Monthly Archives: November 2008

Dream

I drifted up out of sleep this morning still in the middle of a dream. In the dream, I was talking with this woman Sue, a jazz pianist and piano teacher whom I knew a dozen years ago from the church where I was then working.

Nothing really happened in the dream (I think Sue was telling me about ninth chords, which was the sort of conversation we had in real life). Her boyfriend was in the background somewhere, except I think they were married. It was some kind of social event, because there were other people there too.

Even though nothing happened in the dream, it kept reappearing in my consciousness all day long. Every time it popped up, I wondered why. I drove up to Newton for a meeting, and during the hour-long drive I realized that the last time I had spoken to Sue was when I was living in Newton, and she called to say hi — this was in the late spring of 1999 — and before we hung up she told me, “Hey, don’t be a stranger,” but I never called her back. Was the dream about me feeling guilty about not calling back someone who was a peripheral friend? That seemed unlikely.

I went to the meeting, and as we were all heading off one of the people at the meeting, whom I hadn’t seen for a long time, asked about my mother, and I said that she had died nine or ten years ago. Then as I was getting my car I remembered why I never bothered to call Sue back — because in the summer of 1999, my mother was not doing well, and then she died that fall. And then I remembered that my mother died nine years ago yesterday, and I had completely forgotten that fact all day. Except that I hadn’t really forgotten, because that’s what the dream was doing, it was telling me that I really had remembered, and that’s why I had been so distracted all day long. This may sound nonsensical, but the human soul is not governed by linear logic.

Public support of same sex marriage

Join the Impact is organizing a nationwide protest against Proposition 8, the silly ballot question that banned same-sex marriage in California, in reaction to the legalization of marriage in that state. Join the Impact has organized gatherings in cities in every state this Saturday, November 15th, to express our opposition to Prop 8 — check their Web site for locations — including one in Boston at 1:30 p.m.

I’ll be going to the gathering in Boston. The organizers are working on permits for City Hall/Government Plaza, but it’s not finalized yet The organizers have confirmed that City Hall will be the location. Check their blog, or their Facebook event page for latest news.

As the organizers put it: “This is not just a California issue! This is an issue of equality for all Americans!” Even though same sex marriage is legal here in Massachusetts, it would be very good if we could get a large turnout of people across the country to show support for same-sex marriage.

If you can’t go yourself, let all your progressive friends know about this event! (And thanks to Erin for letting me know.)

Sensawonder

“Sensawonder” is a slang term among science fiction fans to refer to that awe-struck sense of wonder you get when contemplating the amazingness of the universe. I’ve been getting my sensawonder fix from following the Phoenix Mars mission over the past few months. In its five months of operations since landing, the Phoenix Mars lander has sent back some amazing observations, including a video of snow descending from Martian clouds, and evidence that there was running water on Mars in the past.

But now the Martian winter is closing in, with shorter daylight, more clouds, and more dust in the atmosphere, with the result that the lander is no longer getting enough power from its solar panels to send or receive radio signals to and from earth. The control team on earth issued a press release on November 3 to say that although they had hoped to get another couple of weeks of weather observations, dust storms were making that seem unlikely. As of today, they are reporting that they haven’t heard from the lander since November 2, making it seem likely that the lander has completely lost power.

The lander was designed to operate for only three months, so the last two months of operation have been a welcome bonus of additional sensawonder for us. Analysis of the data collected over the past five months has barely begun, and we can expect lots of additional science (and more wonder) to come out of the Phoenix Mars mission.

Words

I’ve been noticing some subtle criticism of Barack Obama — criticism that he is a gifted orator.

Wait, being a good speaker is bad? You’re not going to convince this preacher that the spoken word should be suspected. The spoken word has the power to transform people for the better, to inspire them, to move them to give selflessly of themselves to the highest ideals. At least, that’s what we preachers like to think we do (or try to do) when we preach.

Julius Lester puts it this way in his blog:

“To stand in the Lincoln Memorial and read the words of Abraham Lincoln, to stand in the Jefferson Memorial and read the words of Thomas Jefferson is almost a religious experience because their words lift our souls out of the day-to-day and into the realm of the ideals that have shaped our nation, ideals that have been lost, especially over the last eight years.” [Link.]

Amen, amen. Never underestimate the power of the spoken word.

If only…

Boy, do I hate lifting weights. I don’t have this attitude towards the other exercise I do — I like taking a long walk every day, no matter what the weather, and I even like doing some easy yoga and calisthenics in the morning. But even though I know I need to do it, I have never liked lifting weights.

Then I got bronchitis last winter and really was too sick to lift weights, and somehow I just never started up again. This past Thursday I finally dusted of the weight bench and the barbell and the dumbbells and spent forty minutes lifting. I was surprised at how good it felt. My body does not like sitting at meetings, and sitting at bedsides, and sitting at more meetings, and sitting in front of a computer; my body likes it best when I’m doing moderately hard physical labor. I lifted weights again tonight, and once again I feel great — more cheerful, more alert, happier.

If I could only keep it up, keep lifting weights three times a week like you’re supposed to do, I’d probably feel that good all the time. If only…

Autumn watch

It has been peculiarly warm this fall, even warmer than you’d expect in this era of global climate change. The days are short and sunset comes at 4:30, but the air feels like late spring, not early November. Because it’s so warm, the wintering birds haven’t bothered to come to the ocean yet — they’ll stay inland as long as there’s no ice on the water.

There may not be many wintering birds on the harbor, but there have been a number of freighters coming into the Port of New Bedford. In the middle of the day, we heard a huge deep horn sound once down on the waterfront, and when we walked down to the waterfront in the late afternoon, we saw Brazilian Reefer (IMO 8300377), a big refrigerated cargo ship, berthed at the end of the State Pier. I looked her up online, and discovered that she measures nearly 475 feet in length overall — she took up the entire end of the pier, and even stuck out a little bit at each end. We stood for a while and watched as they unloaded the ship. Being a bird nerd I guess I’d rather look at wintering birds, but it was pretty good watching two of the four ten-ton derricks on a 475 foot ship unload fruit onto the pier where waiting forklifts scooped them up and put them into waiting semi trucks.

See ya in 2012

Now that Obama and Biden won the presidential election,C’thulhu and Shoggoth have closed down their campaign headquarters and returned to R’lyeh to sleep, dreaming, until it’s time to start another campaign. Campaign workers tried to convince them to eat Sarah Palin before they left, but they said they preferred to let her continue to gibber in Alaska because it reminded them of themselves (though not as much as Ted Stevens reminds them of themselves).

Good news, bad news

Good news: Barack Obama won. Now we won’t have to deal with press coverage of Sarah Palin’s dead mooses. Instead, Sasha and Malia will be living in the White House, and their dad has promised them a new puppy. How cool is that?

Bad news: California banned gay marriage. Stupid move. This may lead San Francisco and Hollywood to secede from the rest of the state. Or maybe the best and brightest from San Francisco and Hollywood will move to Massachusetts where gay marriage is legal.