Saturday, December 5, 2009

Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Mom is in Print

Yep, it's official. The publication arrived today, with my chapter entitled " Bringing Language to Life in Second-Year Spanish". It describes what I did with a tutorial class at Sauk-- a group of 5 students who asked me to do the second year class with them. They were great students and we just had a ball in class. They took whatever work I gave them and asked for more. They conjugated verbs in eight tenses and did culture projects and watched Destinos while eating chips and salsa. It was amazing. Writing about what I did, and having it published, was the icing on the cake.

It doesn't make any difference in the real world (where I am teaching high school kids who chew gum and throw erasers and are shocked that there might be more than the present tense in Spanish) but it makes for good reading. And remembering.

Hooray!

Friday, September 25, 2009

better late than never... photos of Spain







Hey, it is good to see some Widdershins activity. I have to admit, spinning in a backwards direction pretty well sums up my activity this fall. Coming back from Spain and landing a new job before even unpacking my suitcase has thrown me into quite the whirlwind.



Here are a few pictures. Spain was beautiful, rich in history and culture. The Plaza Mayor is arguably the most beautiful in all of Spain. The aquaduct, in Segovia, was built by the Romans in the first century and still works. And of course, the view of Salamanca across the old Roman bridge with the twin cathedrals in the background is classic Spain.

Thursday, September 17, 2009

Jag kommer från Sverige?



Sweden is amazing. The picture is from a weekend trip to Stockholm we took a week or so ago. Today I booked a week long trip to Lapland in December! My highlight will be running a dog sled team to see the Northern Lights :) I also have cheap Ryanair trips to Holland & Germany booked for this fall!

Everything is so laid back here, as far as class goes. It's shaping to be a pretty good semester.

Sunday, September 13, 2009

Little Grand Canyon


With a name like that for a park in Illinois I wasn't quite sure what to expect (I was thinking maybe "canyon" would translate to a path between some rock slabs no longer than my kitchen). But I was pleasantly surprised. It was more like a tiny valley between some decent sized hills (for Illinois), but it was really pretty at the bottom. There wasn't much water flowing and you could walk right down the rocks. Unfortunately they were just slippery enough from the rain we had the day before that Caedmon fell down a bunch of times and we never really made it through the end of the "canyon." But in conclusion, though misnomered, it's actually a nice little park.

Monday, August 31, 2009

Catholicism, Americanism, and the Kennedys.

The history of Catholicism in America is, to say the least, a tumultuous one. The first colonists of what would eventually become the United States were the Puritans, religious refugees from England who had been driven out for attacking the Anglican church as overly Catholic in its liturgy and sacraments. Later, widespread immigration to the US from Catholic countries like Ireland, Italy, Poland, and Germany was met with harsh opposition by the Know-Nothing movement. When JFK first ran for President in 1960, he faced widespread fears that he would make the United States a vassal nation of the Vatican. He effectively responded to those fears with the phrase "I do not speak for the Church, and the Church does not speak for me."

In doing so, he bought full admission into the American experiment for the unsure Catholic citizen. For that reason, he and his family are still immensely revered by American Catholics. At Ted Kennedy's funeral, President Obama delivered the eulogy in The Basilica of Our Lady of Perpetual Help. It was not so very long ago that for an American president to appear in a Catholic Church would have been an unspeakable scandal. The victory of the Kennedys in normalizing American Catholicism was so complete that it is a thought that would scarcely even occur to us today. Indeed, if anything, the Catholic Church, with its positions against abortion, same-sex marriage, and contraception, has come to represent what America thinks of as "the establishment", rather than something that stands outside of and in opposition to it.

But in opening the gates for Catholics to participate fully in the American way of life, the Kennedys obscured a very real antagonism of traditions between what gave birth to the United States and what has traditionally characterized the social teaching of the Roman Catholic Church. It is an antagonism that this author, a believing Catholic and a loyal American, thinks we may do well to remember more keenly at times.

The United States was conceived, born, and baptized in the spirit of the Enlightenment. We may very well be, to one degree or another, a "Christian nation", but if so, it is a Christianity very specifically rooted in the kind of individualism that began in the Reformation and matured in Europe's Enlightenment. When we speak of "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness", we are implicitly assuming that value is something that a man creates for himself. Since man is responsible for his own flourishing, the general assumption that underlies the Declaration of Independence, US Constitution, and the other key texts of the American enterprise is that, insofar as he is not harming others, man should be at liberty to pursue his own happiness as he sees fit. What this creates is what I will term a "legalistic" tradition of thinking about ethical and political life. Morality is seen as a set of rules existing for the purpose of protecting the rights of the individual so that he can go about creating value, and a person is "good" or "bad", insofar as they have an aptitude for following those rules.

As this notion has marched forward on issues such as abortion and same sex marriage, it has come up against an older notion. It is a tradition which is older than the Catholic Church but which is transmitted to modernity through that Church's inheritance, in the Middle Ages, of the Greco-Roman philosophical vocabulary, grafted on to the revealed truths of the Judeo-Christian religious tradition. In the pagan expression of this tradition, value is not created by man but rather is discovered by him in the exercise of his own faculties. In the poetic tradition of Homer and Virgil, a man's "goodness" or "badness" is spoken of not in terms of a legalistic set of rules and his respect for them, or lack thereof (e.g: Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Religion, or to draw on a modern dispute, the Right to Healthcare) but rather in terms of desirable or undesirable qualities of character which he possesses (Bravery, Strength, Wisdom, etc.) In the Middle Ages, the Catholic Church inherited this tradition, and combining it with Christian theology, thought of value not simply as discovered in man, but as designed. This is, in essence, the idea behind divine law: That a human life can be judged good or bad based on standards outside of the individual, or indeed outside of man himself.

Because the watchword of the Catholic tradition was "virtue" rather than "rights", Catholic social teaching tended to favor an organic order rather than a legalistic one. Formal declarations, organized constitutions, and bills of rights are, for obvious reasons, associated with a legalistic vision of political order. The poetic tradition of the Catholic Church was primarily concerned not with upholding legal arrangements but with encouraging a given vision of what the good life of man was. For this reason, it is associated with organic arrangements such as landed aristocracies and monarchies, and a church with earthly, as well as spiritual, powers. In the view of the legalistic tradition, such things constitute unacceptable infringements on the rights of man. Not only would the poetic tradition not consider these concerns in those terms, it would itself raise problems with the legalistic tradition which it cannot consider internally, questions regarding what the good life is for man that cannot be thought of in terms of the exercise or infringement of rights.

In America today, these traditions co-exist in contradiction, usually in an unspoken manner. Thus, when questions come up about, say, healthcare, we often find ourselves speaking with two moral vocabularies. The supporter of universalized healthcare, speaking in the poetic tradition, might argue that we must offer it because man cannot achieve his own flourishing without the goods of his body and health being reasonably attended to. The opponent, speaking in the legalistic tradition, might talk about how universalized healthcare represents an intolerable infringement on the property and rights of the individual.

Prior to the rise of the Kennedy family, it was understood in the American discourse, if in different terms, that the moral tradition which Catholics came from was not the same moral tradition that America's founders came from. This often led to irrational fear and unjust treatment of Catholics; as someone interested in American Catholic history, I am familiar with the stories.

But when the Kennedys brought American Catholics fully inside the American project, they also obscured the moral debate in America by obscuring the fact that it was a debate not within a single vocabulary, but between two competing vocabularies. American Catholics (and conservative Protestants) can, and should, participate in the American moral discourse. But if they seek to cogently express their positions, they may do well to remember more frequently that when they speak in the voice of the Catholic tradition, they are speaking in the voice of a tradition that is not always identical to, and is oftentimes at odds with, the tradition of the American Revolution.

Friday, May 8, 2009

Junior High Math Sub: alias Mom

Yes, it should have made the headlines. After a 28-year hiatus Mom spent the afternoon subbing in the Rock Falls grade school and enjoyed it very much, thank you. (Believe it or not, most of the students did too.)

Notes:

1. Watching Cars and Radio (DVDs) did not suit me as the default substitute plan for the day. Teacher's gone, we watch movies! Nothing against those particular movies, but sheesh. Like a good sub I arrived with bag of Other Things To Do...

2. Expectations ain't what they used to be. These 6th & 7th graders were (mostly) unable to perform basic sequential math operations such as, Take a Number, Add 18, then multiply by 20 and subtract 333...

3. Junior high boys really stink at the end of the day.

Cheers. And send those cool math tricks my way!

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Another Semester down...

I finished my last final exam today and am ever so happy to have this semester done and over with. Busy couple of months for me. I decided not to extend my lease through August, which means I should be packing and getting a storage locker... Not entirely sure what I'm doing, or where I'm going after Boston. As long as its nowhere near here. Awaiting my official exchange acceptance letter from Uppsala University before I book my flight to Stockholm:-) Hoping and praying my final grades will carry my gpa back to where it needs to be:)

Monday, April 27, 2009

And it begins!

Today is my LAST day of "work" in the Army! I officially begin clearing the base and the Army tomorrow, and it feels awesome. We have two weekends left, and we'll fly on wednesday, 13 May, out of Frankfurt. I passed my comprehensive final exams with distinction-thank you to those who were praying for me last wednesday--and I'm all set to start my PhD study in the fall. Looking forward to seeing everyone (well, whoever's at Mom and Dad's when we get there) in a couple weeks before we start house-hunting in Carbondale!

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

The Musical Superlative.

Palestrina wrote some of the best music in the Western Tradition. After hearing his work, my favorite instrument has changed to the human voice. This man must have had a vision of beatitude or something. Never have I ever heard such fabulous music, such pure, marvelous music. Listen to it! We sing it in Chorus at St. John's.

Sicut Cervus desiderat ad fontes aquarum, ita desiderat anima mea ad te, Deus.

As the deer panteth for the water, so my soul longeth for Thee, O Lord.




Friday, April 10, 2009

Good talk

Lately I keep wandering over to this site for good tidbits, and today I heard a lively talk by Evelyn Glennie about listening to music with your whole body that I thought my musicophilic family might enjoy. Speaking of musicophilia, this is a great read.

Sunday, March 15, 2009

BIRTHDAY WEEK, Y'ALL

For old times' sake let's call it Birthday Week. You March babies remember calling all usual activity to a halt and taking the entire week off? Putting together a MultiCore Magnetizer was the important task at hand! the week was complete with cupcakes for Sunday School, treats at home, parties individually and together....Remember the shock of finding out that your friends actually had to go to school on their birthdays?

It sure isn't like that when you grow up, is it?

Cheers. And happy birthday(s).

Worst Airline in the World

Think United is Bad? Think Delta is worse? Think again.

What would you do in this situation? The employees were pretty lucky they didn't get mobbed.

Thursday, March 12, 2009

FELLOWSHIP!

YAY!!!!!!

I received my official acceptance letter from SIUC today, and to my surprise found out that I've been awarded the Morris Doctoral Fellowship, a 5-year aid package which includes a tuition waiver and stipend of $1625 per month! I was very much hoping, though not expecting, to receive this, as it will make transitioning out of the Army much much easier. Praise the Lord. . . . . . .

We'll be going to Carbondale!!!!!

Thursday, February 26, 2009

Interview

I have an interview with Country Financial for an internship this summer in a few hours! Wish me luck:)

Saturday, February 21, 2009

And the next Birthday: BECCA!


Hooray for the Birthday Girl! May your day be full of fun.
We are so very glad you were born.

Enjoy all the best that Germany has to offer!

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Brad the Dad

He made it: one more trip around the sun. Brad the Dad is-- ah, what was it now? How many years old? Whatever it is, beats the alternative, don't you think? Aging is the price one pays for staying topside.
I wish you all were home to toast him with a lovely pink Zinfandel and a delicious dinner of German Sauerbraten mit Nudeln. We'll be thinking of you all....

Monday, February 16, 2009

Berlin


We went on a last-min trip to Berlin this weekend, and I just thought I'd post a pic of Nate in front of a section of the wall. I could talk for a while about it, but let's just say it was really cool to walk around and get a glimpse at recent history.

Saturday, January 31, 2009

Campaign Promises Meet Hard Reality

President Obama said during the election that he was going to break the partisan gridlock in Washington. With this in mind, the current fight over the bailout (bringing government spending to $1600 billion so far) will prove to be difficult. Not a single Republican voted for the stimulus bill in the House, and the Democrats have a huge fight in the Senate. If they try to ram-rod it through Congress (which they probably can do), the partisan flares and recoil will be intense.

I have had little time to study politics (I'm busy with Aquinas right now), but what I do know is that the current bill is the collaboration of every Democrat on Capitol Hill's spending fantasy. Pork? You haven't seen pork till you've seen this bill.

I disagreed with bailing out the banks, Wall Street, and the Big Three in Michigan, and I oppose a bill of this kind. For this kind of money, every family who makes under $100k/year could get $25,000. It wouldn't be much better than the current mess, but would be an improvement. If we're going to have socialism, why not a socialism that benefits us, instead of saving businesses who cannot make a profit? Let the market work and reallocate the resources these corporations mismanaged. Corporate welfare truly boggles my mind. If a company is successful it won't need help, and if it isn't successful, it shouldn't get help.

On a happier note, it's interesting that Richard Maybury predicted this sort of inflation and stimulus package. As I mentioned earlier, such a measure dates back for 30 years, when the government realized it could inflate and ease recessions. The Carter and Reagan recessions were thus ended. I bet President Obama will do the same thing, allow the Fed to print and print and print.

Alas, for Maybury and his "Early Warning Report" (a market analysis/geopolitics newsletter) readers are doing quite well. Makes me wish I had the capital to invest sneakily and take advantage of the current crisis, but all I got right now is Aquinas.

Monday, January 26, 2009

Oh, what is the name of that book???

For the life of me I can't remember the name of this book. It is a children's book in the company of Go, Dog, Go. It features a large white not-doggy creature with spots, and he shows off all the things he can do... now I can put them on a wall, and I can make them very tall. Now look! all of my spots are blue! and I can put my spots on YOU! at the end, the children convince him that the Circus is the Place for You. As I write this, the title begins to take shape in my mind. Is that it? Quick, help!

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

OpenOffice

I stumbled across a program today called OpenOffice. It's free at www.openoffice.org. It basically does everything that Microsoft Office would let you do: lets you create text documents, spread sheets, presentations, etc., and it lets you save in compatable file formats. I haven't messed with it that much because I have Microsoft Office on my computer already, but this might be really useful if you don't have it.

Monday, January 12, 2009

blog

I set up a blog for pics/other stuff concerning Caedmon. Emails seemed to work ok, but recently I've had trouble w/ my mailing lists. Anyway, I'm trying something new, putting all of that in a blog. Here's the link:

http://caedmon.wordpress.com

Saturday, January 10, 2009

SIUC!

HIP HIP HOORAY! I just got an email from the History department director, and not only did I get in, but they want to give me a fellowship! Three years' full tuition and 19,500 annual stipend! Way better than I was hoping from any of the three schools I've applied to! I'll wait and see what U of I and NIU say, but I don't think they'll top the fellowship. I'll keep you all posted--just wanted to let everyone know....and brag and celebrate!


~Nate

Tuesday, January 6, 2009

snow

I'm sure Caedmon will love being in Illinois next year where snowfall accumulations in excess of an inch are expected rather than celebrated. Until then, here are some pictures of Caedmon enjoying our latest dusting.





And now I must go tend to my jaeger schnitzel. Did you guys try yours yet?