On my last post I received a question about Bill Watterson, so here is some more of his background:

. . . when Watterson was coming up with names for the characters of his comic strip, he decided upon Calvin (after the Protestant reformer John Calvin) and Hobbes (after the social philosopher Thomas Hobbes) as a “a tip of the hat to the political science department at Kenyon College.” . . .

There is an ongoing argument on whether Watterson is a Christian or not. Over the 10 year period, many of his comics certainly echoed several of the philosophical debates that are present in Christianity. Certainly at Kenyon College he would have been exposed to more than one version of Christianity, since Kenyon began as an Episcopal College–and is still listed as such–but also has an extremely strong evangelical campus ministry in a college that only has a couple of thousand students in an isolated location. As you can tell from my last post, I come down on the “Christian” interpretation of Watterson, but I could be completely wrong. Nevertheless, his periodically posed questions in the strip certainly became useful for many a discussion among Christians during that era.

Yesterday, I pointed out that Watterson made a strong point about television and what was then its growing status in USA culture. The strip I have posted today, raises one of the important philosophical questions in Calvinism. Watterson was very good at being able to go from the very practical to the very philosophical.

And so, Calvin–who else?–asks about fate, which Hobbes turns into the word “predestination,” a nice turn of phrase on Watterson’s part, since the original Hobbes was a philosopher who had a “mechanistic” view of human beings and rejected “incorporeal entities.” He answers the question on predestination by having Hobbes say how terrifying a view it would be if predestination were real. You see, one of the great arguments against the Calvinists is precisely the issue of culpability. If everything is governed under the one decree–and you have to be a good scholar to know what Calvinists mean when they use that term–then not only is there the danger that free will is lost but also that God could be declared to be evil. It is an argument with which both Saint Paul and Saint James struggle.

Watterson reduces the whole argument to one simple question and Hobbe’s answer. And, his answer is that, yes, it would be a frightening world if all that happens to us is decreed before the foundation of the world, if all our choices are not choices, but that we nevertheless suffer the consequences of choices that we did not truly make. He does that simply by picturing Calvin and Hobbes in a wagon flying in the air, in the moments before it hits the ground and those who are in it are injured. If Calvin’s choice was fate, then it is indeed terrifying that when the wagon lands, they will both suffer pain as a result of a decreed choice.

And, so does Watterson take centuries of arguments–since the Reformation–and reduce one of the essential points to just one comic strip. In passing, the Orthodox would say that there is predestination but that it is based on foreknowledge, not simply on a decree which predates the choice to serve Our Lord. In extremely technical terms, the Orthodox would not be supralapsarians in the Ordo Salutis.

In much less technical terms, it means that we believe that God’s choice was based on his knowledge of who would accept His Son.

podcast

I miss Calvin and Hobbes. It was one of those rare comics published by a Christian that was neither preachy nor boring. In fact, it was so cutting edge that many secular comic artists complimented Bill Watterson for his comic. He only wrote for about 10 years, then he gave it up and has disappeared from the comic scene.

Calvin was a little monster in many ways, but also had an imagination that could soar. Hobbes was always the thoughtful straight man (tiger) to Calvin’s warped thinking or flights of fancy. It was always Hobbes that asked the difficult questions, the questions that made one think. Mind you, not all the episodes of Calvin and Hobbes were trying to communicate a lesson. That  showed how astute Waterman was. Had he tried to make every episode a lesson, he would quickly have lost readers.

In the comic above, he directly tackles what was the increasing problem of television. The cable networks, and the spread of cable, were fairly new in the 1980’s, and we had just begun to see what having that many channels available 24 hours a day could do to humans. Particularly children were enticed by the all-day cartoon channels or the all day children’s programming channels. It took a few more years for adults to become as caught up in televisions as the children became.

But notice what Watterson did. Rather than taking a simplistic approach to the issue, he begins immediately by citing a controversial philosopher, Karl Marx, on a quote that would be guaranteed to get a rise out of almost any Christian. In other words, he takes a baseball bat and whacks you over the head. The second panel then points to a television set chortling about how silly Marx was to think that it was religion that would be the opiate of the people.

Now, think it through carefully. By the time Watterson writes, religion no longer has the influence in the First World countries that it did in the 19th century. Instead, we have seen the rise of both the consumer society and cable television. The constant message of television is that if only you will buy this product–only $19.95, but wait, if you act now . . .–your life will be immeasurably better. Whether it is couched in the commercials of children’s programming, or the product placement found in so many series, the drumbeat of the message goes on.

All too often, one’s senses get dulled, and one thinks that simply because one has watched news programs and “wept” with victims on Oprah, that one has been involved in the world. But, that is a spectator’s involvement, an involvement that titillates our senses with the false idea that we care. But, we do not care. In actuality, we often ignore the neighbor next door while weeping over the person whom we will never meet. You see, television is an opiate, in the full sense of the world. It is addicting. Many people spend too many hours in front of one. But, like an opiate drug, it dulls our senses to those who are outside that television box. It dulls our senses to our neighbors and to a needy world, so that we do not act towards them as we should.

Does this mean that we need to unplug our television? No! As with most things, there is an extreme over-reaction to a problem that would have people destroy their televisions. But, it does mean that we need to take Watterson’s warning seriously. We need to consciously make sure that we care for real people every bit as much, and even more, than we care for either fictional people or for people whom we see on television and whom we will never meet. Ultimately, when we go before the Lord he will not say, “I was hungry and you empathized with me as you watched my hunger on television.” Neither will he say, “I was in prison and you watched an investigative news report on conditions in the penitential facilities of this country.”

The reward will be to those who actually did what the Lord asked of them, “To do justice, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.”

I have tickled kids and rolled on the floor. I have visited with two daughters and a new son-in-law. I have been overfed, coddled, and kissed. I think I would call this a quite successful weekend!

Joe Sullivan was sent away for life for raping an elderly woman and judged incorrigible though he was only 13 at the time of the attack.

Terrance Graham, implicated in armed robberies when he was 16 and 17, was given a life sentence by a judge who told the teenager he threw his life away.

They didn’t kill anyone, but they effectively were sentenced to die in prison.

Life sentences with no chance of parole are rare and harsh for juveniles tried as adults and convicted of crimes less serious than killing. Just over 100 prison inmates in the United States are serving those terms, according to data compiled by opponents of the sentences. . . .

Graham, now 22, and Sullivan, now 33, are in Florida prisons, which hold more than 70 percent of juvenile defendants locked up for life for nonhomicide crimes. . . .

Only 9 people in the country are serving life sentences for crimes committed when they were 13. The number rises to 73 when 14-year-olds are added in.

No other country allows life sentences for young offenders . . .

Actor Charles Dutton, former U.S. Sen. Alan Simpson and others who committed crimes as teenagers have weighed in against life without parole sentences. Corrections officials, psychologists, educators and even some victims also have taken Graham’s and Sullivan’s side. . . .

The Wyoming Republican served 18 years in the Senate, but as a teenager, he pleaded guilty to setting fire to an abandoned building on federal property and later spent a night in jail for slugging a police officer.

Here is an issue that has drawn many Republicans and Democrats together in support of prohibiting life sentences for minors. Please note that 70% of all juveniles with a life prison sentence come from just one state, Florida. Frankly, when even Fox News publishes an article mildly supportive of change, you have an issue that would appear to be a slam dunk. And yet, there are still groups whose only thought is punishment, harsh and permanent. Please note that the juveniles cited above did not kill anyone.

Here is an issue that puts us alone–sentencing a juvenile non-murderer to life without parole–among the countries on earth, and yet the claim of altogether too many is that it does not matter what anyone else says. It is a claim that says that only the United States is right and everyone else is wrong. That is a very dangerous claim. But, it is a claim that is found over many other issues, for there is more than one issue in which the United States stands almost alone.

And, I guess that is one of my worries. There are sufficient people whose attitude is punishment, harsh and permanent, regardless of age, that despite the support for change from both several Republicans and Democrats and the international community, the change may not yet come. In passing, the youngest person ever sentenced to life was in Florida and he was 11 years old at the time of the crime. The sentence was not carried out because finally the public outcry was so great. The Florida Supreme Court conveniently overturned the sentence on a technicality and, on re-sentencing, the sentence was vastly reduced.

Many a good hanging prevents a bad marriage.

From Will Rogers:

Live in such a way that you would not be ashamed to sell your parrot to the town gossip.

From Jack Benny:

My wife Mary and I have been married for forty-seven years and not once have we had an argument serious enough to consider divorce; murder, yes, but divorce, never.

From Henny Youngman:

I take my wife everywhere, but she keeps finding her way back.

From the wives:

The only one of your children who does not grow up and move away is your husband.

When a woman steals your husband, there is no better revenge than to let her keep him.

A lady inserted an ad in the classifieds: “Husband Wanted”. Next day, she received a hundred letters. They all said the same thing: “You can have mine!”

I thought this a good day to put these jokes in, particularly because I am surrounded by family and not in the midst of any argument in particular.

There are many keys to a successful marriage. Of course, God is certainly the primary one. A primary devotion to God by both husband and wife is key to a successful marriage. But, note the quotes above. A couple of them are by humorists who were married for many years. So, why do they make the jokes they do?

Well, they have realized two of the keys to a successful marriage. One of them is the honesty to admit that every couple argues periodically. Even deeper is the admission that every couple argues vehemently periodically. Even C.S. Lewis, in his book The Horse and His Boy comments at the end how Sasha and Corin got married so as to be able to argue more conveniently. Such is the ubiquity of arguing in marriage. It is the couple who is unable to admit their arguments that is more likely to end up in marriage problems. Such a false facade cannot be kept up believably.

The second key is a sense of humor. The ability to laugh at oneself, the ability to laugh at each others’ mistakes, the ability to eventually see the humor in a situation is another key to a successful marriage. The humorists above, and other humorists I have heard, often tend to have longer marriages than the average couple in the USA, yet they are constantly and publicly making jokes about their spouse’s behavior and their own behavior. In many marriages that type of joking would not be well seen. But, where both spouses are able to learn that sense of humor, the result is a marriage that can persevere through many trials.

So, be honest about yourself, and learn to laugh at yourself for your mistakes, stupidities, and silly habits. Your marriage will last longer.

Yes, I have been told that when the time comes, one can trust that the Holy Spirit will be present and will help one through the  circumstance. But, sometimes that is told to me in a way that almost seems to take away some of the due praise from those who risk their lives to save others. After all, in every tragedy there were those who did care for their lives and make the entirely legitimate choice to save themselves. Let me emphasize again that heroes are those who go beyond what is expected of them. There is nothing wrong in someone not choosing to be a hero, in someone choosing to do what is expected and to have due care for themselves.

I think I have decided that heroes are a mystery. They can only be understood by other heroes. We can only look at them and hope that if such a time of testing comes upon us that we would also be heroes. The story below is about two women who have just become heroes.

FORT HOOD, Texas – The top commander at Fort Hood is crediting a civilian police officer for stopping the shooting rampage that killed 13 people at the Texas post. Lt. Gen. Bob Cone also hailed a young Army nutritionist who helped wounded victims.

Both women heroically intervened despite being shot.

Cone said Friday that Fort Hood police Sgt. Kimberly Munley and her partner responded within three minutes of reported gunfire Thursday afternoon. Cone said Munley shot the gunman four times despite being shot herself.

Officials said Munley was in stable condition.

Cone said, “It was an amazing and an aggressive performance by this police officer.” …

Cone also hailed Amber Bahr, 19, as an “amazing young lady.”

The commander told NBC’s TODAY show that the nutritionist put a tourniquet on a wounded soldier and carried him out to medical care. And only after she had taken care of others did she realize she had been shot, he said.

On Thursday, her mother, Lisa Pfund, told the Sheboygan Press that she spoke briefly to Bahr after she was taken to a community hospital.

“I actually got to talk to Amber and I talked to her for about 30 seconds and she was in a lot of pain,” Pfund said. “She couldn’t tell me nothing, either.”

Please note that the nutritionist is only 19 years old. So young to be a hero.

Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you seems to be wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God.

Most often, it had to do with subjects such as trusting God for a miracle when the people “of this world” were saying that this was a foolish thing to believe. It was also often used in the sense of preaching the foolishness of the Cross which does not make sense to the world because the world is blinded. That is, it was not really a foolish message, it only appears to be foolish to those in the world.  These are all reasonable explanations for the verses. But, finally, sadly, there were those who use that saying and a couple of others to try to reject any thought of philosophy, which often means that there is little logical thinking in some of their pronouncements, but that is rare.

What I had never encountered until I came into Orthodoxy was the idea of using becoming a fool as a deliberate strategy to grow in holiness, or to get God’s message across to those who are not listening. Holy Trinity Monastery phrases it this way:

One form of the ascetic Christian life is called foolishness for the sake of Christ. The fool-for-Christ set for himself the task of battling within himself the root of all sin, pride. In order to accomplish this he took on an unusual style of life, appearing as someone bereft of his mental faculties, thus bringing upon himself the ridicule of others. In addition he exposed the evil in the world through metaphorical and symbolic words and actions. He took this ascetic endeavor upon himself in order to humble himself and to also more effectively influence others, since most people respond to the usual ordinary sermon with indifference. The spiritual feat of foolishness for Christ was especially widespread in Russia. –(Excerpted from The Law of God, Holy Trinity Monastery, Jordanville, NY: 1993)

Being a Fool for Christ particularly developed in the Russian Orthodox tradition. But, here is the interesting thing. The Fools for Christ would speak totally and completely freely to Tsar or commoner, without a thought for their social placement or condition. In fact, in a Russia in which insulting the Tsar could carry an immediate death penalty, the Fool for Christ could openly admonish the Tsar and they would not be killed. For instance, Saint Basil the Blessed openly rebuked Ivan the Terrible. “St. Basil gave the Tsar some meat during Great Lent, telling him it did not matter whether or not he refrained from eating meat (fasted), because of the murders he had committed.”

And, so, oddly enough, in the midst of their deliberately behaving like fools in order to strip away every last vestige of pride, in the midst of their deliberately reducing themselves to being of no account in the world, they became–often–the only ones able to speak into some very difficult circumstances. So, in an odd twist of the Holy Spirit, he did often use the “fools” of the Russian world in order to shame the wise and to bring correction to the powerful. And the Scripture was true that he uses the foolish things of the world in order to shame the wise.

The real difference between optimist and pessimist is this: The optimist says, “Everything is going as well as can be expected! This is the best of all possible worlds!” The pessimist says, “I agree.”

Commenting on whether the glass if half full or half empty, another poster said:

I have to add the engineer’s corollary to the glass metaphor: We’re using the wrong glass.

For the truly pessimistic, see the law below:

I prefer Finagle’s Law, “The perversity of the Universe tends towards a maximum.”

Finally, here is one that I think can truly be applied to the current political climate:

My favorite maxim is Hanlon’s Razor: Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity.

So, do you have a favorite sarcastic saying? Please do not name anyone in specific and keep it moderately clean.