Friday, September 30, 2005
What’s in a name anyway?
My wedding day will be a sad day. In fact, I have no doubt that I will cry a lot. Of course, mingled in with the others, will be tears of inexplicable joy. However, some of those tears will be shed at the thought of all that will cease to be. More specifically, I will be saddened by the prospect of ceasing to be an “Etya’ale”. Essentially, losing the name will be highly symbolic of the severing of family ties. Yet, that is only one of the regrettable consequences of my marriage. For, more than just a hard last name to pronounce, Etya’ale is a name infused with deep meaning. According to the Bulu tribe, an ethnic group in my native Cameroon, a name either describes the state of mind of the parents at the birth of a child or could equally reflect their deepest wish for the child’s life. Thus, when my grandmother named my father “Etya’ale”, she envisioned a life of service for him. In Bulu it literally means a “stepping board”, something that helps others spring up to a more fulfilled life. The implication is a life of humility and servant hood; in many ways my father exemplifies his name.
Catching Wisdom
The quote from Calvin Seerveld: “You cannot teach wisdom, I believe, but wisdom is contagious; you can catch it.” It means that at college you cannot take a class in Wisdom 101W, but if you take enough classes then you will learn wisdom because of being around smart people and experiences. We should be able to “catch” wisdom from all areas in our lives. We can learn it from going to classes, going to church, and reading the Bible. Something that you may or may not have realized is that you cannot catch a cold sitting by a fire alone by yourself. To catch a cold you have to first go out into the cold or catch it from another person.
My Great Summer
Summer was a wonderful experience for me this year. There are so many things I am going to miss about summer that it will be difficult to explain them all, but I’ll try. First of all summer was great if not simply because of the heat it brought with it. I cannot recall how many nights I laid awake thankful for the warm nights in my sweat-drenched bed, or even the days I arrived at school at 8:00 AM and had completely sweated through my shorts and t-shirt. I don’t think the sweltering Serengeti like experience was the best part of summer though.
Working out during the summer was a lot of fun mostly because of the gym hours. Some how they managed to make it open in two hour intervals that seemed to meet everyone’s schedule. I mean from 6:00-8:00 in the morning, 11:00 – 1:00 in the afternoon, and 2:30-8:00 at night. I lifted a lot this summer and became really strong because the hours worked out quite well with my 2nd shift job. Someone really should go thank the genius who set up those hours for me and the rest of the Calvin community.
Fortunately for me, I had a job this summer that could take my mind off of the heat and the weight room hours. Working at a mentally stimulating facility like the Calvin FAC maintenance crew helped expand my horizons and challenged me on a daily basis. The first few weeks of working, I received the honor of bathroom duty with Phil. Phil was an incredibly hard worker, but people always seem to call him on his cell phone so he never seemed to get much done. Luckily for him, I was there to do his job when he received these unexpected phone calls so no work time was lost. Later on I moved on to the extremely challenging position of vacuum duty. Vacuuming allowed me time to contemplate many of the hard questions of life like “Is there really a God? Who vacuums for him? Is it really worth $6.00 an hour?”. All-in-all I’d say that summer was great and I’ll miss it everyday!
Looking forward to winter
I have never particularly experienced a ‘real’ winter. What I mean by a ‘real’ winter, is one where the temperature is below 0 degrees Celsius for the most part, and where there is snow and ice for extended periods of time. Now that I’m at Calvin, I will finally be able to experience it for the first time.
Oh Those Summer Nights…
I think many of us take summer for granted. Too often we, in the Midwest, are complaining about the weather and how it can always be just a bit better. During the winter there is always the cold, dry air plus the terrible blizzards and snow storms. Everything is either hibernating or dead; very little life can be seen. On the other hand, during the beautiful months of the summer one can see fully bloomed floors, skittering mammals, and outstretched trees. The warm weather is inviting and sometimes emphasizes the wonder of a nice summer breeze. People are just much healthier during the summer. The sun can bring a person much need nutrients that help us to maintain good health. Winter, on the other hand, is dry and cold and most of the time it is dark, due to cloud-cover. No wonder many animals go into hibernation during the winter. So the next time you start to complain about how hot it is try to remember that it could be worse. Oh, how I’m going to miss summer.
Our calling
Schultze says in his passage that as Christians we are to “echo God’s reality”. This phrase has two very important aspects that one needs to understand in order to fulfill this calling. One aspect is our call to “echo”. This word can be described as repeating something, or in a deeper sense taking a sound and duplicating it over and over. As children of God we are called to be His echo. This means we need to do our best to replicate His words and His teachings. We need His words and love and power to be able to make any sound because an echo without a source is silence. As an echo though, our message can dim. We need to come back to the source in order to be refilled and let our echo overflow with the word of God. The second part of the quote understands God’s “reality”. We need to truly understand His message to be able to echo the correct one. We need to be deep in His word and in prayer and feel a genuine connection between the divinity of the universe and ourselves. Schultze says “God hold us accountable for how we communicate, for what we communicate, and for how our communication affects others” (Schultze 16). God wants us to communicate His message effectively in action and in deed.
Journal #7
The Article that I read for this journal was “Iraq and the Polls,” by David Brooks. I entirely agree with everything that Brooks says. His main point is that people just want the struggles that we are having in Iraq to end, but haven’t considered the consequences of defeat. I don’t think that the 60% of the Americans that feel this way believe this because they haven’t been given an accurate assessment of what our situation is. It is impossible to know without having experienced it first hand. The media in our country controls what we see, and present it from any angle that they choose. It is most often shown from a liberal viewpoint in opposition of the war. With this perspective, the news mainly focuses on the negatives of the war and rarely the positives. With this negative stance, the most obvious decision would be to withdraw from the war, even without considering the cost. With our removal from Iraq, America’s image would be shattered and we would leave the country in the same state that it was when we entered.
Letters Began As Pictures
An understanding has to derive from something and in this case it was pictures.
In this article written by Bierma and Sacks they express how they feel pictures gave us the better understanding of a language. Where did these come from? Who created them? Cavemen years ago sketched them onto walls and every culture did this differently, but everyone had a system. There are pictures for every letter of the alphabet, but here are a few and the pictures they represented.
Casey Martin and the PGA Tour
This statement is totally out of context and does not make much sense. First of all, Casey Martin can play golf. It is not like he is some 40 year old dad, who can’t drive the ball 100 yards. He has the ability to play on the PGA Tour. He can play golf better than you or I can. He does have a physical ailment, but he can still play. If you have a learning disability, and this keeps you from teaching well, then you probably will not get a job teaching at a university. Yet if you can teach, but you have a learning disability, then you have good chance of getting a job. If you are a good teacher, being mentally disabled should not decide whether you teach or not. Secondly, the PGA tour has been very inconsistent in “keeping their tradition.” In Reilly’s article, he says, “Then why are carts allowed during the Tour Qualifying stages? And on the Senior tour? Arnie himself, the one who testified against Martin in a deposition two weeks ago, rode one on the Senior tour last year. Please.” I like the “please” at the end of the point. This is an example of a Tour that is being very cold hearted, and very hypocritical. If Arnold Palmer can rid in a cart in events, then Casey Martin should also be able to. Is it because Arnie is a classic player and one of the best in his day? Maybe it is because he is old. Whatever their reason, it is breaking the “tradition” they want to keep by telling Martin he can’t ride in a cart. For this student to say that sometimes you just have to accept that you can’t do some things is totally absurd. Casey Martin can play golf; there is not doubt about that. Most fans would not even care if he rode in a cart. There are there to watch people play golf. They don’t pay attention to how they walk to their next shot, or how they get there. They just want to see professionals play golf. Casey is a very capable player, he just has trouble getting from shot to shot.
“The Ranch”
This summer I worked out in Colorado. I was a day camp counselor at the YMCA of the Rockies, Snow Mountain Ranch, in Winter Park. Calvin has a good relationship with the YMCA and has had a program out there for 5 years now. They bring about 30 students out there every summer for the Leadership Challenge Institute. Snow Mountain Ranch is world renowned and even has many international students working there.
A Newfound Glory
Glory is not a word that I often use. When I hear it, I immediately associate it with church. Its dictionary definition is “praise and distinction by common consent.” Debbie Blue, the author of Glory Doesn’t Shine, It Bleeds, associates the word glory with other jealous gods. Gods like Zeus and Aphrodite, who demand constant attention and admiration. But, our God also demands constant admiration. After all, weren’t we created to worship him? And several times throughout the Bible, God is described as a “jealous God”. He even refers to himself as being desirous. In Exodus 20:5, He says “for I the Lord your God am a jealous God”. It doesn’t get much clearer than that.
Mark Twain-Kim
“My First Literary Venture” by Mark Twain was a very intriguing essay. Twain starts his essay by explaining how he wanted to become a writer for a newspaper. To Twain’s surprise he was able to work a week for his uncle. His uncle owned the Weekly Hannibal Journal and had appointed Twain as the editor while he was absent. Eager to write something in the paper, Twain stumbles on a piece of information about the head editor of the Journal’s rival, Higgins. The information turned out to be an attempted suicide by Higgins who planned to drown himself into the Bear Creek. As it turned out, Higgins got cold feet and was found walking back to land. Twain saw this as a prime opportunity to write something that would be interesting. He decided to write a detailed account of the incident and even added a picture. Also, he threw in a few laughs about numerous people in the town. As a result, the Hannibal Journal became a hit with the citizens of the town and many people signed up to receive the weekly paper. When Twain’s uncle returned within a week, he was shocked that Twain would do such a thing but thrilled to see that the paper was selling so many copies.
Local GR sports
This Chimes article explains the current state of minor league sports teams in Grand Rapids, Michigan. It tells how the Griffins, Rampage, and Whitecaps are doing in their seasons, or were doing in their seasons (article was written 2/20). The author tells that the only team in Grand Rapids sports that is doing above average is the Griffins. The others, Rampage and Whitecaps, are both going flat after having great seasons in the near past. Also a minor league soccer team, the Edge, still exist despite low numbers. The history of minor league sports in this city is also discussed. It shows that while some teams have lasted a long time, others have not been so fortunate. The Hoops, a minor league basketball team, lasted fourteen seasons before collapsing because of low interest and even lower sponsorship. A pro volleyball team, the Grand Rapids Force, lasted only two seasons before ending. Overall this article gives a background of minor league sports in Grand Rapids and their current condition.
Two Vivid Phrases from Debbie Blue’s Sermon “Glory Doesn’t Shine…”
The first vivid phrase that I chose from Debbie Blue’s sermon “Glory Doesn’t Shine……” was found at the end of paragraph 5 and said, “Could a God like that possibly help us, care for us, love us? A God obsessed with being worshiped, obsessed with glory, his beauty, his muscles, his hair?” The answer is simply “yes.” He is the God of the heavens and of the earth. He is ruler over everything seen and unseen because He is the only and ultimate creator of absolutely all of it. He made us in his very own image and likeness so of course he’s going to help us, care for us, and love us! If he had no intentions of doing so, why on EARTH would he bother making something that didn’t matter to him? It would be a waste of time. Also, the Lord is obsessed with being worshiped and glorified because we OWE it to him! We would not be here if it wasn’t for him and his goodness to us so of course we need to direct our praise right back at him in thanksgiving for giving us life in him.
Thursday, September 29, 2005
Mark Twain the Writer
Life is full of firsts, a first step, a first car, and a first kiss. In Mark Twain’s essay “My First Literary Adventure” Twain humorously describes his supposed first experience with publishing a major piece of work. In his story Twain claims that at the age of thirteen he worked for his uncle who printed a newspaper in Hannibal Missouri. In the story Twain states that while his uncle was away he was once left in charge of publishing the newspaper and that in doing so he insulted several people. When the people who he had insulted came after Twain he tells us that they were unable to do anything on account of him being only a young child. He goes on to say that when his uncle discovered the trouble that Twain had caused his uncle was angry. The uncle’s anger did not last, however, when he found out that Twain had booked thirty-three new subscribers and had already had their subscription paid in the vegetables, which was the accepted form of payment. Based on his writing Mark Twain appears to be a humorous person who enjoys making people laugh at the ridiculous. A person can almost visualize Twain as an older man, perhaps smoking a pipe, reminiscing about his childhood and quietly laughing at his own stupidity. The overall impression Twain leaves is of someone that I would like to meet. If I were to meet Twain I would want to sit and listen to him tell funny stories of his days working on a riverboat. I would also love to hear Twain speak of his travels throughout Europe and the Holy Land and perhaps attend one of the many sessions that he performed while on his numerous speaking tours. Mark Twain is a marvelous and entertaining writer and a person I would have loved to meet.