:10 PM - campus police report the campus is secure
4:14 PM - university confirms the immediate danger has passed and “the gunman is no longer a threat”

Donald Grady at the press conference that evening says “It’s an unfortunate set of circumstances, that no one could possibly have predicted, nor could they have been more responsive, in getting the event to stop, unfortunately these things happen”
——————————————————————————-
OK friends - seriously I don’t believe the preciseness of this story. 29 seconds? I’d have to see the person with the stopwatch who timed it. Assuming these officers are ‘normal’ people - in 29 seconds they couldn’t have moved more than 150 yards. Chief Grady doesn’t describe how close the officers got, but if they only moved 150 yards, they were, IMNO, already ‘in the area’. Now while these two guys are around outside, 8 more cops show up over the next 1:30, at which time they enter the scene, to discover that the shooter has already killed himself.

So - with a response time of under 2 minutes (they can say 29 sec if they want, but showing up and standing outside doesn’t seem like much of a response to me) - the gunman had time to shoot off at least 56 rounds (that’d be approx 1 every 2 seconds).

Now, I’d agree with Chief Grady that, if his timeline is correct, the response couldn’t have been any quicker. I’d say it was incredibly quick already. But even still - they were not in time to stop the shooter or limit the harm he was causing.

So if we assume that:
1. shootings of this style may happen on college campuses (and other venues in society), and
2. guns will not be completely outlawed in our society

I think it can be accepted that something must be done to limit these types of acts so that they are as minimally detrimental as possible.

Solutions I see as viable would be:
1. placing armed security guards and metal detectors at all entrances of all buildings on campus
2. removing the ‘gun free zones’ from campuses and allowing appropriately licensed students/individuals to carry concealed loaded weapons on campus

Note: Emergency e-mails, text messaging has been proposed as possibly being of assistance to students in these situations. I couldn’t find any evidence that such texting occured in the NIU situation, nor can I personally see how it would have mitigated the results.

Solution 1:
would be incredibly expensive and would hinder the academic learning environment, drastically slowing things, it would guarantee monitoring at all campus buildings (or perhaps be limited to only dorms or classrooms, etc.)

Solution 2:
would be of minimal cost (perhaps verifying licenses of individuals and monitoring for mental health/criminal activity on those individuals) and would not impact the learning environment, this would not ensure a concealed weapon carrier would be present in each classroom, but would allow individuals who chose to protect themselves and others to do so

Off the top of my head - I cannot think of any other viable solutions. I would love to hear from you all about this, if you have additional solutions or if you can think of improvements to the cost/benefit analysis of each plan outline I presented. There may be other assumptions that I made but did not specifically state or that should be added.

Other facts:

gunman: Steven Kazmierczak, shot himself before police arrived
students in classroom at the time: approx 150
guns: 3 handguns, 1 shotgun (shotgun was smuggled into class in a guitar case, handguns under a coat)
shots fired: police found 48 shell casings, 6 shotgun shells (so 54 shots fired in 2 minutes)
victims: 6 dead (including Kazmierczak), 22 shot (I think includes dead)
note: If these numbers are accurate, 22 hits of 56 rounds fired would be a hit percentage of 40% (assumes only one hit per victim) - which would be a very high percentage in my opinion. [VaTech Shootings was approx 174 rounds and 47 victims (27%), Columbine Shooting approx 188 rounds and 36 victims (19%)]
other: Kazmierczak was supposedly on some sort of medications, which he had reportedly stopped taking recently

LINKS:
Chief Grady video press conference
Chicago Tribune Story with timeline
Wikipedia NIU Shooting entry

New photos have been updated!

On a side note: I think I’m officially going to end the “Peace of Soul” discussion. Although I enjoy talking about it, I just don’t have enough time each and every day to do so. I’m about 100 pages further than my last post — and to be honest — I just don’t feel like trying to play catch up! When I finish the book I’ll probably give an overall review and discussion. But this “chapter by chapter” breakdown, sadly, just isn’t going to make the cut. Haha.

Jayson Shankle and I travelled to San Antonio for this year’s 2007 Big XII Championship. More photos and blogs about our trip to come soon!

There’s only one Davy Crockett

Suffice to say, OU looked incredible. Look out Mountaineers!

In other days men were anxious about their souls, but modern anxiety is principally concerned with the body.

How true is this quote? I’m sure there are a thousand beautiful quotes you could probably recite about the body from Pope John Paul II’s Theology of the Body here. Unfortunately, I’m not familiar enough with this piece of work as I should be. (Hopefully someone will come forward with some great JPII quotes!)

Suffice to say, God created our bodies and declared it “good” (Gen 1:31). Therefore, the desire to be concerned with your body and the eagerness to take care of it is not necessarily a bad thing. Although just watching an hour’s worth of television commercials or reading a few pages of magazine advertisements will certainly tell you where America’s main preoccupation lies. Certainly, it’s not preoccupied with the soul, that much we can be sure of. Taking care of one’s body is commendable, but one must not forget to take care of his soul as well.

Speaking of man’s errant preoccupation with the body and material possessions, Archbishop Sheen remarks:

Standing midway between the animal and the angel, living in a finite world and aspiring toward the infinite, moving in time and seeking the eternal, he [man] is pulled at one moment toward the pleasures of the body and at another moment to the joys of the spirit (p. 15).

Every man in the world has an anxiety complex because he has the capacity to be either saint of sinner (p. 16).

Man can either mount upward to the peak of eternity or else slip backward to the chasms of despair and frustration (p. 18).

Archbishop Sheen then goes on to state how when man rejects or ignores God, he often tries to fulfill this void with material possessions:

Avarice [the insatiable greed for riches] is the material expression of one’s own insufficiency and a challenge to the sublime truth that “our sufficiency is from God”. […] All intense interest in luxury is a mark of inner poverty. The less grace there is in the soul, the more ornament must be on the body (p. 21).

Quick, someone go relay this message to Hollywood!

Finally, Archbishop Sheen offers three ways in which man can curb this anxiety: (1) by controlling desires; (2) by transferring anxiety from body to soul; and (3) by surrender to the Will of God (p. 23).

On Controlling Desires:
One of the greatest deceptions of today is the belief that leisure and money are the two essentials of happiness (p. 23).

If we desire possessions, we never have enough of them. We become frustrated (p. 24).

Uncontrolled desires grow like weeds and stifle the spirit (p. 25).

On Transferring Anxiety from Body to Soul:
Archbishop Sheen reminds us that of all the temporal things on this earth that we tend to foolishly worry about (what we look like, what other people think about us, if we have enough money or not, etc), in the end, the only thing that matters is the soul. Jesus tells us not to worry or to be anxious about these things, but as Archbishop Sheen says:

He did tell us that we should be very anxious about one thing and one thing only — our souls (p. 25).

He then goes on to quote Matt. 16:24-28, which reads:

16:23.
… thou savourest not the things that are of God, but the things that are of men.

[…]

16:26.
For what doth it profit a man, if he gain the whole world and suffer the loss of his own soul?

Lastly, Archbishop sheen offers a third bit of advice:

On Surrender to the Will of God:
Love is reciprocal; it is received in proportion as it is given (p. 26).

Relief from all wrong anxiety comes, not from giving ourselves to God by halves, but by an all-encompassing love, wherein we go back, not to the past in fear or to the future in anxiety, but lie quietly in His Hand, having no will but His (p. 27).

You know, this is probably a sacrilegious analogy, but it reminds of of the final test Indiana Jones has to endure in “The Last Crusade” — the ominous “Leap of Faith”. As you recall, standing on the edge of a cliff, Indy is separated from where he needs to be by a giant canyon. He then realizes that this test is the “Leap of Faith”. He nervously puts one foot out in the air — hovering over the canyon below — seemingly about to fall to his death. With faith, he steps out into the air, and alas, Indy thought correctly, had faith, crosses over an invisible bridge to reach the Holy Grail and the movie ends ‘happily ever after’. At times, I wonder if I were to be faced with the same challenge, if I could take that faithful step to the other side, or if I would cling to the edge of the rock, looking down to the abyss below.

Archbishop Sheen then concludes his chapter by the infamous prayer of another great bishop in history, St. Augustine:

“Our hearts are restless, O Lord, until they rest in thee”.
- St. Augustine of Hippo, Confessions, Book I, Chapter I

You know, this “simple book discussion” has turned out to be a lot tougher than I thought it would be! After reading the superior words of Archbishop Sheen, then looking at what I have written down afterwards, I’m afraid my level of penmanship just isn’t quite up to par. But, nevertheless, here we go…

“There is nothing really new in the world; there are only the old problems happening to new people.” (Page 6)

Ironically, I was just speaking with someone about this very thing not even a few weeks ago. I think this is one reason why you can hear people say they’ve read a passage from the Bible and it “spoke out to them as if it knew exactly what they were going through”. It’s because although the times and technology have changed — the human condition and our human emotions have not. Thus, in addition to the Bible, when you read the works of Homer, Plato, Socrates, Shakespeare and other great writers, many times what they speak of is just as relevant in our own day and time as it was hundreds or thousands of years ago in theirs.

As for Archbishop Sheen, he starts his book by examining the current frustrations of the modern man. He states:

The modern man is characterized by three alienations: he is divided from himself, from his fellow man, and from his God (Page 7).

He then proceeds to break each of these three alienations down:

On Self-Estrangement:
The modern man is no longer a unity, but a confused bundle of complexes and nerves… likened to a radio that is tuned in to several stations; instead of getting any one clearly, it receives only an annoying static… There is no fixed ideal, no great passion, but only a cold indifference to the rest of the world (Pages 7-8).

The Archbishop states that modern man is often searching for his purpose in life. To be honest, I think I have fallen deep into this category. At times, I admit, I often think of what my purpose in life is. In regards to my career, school, church, family life, friends, you name it, I have a million questions racing through my head. Should I do this… Should I do that… Although instead of taking a plan of action and doing something proactive, sometimes I have chosen to do nothing; becoming quite indifferent to the world around me. (In particular, sitting on the couch watching ‘Rock of Love’ instead).

Every once in a while, when a problem or a particular situation presents itself at my doorstep, I will try to hide and hope that it will go away. For an analogy, it’s kind of like Halloween. After awhile (usually when it’s getting late and I’m about out of candy), I’ll shut the door, turn off the porch lights and hide somewhere in the comfort of my home. Hoping that the kids, that I can still hear running around outside, will think I’m not home and pass by my house. This “indifference”, of course, is quite troubling to me, as I know that apathy is one of the seven deadly sins.

On Estrangement from Fellow Men:
The modern soul which cannot live with itself cannot live with its fellow men. A man who is not at peace with himself will not be at peace with his brother… unhappy souls almost always blame everyone but themselves for their miseries (Pages 8-9).

I think this kind of falls under the category of “whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me” (Matt. 25:40). Also the verse, “For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you” (Matt. 7:2) comes to mind.

Then lastly,

On Estrangement from God:
Once the hub of the wheel, which is God, is lost, the spokes, which are men, fall apart… no man hates God without first hating himself (Pages 9-10).

This defiant attitude of rebellion — the refusal to serve God — reminds me of Prometheus’ reply to Hermes, in Aeschylus’ play, “Prometheus Bound“. Being chained to a rock where an eagle eats out his liver (which magically grows back) every single day, Promethus responded:

Be sure of this, I would not change my state
Of evil fortune for your servitude.
Better to be the servant of this rock
Than to be faithful boy to Father Zeus.

… I hate all the gods.

About a year ago, a friend lent me a thought-provoking book to read called, The Gods of Atheism by Fr. Vincent P. Miceli, SJ. Like Archbishop Sheen, in his book, Fr. Miceli also spoke of man’s estrangement from God. He stated:

“Atheism is not a blind, innate, untaught, instinctive posture for intelligent creatures. Rather it is a conscious, voluntary, even premeditated development in man. […] A man becomes an atheist because he wants to be an atheist; he wills to be an atheist.” [p.9]

“[The Atheist] vows to enthrone man at the summit as his own God. […] Indeed, his denial of God is his choice of a crusade against God.” [p.17]

“When man becomes his own absolute center, then God becomes his hell, because God sets limits to man’s greatness. But once having attained autoerotic sovereignty, a monstrous metamorphosis takes place in atheist man. He begins to feed on his own fellow men, for they now are his hell, threatening to rob him of his freedom. When God is rejected because he is seen as man’s hell, then man, whom God loves, suffers the same fate and for the same reason. There is a frightening resemblance between the atheist humanist as a cell of society and a malignantly cancerous cell in the human body. Both cells have thrown off any service of subordination to the healthy of the communities in which they thrive.” [p.463-464]

Pretty interesting stuff.

Unfortunately, I’ve recently discovered that I am a “television zombie”. Probably like most Americans, I come home from work, eat dinner, then I proceed to sit mindlessly in front of the television until I go to bed. Don’t ask me why, but somehow in addition to my regular menu of shows, I somehow managed to watch every single episode of Rock of Love with Bret Michaels. Then as that show ended, I automatically moved on to I Love New York 2 and A Shot at Love with Tila Tequila.

Now, admittedly, these reality shows are absolutely vile and stand against practically every single moral virtue I have. So I have no idea why I watch them. In fact, I’m practically disgusted with myself for doing so. Perhaps it’s the “shock factor”. As I’m flipping through the channels, I stop on these reality shows in awe and think, “Are you serious? Do people really act this way?”

Nevertheless, I soon as I turn them on, I find that a substantial amount of time has passed and I’ve essentially wasted an entire evening sitting in front of the TV like a zombie, not having moved a single inch from the couch in hours. This is not even to mention all the other host of frivolous shows I always find myself captivated by, such as Cops, Cheaters, Room Raiders, Man vs Wild, Survivorman, How Its Made, Mythbusters, etc. The list could go on and on.

Point Being: I’m wasting valuable time. None of these shows are enriching my life. Rather, I am (quite literally) wasting away while doing so. When you sit back and think how your time on this earth is limited — and think about how you could spend each of those precious hours — I’m sick to think about how many countless hours I’ve sat being unproductive on the couch.

Of course, I’d like to think I’d spend all my free time praying, volunteering at soup kitchens, reading the Bible or devoting myself to the enhancement of mankind… but I know that’s not practical. I’m no saint. But I thought I could at least start taking some “baby steps” that might lead me in that direction. Sure, I’m going to continue watching television, as I don’t think I have the fortitude to cut it out completely. And to be honest, I really do enjoy vegging out on the couch after a long day at work. Although some changes must be made.

My goal is to limit my watching and try to spend some time each day in an attempt to educate or enlighen myself in some manner.

The Plan: So I thought I’d start with reading a good book. I recently purchased “Peace of Soul” by the late, great Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen. My plan is to read a chapter each night and then hopefully give a daily, brief review / synopsis on my website. I figure that would at least be more productive than trying to figure out why Scott Baio is “45 and still single”.