San Francisco and Cemeteries

Thanks to First Things, I was made aware of the fact that there are virtually no cemeteries within the city and county of San Francisco, and that early in the century nearly every occupant of every grave was evicted from the city and the headstones used for retaining walls and park gutters. The story is told here, with some photos. In SF, you can bury your cat or dog, but not your human companions.

from Buena Vista Park

These kinds of desecrations remind me of visiting a Jewish cemetery in Istanbul. There, the locals had "borrowed" headstones as paving stones for a footpath used to cut across between two neighborhoods. No doubt some found this a fitting metaphor as they stomped over the memory of a community widely despised. In keeping with the disrespect and neglect, many graves were spraypainted. Some graves had been put in metal cages by the interred person's family to prevent this. No doubt cages would not have saved San Franciscans from the land developers.

Curious, I decided to Google cemeteries in San Jose, and there also don't appear to be many here. Is everyone getting torched these days?

What's the big deal, you say? Russell D. Moore nicely outlines the traditional Christian belief about the importance of burial in his Touchstone article Grave Signs. He points out that the Christian emphasis on proper burial underscores a loving concern for the body, for the dignity of persons, and that it is eschatological in nature- "...this decomposition is not what, in this act of worship, we proclaim as the ultimate truth about the one to whom we’ve said goodbye." A Christian laid to rest is asleep, not "dead."

So, what does all this say about "Bay Area values," to use the Pelosi-ites' phrase? I leave it for you to decide. Perhaps they mean property values.

Aristotle East and West: Part One

My notes on medieval Russia have been scarce of late, mostly because what reading time I have has been devoted to finishing David Bradshaw's Aristotle East and West: Metaphysics and the Division of Christendom. It was a challenging but absorbing read. By way of rounding out this project, I'll make a few notes here, in a series of posts. Think of it as the "Dummies" version of the material. Others who are more familiar with the concepts, please correct me if I'm mis-stating anything.

Bradshaw's central project is to trace how some key points of Aristotle's metaphysics (and Plato's as well) were developed by the Neoplatonists and by Christian fathers from the New Testament on, and to explore substantial differences in how these concepts were understood in the East, represented by St. John of Damascus, St. Maximos Confessor and St. Gregory Palamas in particular, and in the West, represented by Augustine, Boethius, Barlaam, and Aquinas. He especially zeroes in on the use of the terms energeia, dunamis, and ousia or essence.

Other than a dribble of Aristotle's Rhetoric and Poetics and Plato's Republic in college, much of the metaphysics stuff was new to me. I quickly realized I was going to have to work at the first few chapters of Bradshaw's book in order to keep up, and began keeping written notes. It was well worth it, even as I was impatient to get on to the "good stuff" about church history. I can see why early and medieval churchmen speculated about the great Greek philosophers being in heaven. Their thoughts are powerful, beautiful, and do seem to capture vital wisdom about the essential questions of what it means to exist, to be human, and to interact with the divine.

The first chapters are devoted to Aristotle. Aristotle made distinctions between possessing or being something in potential and actualizing it or being it in reality.
First potentiality- Possessing a characteristic by virtue of one's nature. It's in a human's nature to have free will and think, for instance.
Second potentiality or first actuality- Possessing something by having the capacity to use the thing possessed. For example, even though all men have the ability to think, an educated man has the ability to exercise this capacity to a greater degree.
Second actuality- Actively exercising the thing possessed. An educated man in a state of contemplation is realizing his potential in actuality.

Another contrast to be seen in Aristotle is in different kinds of actions or motions.
Kinesis: Movement that will terminate in something and is only complete when it achieves its aims; has progression in time.

Energeia: Motion that has no defined end it is reaching for- it is or contains its own end; it is a complete act at any moment in time, so it doesn't have temporality; it is always "in the now." This is a concept that will later be developed in theology, both pagan and Christian, to describe how God interacts with humans.

Bradshaw then looks at Aristotle's thoughts on essence and form. The soul, he says, is the actuality of a human being and the body is the potentiality, because the soul is the form or essence (ousia) that makes the matter what it is. On a larger scale, eternal things are the actuality and the temporal things they produce or influence are the potentiality. This seems counterintuitive, that a created thing is a potentiality whereas an uncreated one is an actuality. It makes sense if you think that we derive our being from God, while He is being in itself. He is being as it is fully realized, a second actuality par excellence. For Aristotle, these eternal things are primarily the sun, stars and heaven. In Aristotle as well as Plato, the eternal, fully actualized, independent beings have a beauty and a blessed existence that causes them to be desired by less fully realized beings.

Bradshaw then turns to the concept of the Prime Mover.

Cell Phone Samaritans

Please go to wirelessfoundation.org and make sure you're signed up to receive Amber Alerts (reports of missing children) on your cell phone. It will take you five minutes, and you could help save a child's life in your community someday.

The website also explains how to donate old cell phones so that they can be given to victims of domestic violence to use for a 911 call. Ask your company if they have old cell phones that you can collect to donate (don't forget to erase contacts and other personal info first). Phones can also be brought to any Body Shop store for this program.

On a related note, I regularly check the National Sex Offenders Registry for my area. Again, you never know when some extra vigilance can save yourself or others from harm. This is not just for parents. The registry lists your friendly neighborhood rapists, too. Looking through the faces behind such evil is an extra special inducement to prayer.

Everything you thought you knew about the Middle Ages...

...is probably a fluffy pile of hooha.

I've pointed this out elsewhere on my blog, but I think it could end up a series. First Things draws out another set of myths:

"I asked a friend whether she had watched the PBS series on 'The Secret Files of the Inquisition.' She allowed that she had looked at the first episode. 'It’s the usual recycling of the juvenile pap about "The Black Legend," ' she said. I surfed onto five minutes of last night’s episode, and she is right. There was a Franciscan friar preaching to an apparently clandestine gathering of village folk and the voice-over declaimed: 'He spoke to them in their own language rather than the Church-approved Latin, which was considered utter blasphemy.' That would have come as a surprise to St. Francis, the Order of Preachers (Dominicans), and the thousands of others engaged in preaching missions throughout Europe.

The little I watched also recycled the story that brave scientists defied the Church by secretly engaging in anatomical experiments on human cadavers. As it happens, Sherwin B. Nuland of Yale Medical School addressed this subject in the May 7 issue of the New Republic (subscription required). He is reviewing a book by Katharine Park on the origins of human dissection and he writes:

A long historiographic tradition, dating back to at least the middle of the nineteenth century, presents religion and science as diametrically opposed cultural enterprises and the Church as deeply hostile to dissection. This misconception is still widespread. Generations of Italian tour guides, not to mention playwrights, journalists, and historical novelists, have waxed eloquent over the supposed moral and intellectual courage of such late fifteenth- and sixteenth-century heroes as Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, and Andreas Vesalius, author of On the Fabric of the Human Body, published in 1543, whose famous title page celebrated the study of anatomy based on dissection rather than on ancient texts. These men, the story goes, defied religious superstition and braved persecution and censure in the service of art or science, pursuing their intellectual passion in dark cellars and back rooms with trapdoors in the floor for the quick disposal of corpses when the police (or the Inquisition, or whoever) arrived.

Like the famous story associated with Christopher Columbus, whose courageous voyage of 1492 purportedly proved to a doubting public that the earth was round, this story has been debunked repeatedly by medievalists to no avail. The power of such fictions to weather frequent and detailed disproof testifies to the important cultural work they perform by supplying foundation stories that confirm deep-seated Western intuitions about the scientific origins of modernity—intuitions that continue to inform the writing of even specialists in the field."

The enneagram: How not to practice the disciplines of the desert fathers

A friend of mine asked me what I thought about the enneagram, since we have often discussed our Myers Briggs personality types (INFP here). A friend had loaned her a book on the enneagram and insisted that its origins were in "Christian mysticism" and that the value of it lies not in learning about your personality, but in discovering your "root sin." My friend found it not only uninspiring, but as the book was full of numerology and other esoterica, somewhat unsettling.

I looked around at some articles to see just what claims are being made as to the enneagram's origins, as it seemed suspicious to me. What I smelled from afar, this article confirms with a deep whiff of poo. The article roots the origins of the enneagram in the Desert Fathers and in the Orthodox teaching on the passions. Passions, or logoi, are not easy to define, but in general are habitual thoughts that rule over our mind and behavior and hinder us from knowing God. To free ourselves from them, the healing effect of the church as hospital is required, including but not limited to the ascetic disciplines. Instead, what's being offered here is typical Matrix-style "free your mind" higher consciousness.

Consider, for example, this from the article: "The objective consciousness that is the goal of Gurdjieff’s system is the same as the union with God of which the mystics speak. Whether you practice a religious tradition or not, it is possible to attain this state of consciousness through spiritual practices.... However, since each exoteric or outer tradition has interpreted these principles in its own terms, you can learn and teach these principles in several different 'languages.' There is a Christian terminology for it, a Buddhist terminology, a Jewish terminology, an Islamic terminology, and most importantly for many reasons, there is the impartial terminology of The Work."

This is snake oil, pure and simple. The uncreated light, which is offered here as a stand-in for "higher consciousness," is God Himself, and theosis is participation in God's nature by grace. It cannot be attained apart from the life of the church, Christ's body- in the sacraments, in her teaching ministry, and in the ascetic disciplines within that framework.

I'll not belabor it here, but just wanted to put the message out to any who might hear that this is a program rooted in "Orthodox spirituality" or in the Desert Fathers. This duck is not even quacking Orthodox.

Shibboleths

How would you say the following?

*Water
*Wash
*The name of a long sandwich
*Latter
*Houston Street (in Manhattan)
*Dubois, Pennsylvania
*The name of soft drinks
*Pen
*Asked
*Nuclear
*The letters Z and H
*Canberra, Australia
*Albany, New York
*Pierre, South Dakota
*A nickname for San Francisco

These are but a few of what's called a shibboleth, a verbal cue as to who you are and where you come from. Language nerds such as myself notice such distinctions. The original "shibboleth" was a test put on the tribe of Ephraim, who had no "sh" sound in their vocabulary, by their enemies the Gileadites. Judges 12:6 tells the tale: "Then said they unto him, Say now Shibboleth: and he said Sibboleth: for he could not frame to pronounce it right. Then they took him, and slew him at the passages of Jordan: and there fell at that time of the Ephraimites forty and two thousand." What a difference a diphthong can make! You would think the last couple tens of thousands would have figured it out.

This was not the last time such a test was used to identify enemies and spies. It certainly helps to have an unpronounceable language, as with the Finns, who used various shibboleths to ferret out Russian spies; Scots testing the English on Gaelic; and speakers of Catalan with the Castilian Spanish. Any really determined snoop with a good dialect coach could defeat such a test, but the mind is tricky. Our speech patterns are so set by adulthood that it is not an easy task. The mind tells you that what you are saying is right, maybe even morally right. Don't we subtly assume that the immigrant with the strong accent is less intelligent or cooperative than a "native"?

Such moral attributions to language clues are often tied to class. The English have strong and deeply held associations with various dialects. Nowadays, the PC police also patrol all of us with various shibboleths. When I first moved to New York City, at one point I referred to someone as Oriental. "A rug is Oriental," I was told indignantly. "People are Asian." The whole morass of "gender-inclusive language" is a testimony to how the social leftists want to mark out the undoctrinated by their proper use of English, or mark for extinction the hopeless traditionalists.

Here in California, my East Coast shibboleths crop up every once in awhile. I forget to order "chow mein" instead of "lo mein." I am told that it is the mark of an outsider to call San Francisco either "San Fran" or "Frisco." Then again, I'm also marked as different in my home area. Both my prononciation and spelling have been affected by being an ESL teacher and by living overseas. I am likely to sneak anglicisms in. In my home area, I've been told I sound either Canadian or like a New Englander. I don't, but I think it is testimony to being very conscious of diction, as one has to be around non-native speakers of English.

Any other local shibboleths others can relate to?

**

About the above examples:

*Water: How you pronounce "water" may mark you as a New Jerseyite, if you say it "wooder."

*Wash: In Pennsylvania, southerners and those who've been around them say "warsh." For some reason, my grandmother also does this, even though she doesn't fit either of those categories.

*A long sandwich: You probably call this a sub, grinder, hero, hoagie, or po'boy depending on region. This distinction seems to be fading, due probably to Subway and Quizno's subs. Popeye's is fighting on behalf of po'boy, meanwhile.

*Latter: Americans tend to pronounce this "ladder," whereas the British enunciate latter and ladder differently.

*Houston Street in Manhattan: I'll probably be shot for revealing this shibboleth to non-New Yorkers. The correct prononciation is "House-ton."

*Dubois, Pennsylvania: Pennsylvanians say "Duboiz." You'll sound really cultured and really non-Pennsylvanian if you say it "Dubwaa."

*The name of soft drinks: A heated shibboleth in Pennsylvania, because people in the southern part of the state say "soda" and northerners "pop," and never the twain shall meet. In adulthood I've capitulated to southern usage and now say "soda." People from the southern US, I hear, call it "Coke," even if it isn't.

*Pen: A familiar mark of a southern drawl- "pin" vs. "pen."

*Asked: Just why is it that even "mainstream" black Americans tend to say axed? I've never figured it out.

*Nuclear: Southerners, including various Commanders in Chief, pronounce this "nucular."

*The letters Z and H: Canadians and Brits say "zed" and Americans "zee." In Northern Ireland, Protestants tend to say "aitch" and Catholics "haitch." [Another English shibboleth I'll throw in for free: An English friend was happy to hear that I pronounced the little cakes "scones." Apparently so do the British working classes, while the uppercrust call them "scons."]

*Canberra, Australia: Correctly pronounced by locals as Canburr. To the rest of us it rhymes with Yogi Berra.

*Albany, New York: Locals say "All-bany," others sometimes "Al-bany."

*Pierre, South Dakota: Once again the locals dis the French prononciation of their town and call it "peer."

*A nickname for San Francisco: Ok, ok, I'll never say San Fran again! I'll always say "SF" or "the city"! Now am I kosher? :)

Loreena McKennitt "An Ancient Muse" Tour

I very much enjoyed seeing Loreena McKennitt play this past weekend at the great old art deco Paramount Theater in Oakland. At one point she described her music as travel writing, more a snapshot in place and time than a finished work of art, and that underlined what about her work appeals to me. It doesn't hurt that many of the places she looks at are those that I, too, have set foot in and especially resonate with- the British Isles, Spain, the Russian steppes, the Turkic areas of northwest China (I was in the neighboring Kazakhstan), and, most clearly to be heard in the newest album, Greece and Turkey. Her historical interests mirror mine closely, too, exploring the ancient and medieval world.

Most people I told about going to the concert hadn't heard of her, so to be brief I said she was a "Celtic folk singer." That sort of applies, and is more true of her early work, but really doesn't cover it. Both the look and sound of An Ancient Muse are rooted mostly in Anatolia, Istanbul and Greece, with the Celtic aspects providing soul to mellow out all that doumbek, lyre and hurdy gurdy.

Neither her lyrics or music are all that ground-breaking in themselves, from what I (a non-musical type) can tell, but working together they have an uncanny ability to catch a moment. She draws not only from history but from the epic, such as "Penelope's Song" from this album, as well as older material like "The Highwayman" (a poem I have a special fondness for, since I recited it in a dramatic readings competition in high school). She told some of the stories that inspired the works, such as being in a village pub on the west coast of Ireland and hearing local farmers get up to recite long epic poems. "You got the feeling you were seeing the last remnant of an old tradition," she said. Before playing "Dante's Prayer," she explained that she had embarked on a trans-Siberian rail journey in 1995 and had taken along Dante among other reading for the trip. This was a time when many people had fled the collapse of the Soviet Union and those who were left behind had to pick up the pieces in the midst of a great deal of uncertainty, anxiety and sometimes despair. I knew that this song (one of my favorites) was about Dante and took musical inspiration from Russian Orthodox Paschal prayers, but hearing her story helped tie together for me how both of these express the hope felt by a wanderer in dark places.

I look forward to seeing where her journeys take her in future albums.

Middle Ages Tech Support

If you haven't seen this yet, take a look- it's hilarious. Half the fun is the crazy Norwegian. I think I'm going introduce "Flot!" into my vocabulary. [It only took YouTube a week to post this after I sent it to my blog...! I was beginning to think they didn't like me.]

[In case you have trouble viewing, here is the URL: link]

Moving on

If it seems like I've had little on my mind lately except the Malatya martyrs, that about sums it up. I've been deeply affected in strange ways. It is like you wake up one day, and the world seems different than it was the day before. I can only imagine that this feeling I have is multiplied tenfold for the Turkish Christian community. I don't think even they, still in the thick of it all and aware of increasing tensions over the past 1-2 years, saw it coming.

I realize it sounds trite, but you can't just move on from something like this without being changed. Nevertheless, you do have to move on, somehow. I am hoping I can stop having nightmares and dwelling on the mens' suffering, and do as they would no doubt wish, which is to dwell on their peace in God's presence now that all is past.

**
In moving on a bit, I don't really have much to say, however I do plan to post soon on:

*Aristotle and Plato in the church, and more on the Eastern teaching of the divine energies, as prompted by my reading of Bradshaw's book (see link at left).

*"Green Cleaning": The toxicity, expense and inadequacy we've come to accept as normal and even healthy in our homes, thanks to the advertising efforts of cleaner manufacturers going back to the 50's "liberation of the modern housewife," is ripe for rebuke. I'm not talking about the faddish eco-pop mentality that's become just another option in the lifestyle marketplace, but rather common-sense ways our great-grandmothers kept their homes. This, partly inspired by Deirdre Imus' Greening Your Cleaning, which I admit I bought 50% because I wanted to read about the topic and 50% in protest of the hypocrisies and absurdities of the Don Imus firing.