Celebrating Ever Since

Posted on December 25, 2017 by Brian H. Gill

We hear quite a bit of Luke 2 during the Christmas Masses, including this:

“Now there were shepherds in that region living in the fields and keeping the night watch over their flock.
“The angel of the Lord appeared to them and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were struck with great fear.
“The angel said to them, ‘Do not be afraid; for behold, I proclaim to you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.
“For today in the city of David a savior has been born for you who is Messiah and Lord.
“And this will be a sign for you: you will find an infant wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger.'”
(Luke 2:8–12)

It shows up in “A Charlie Brown Christmas” too, and I talked about that yesterday.

The shepherds went to see what was going on, and liked what they saw. So did the magi and Simeon. Jesus didn’t stay in the manger, of course.

He grew up, ate with sinners, gave Pharisees and Sadducees conniptions, was executed and buried.

Our Lord stopped being dead a few days later, and we’ve been celebrating ever since. We’ve also been sharing the best news humanity’s ever had.

I’ve talked about that before:

Posted in Being Catholic | Tagged , , | 3 Comments

Bah! Humbug?

Posted on December 24, 2017 by Brian H. Gill

‘Tis the season to kvetch about Christmas: because it’s too commercial, too religious, or whatever. I won’t do that.

I’ll look at why we celebrate instead. Also Scrooge and “A Charlie Brown Christmas.”

Besides, I think enjoying the holiday and doing what I say I believe makes more sense. Although the day is special because we celebrate our Lord’s birthday, I like many of my culture’s secular holiday traditions, including “I’ll be Home for Christmas” and “Deck the Halls.”

I even like Christmas specials. Some of them. But they don’t show the big picture.

What “the true meaning of Christmas” is depends on which Christmas special I pick.

I’ve heard that giving is better than getting, folks should be nice to each other, and being with family is important. I think those are good ideas. But “the true meaning of Christmas?” Not exactly.

“A Charlie Brown Christmas” got it right.

Linus told Charlie Brown “what Christmas is all about” by quoting Luke 2:8–14.

His translation used somewhat old-fashioned and formal language — “And there were in the same country shepherds….”

It’s what I grew up with, and I like it. I also like “Now there were shepherds in that region living in the fields and keeping the night watch over their flock…” from today’s “The New American Bible, Revised Edition.”

Either way, the angel has the same message. Our savior, Messiah, and Lord has been born. It’s “…good news of great joy that will be for all the people….”

As Linus said — “That’s what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown.”

Linus didn’t include the last phrase in Luke 2:14: “Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”

That wasn’t, and isn’t, unusual: even in more ‘religious’ specials. I’m not sure why. Maybe it’s because folks aren’t comfortable with “…peace to those on whom his favor rests.” God’s peace isn’t about the Almighty playing favorites.

God loves each of us, but Luke 2:14’s peace won’t happen unless we let it. That’s another topic, for another post.

“A Charlie Brown Christmas:” Breaking Traditions

Folks at the network thought “A Charlie Brown Christmas” would be a disaster. I think they had a point.

Audiences arguably expect particular styles for different sorts of shows.

This one broke the rules.

Its tone, pacing, music and animation were ‘wrong’ for a Christmas special. It didn’t even have a laugh track.

The network folks apparently didn’t mind Linus reciting from Luke 2.

The show’s producers were the ones who felt having someone quote the Bible might be too controversial for television. This was in the mid-1960s, so I think they had a point, too.

Biblese-laden epics very loosely based on Old Testament stories were on their way out. That wasn’t the only change in progress. (August 14, 2017)

I think quite a few Americans were tired of Christians cherry-picking Biblical snippets to bolster their opinions. I certainly was. (July 4, 2017; November 15, 2016)

The ‘God agrees with me’ attitude wasn’t new. And it’s not limited to Christianity. Variations on the ‘Mother Nature agrees with me’ viewpoints may be more fashionable these days.

I think both are silly, at best. (September 22, 2017; September 10, 2017; August 4, 2017; July 21, 2017)

Despite network and production concerns, viewers liked “A Charlie Brown Christmas.” A lot. It’s been a holiday tradition ever since.

“The Muppet Christmas Carol” may become another viewing tradition, or not. It did a pretty good job of following the original’s story. So did “Mister Magoo’s Christmas Carol.”

Scrooge had a Point — Nietzsche, Too

‘Christmas Carol’ television specials don’t consistently stick to the original story or dialogue. But some do. Particularly Scrooge’s “bah! Humbug!”

“…’A merry Christmas, uncle! God save you!’…

“…’Bah!’ said Scrooge, ‘Humbug!’ …

“…’Christmas a humbug, uncle!’ said Scrooge’s nephew. ‘You don’t mean that, I am sure?’

“…’I do,’ said Scrooge. ‘Merry Christmas! What right have you to be merry? What reason have you to be merry? You’re poor enough.’

“‘Come, then,’ returned the nephew gaily. ‘What right have you to be dismal? What reason have you to be morose? You’re rich enough.’

“Scrooge having no better answer ready on the spur of the moment, said, ‘Bah!’ again; and followed it up with ‘Humbug.’

“‘Don’t be cross, uncle!’ said the nephew.

“‘What else can I be,’ returned the uncle, ‘when I live in such a world of fools as this? Merry Christmas! Out upon merry Christmas! What’s Christmas time to you but a time for paying bills without money; a time for finding yourself a year older, but not an hour richer; a time for balancing your books and having every item in ’em through a round dozen of months presented dead against you? If I could work my will,’ said Scrooge indignantly, ‘every idiot who goes about with ‘Merry Christmas’ on his lips, should be boiled with his own pudding, and buried with a stake of holly through his heart. He should!’…”
(“A Christmas Carol,” Charles Dickens (1843) via Project Gutenberg)

“Humbug” goes back at least to the 1700s. It’s almost certainly from some European language: maybe Italian, but my guess is that it’s from a Germanic language. It means deceptive talk or behavior, or hypocrites.1

I think Scrooge had a point, that we live in “a world of fools.” I don’t have his attitude, partly because I can’t love my neighbor and want to boil him in his own pudding. I’ll get back to that.

I think Nietzsche had a point, too. Sometimes the “monsters” aren’t the only threat:

“Wer mit Ungeheuern kämpft, mag zusehn, dass er nicht dabei zum Ungeheuer wird….”

“He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster….”
(“Beyond Good and Evil, Aphorism 146; Friedrich Nietzsche)

I think Nietzsche’s view of Christianity wasn’t entirely accurate. But what I’m learning about his era helps me sympathize with him, a bit. (June 30, 2017; May 12, 2017)

I like to think that some venom-spitting folks, Christian and otherwise, mean well. But it’s a bad idea. (October 29, 2017; June 18, 2017; May 7, 2017)

Good intentions won’t make bad behavior okay. They can make personal long-term consequences less severe, but “the end does not justify the means.” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1750, 1752, 1759)

Like Nietzche, Dickens saw a serious disconnect between what Christianity should be about, and how Christians are. He also didn’t think organized religion was a good idea.

I don’t agree, but living in 19th-century England wouldn’t have helped his attitude. That was not one of Western civilization’s shining hours.

“The Whole Law and the Prophets”

Dickens certainly wasn’t Catholic. But his views of personal and social responsibility weren’t far from what the Church says.

“‘Mankind was my business. The common welfare was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence, were, all, my business. The dealings of my trade were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business!'”
(“A Christmas Carol,” Charles Dickens (1843))

He apparently also understood that each of us have limited opportunities to do good. Or not. (Catechism, 1007, 1021–1037)

Jesus told us that loving God and neighbors is “the whole law and the prophets.” So is seeing everyone as a neighbor. (Matthew 22:36–40, Mark 12:28–31; Matthew 5:43–44; Mark 12:28–31; Luke 10:25–30; Catechism, 1825)

Social justice, the Catholic version, means acting like what Jesus said matters. (Catechism, 1928–1942)

More, mostly Christmas and being Catholic:

1 About deceptive nonsense, dishonest gibberish, a hoax, or something like that:

Posted in Being an Artist, Being Catholic | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

Off the Rails

Posted on December 22, 2017 by Brian H. Gill

About 78 folks were on Amtrak Cascades passenger train 501 Monday morning. They’ll be late. At best.

I’ll be looking at what happened, new and old technology. Also how I see change and progress.

Changing Tech, Changing Rules

The South Carolina Canal and Rail Road Company’s new locomotive, Best Friend of Charleston, took passengers “on the wings of wind at the speed of fifteen to twenty-five miles per hour.” (Charleston Courier (December 29, 1830))

For a few months.

This was rapid transit in the 1830s.

We’re not sure why the locomotive’s fireman tied down the steam pressure release valve on June 17, 1831.

Some say he didn’t like its whistle, others that he was building a head of steam for higher performance. He wasn’t available for interviews later. The blast wave, or maybe shrapnel, killed him when the boiler exploded.

Altering pressure valves to boost performance was common practice in the early 1830s.

Tamper-proof valves eventually made boilers less likely to explode.

So did changing the rules for using the tech.

I’d like to think that prudence has become more common over the last 18 decades.

But I’ve noticed little or no change human wisdom over the last several millennia.

The good news, I think, is that we’re not getting more foolhardy. And we’re learning how to use or deal with our strengths and weaknesses.

We still change the rules, or make new ones, as our tech and circumstances change. (February 10, 2017; February 5, 2017)

“Good decisions come from experience. Experience comes from making bad decisions.”
(Mark Twain or someone else)

Running Late

I think technology is useful, and can be improved. But it’s not foolproof. Even the best-designed tech can’t prevent daft decisions.

For example, the Granville-Paris Express had been running late on October 22, 1895.

The engineer apparently wanted to make up for lost time by approaching a Paris terminal at about 40 kilometers an hour.

That’s 31 miles an hour, more or less: pretty close to urban speed limits around here.

It’s not overly fast, when you’re driving a car on dry pavement.

A train with nearly a dozen units is another matter.

Tracks ended in the terminal. Stopblocks, the sort of barrier called buffer stops in England, would have stopped a train that was barely moving.

The Granville–Paris Express went through the stopblocks and across a concourse. The locomotive eventually broke through a wall and fell to the pavement.

Four folks on the train and two outside the station were hurt. A woman who had been filling in for her husband while he collected evening editions was killed.

Two members of the train’s crew were fined: the engineer 50 francs for excessive speed, one of the guards 25 francs for being preoccupied with paperwork.

That’s not quite as trivial as it might seem. Historicalstatistics.org’s Historical Currency Converter (test version 1.0) says 50 1895 francs would buy about as much as $291.29 USD in 2015. But it still seems like pretty small change to me.1

Rushing to Help


(From The Seattle Times, used w/o permission.)

“These are some of the people who rushed to help survivors of the Amtrak train derailment”
Evan Bush, Steve Miletich; The Seattle Times (December 19, 2017)

“With Amtrak train cars dangling from a bridge above, soldiers, an Eagle Scout and even a neurosurgeon materialized amid Monday’s train crash to pull people from the gnarled metal wreckage, help with triage and provide comfort to victims whose lives were suddenly twisted and tossed into chaos.

Detective Chris Bailey, of the Steilacoom Public Safety Department, said nurses and doctors rushed from personal vehicles to help, men and women in business attire appearing with latex gloves or stethoscopes.

Witness Greg Mukai saw a half-dozen soldiers rushing from vehicles into the fray just after the crash, asking motorists for first-aid equipment. Bailey saw a soldier climb up a train car that was dangling from the bridge to help people get out….”

Folks don’t always respond well to unexpected stress, like seeing a train fall onto an Interstate. But when I start looking past ‘top news stories,’ I see pieces like this.

I figure that’s because wanting to help others is written into each of us.

It’s part of natural law: principles that haven’t and won’t change. How we deal with natural law depends on individual and cultural differences, and what era we’re living in. (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1954–1960)

I’ve mentioned the idea of reciprocity we call the Golden Rule a few times. (June 4, 2017)

Each of us has humanity’s “transcendent dignity.” (Catechism, 1929)

Books have been written about natural law, but the basics are simple. I should love God, love my neighbor, see everyone as my neighbor; and act accordingly. (Matthew 22:36–40, 5:43–44, 7:12; Mark 12:28–31; Mark 12:28–31; Luke 10:25–30; Catechism, 1825, 1929)

Simple, and anything but easy.

Numbers and Questions


(From Reuters, via BBC News, used w/o permission.)

“Amtrak Washington train crash: Investigators focus on speed”
(December 19, 2017)

“A US passenger train that derailed, killing three people, was travelling at 80mph (130km/h) on a curve with a speed limit of 30mph, data from the train’s rear engine indicates.

It happened in Washington state during rush hour on Monday and officials say 72 people were taken to hospital.

A number of those injured are reported to be in a serious condition.

Authorities said all carriages had now been searched, but would not rule out a rise in the number of dead….”

This could have been much worse. Apparently seven vehicles were under the train when it fell. I’m surprised that nobody on Interstate 5 was killed. Injured, yes, but still alive a day after the incident.

I’ve heard different numbers for how many were hospitalized. That’s no surprise, since folks were taken to quite a few medical facilities. In their position, I’d rather have getting me to medicos a higher priority than filling out paperwork.

It’s still bad: for folks killed when the train derailed, those who are hospitalized, their families and friends. No pressure, but prayer couldn’t hurt.

It’s Not Simple


(From BBC News, via Wikimedia Commons, used w/o permission.)

The Amtrak Cascades derailed at 7:33 Monday morning. When I checked on Tuesday, we still weren’t sure how many folks were in the train when it landed on Interstate 5.

At least three folks were killed in the wreck. That number could go up. Officials said as much, and it makes sense. Some survivors are in bad shape.

We’re pretty sure there aren’t any bodies, living or otherwise, inside what’s left of the train.

I believe it, but figure someone might have been on the ground when the cars stopped moving. Maybe someone landed in the trees, or managed to walk that far.

An NTSB Go Team is doing an on-site investigation.

They said it’d be wrapped up in a week or so. We probably won’t see more-or-less final conclusions for months, maybe a year. This sort of accident is pretty much the opposite of simple, so I don’t mind if the NTSB doesn’t jump to conclusions.

We’re learning that PTC, a new safety technology, was being installed in the train’s locomotive, but wasn’t ready for use yet. That doesn’t explain why the train was moving more than twice as fast as it should.

Someone with NTSB said they’d been recommending PTC be installed on all trains. Also that Congress had changed the deadline for putting their ‘use PTC’ legislation in effect — from the end of 2015 to the end of 2018.

I don’t know why the deadline changed. Maybe technical issues, too. The price tag is something like $22,000,000,000.2

Speed


(From Wall Street Journal, used w/o permission.)
(Amtrak’s Cascades: an unscheduled stop on its first run over the Point Defiance Bypass.)

“Three Are Killed as Amtrak Train Derails in Washington State”
Ted Mann, Alejandro Lazo, Zusha Elinson; Wall Street Journal (December 19, 2017)

“A half-hour behind schedule Monday morning on its inaugural ride along a new route, an Amtrak train carrying 77 passengers derailed on a tight curve south of Seattle, sending train cars into the woods and onto a highway below, killing three people and injuring dozens….”

“Derailed Amtrak Train Was Traveling at 80 MPH in a 30 MPH Zone”
Nour Malas, Zusha Elinson; Wall Street Journal (December 19, 2017)

“The Amtrak train that derailed in Washington state Monday was traveling at 80 miles an hour in a zone with a posted speed limit of 30 mph, a member of the National Transportation Safety Board said….”

Investigators know how fast the train was going, thanks to an onboard data recorder. I’ve read that the actual number is 81.1 miles an hour, so 80 mph seems like a reasonable approximation.

Other simplifications I’ve seen in news coverage don’t seem so reasonable.

Quite a few were repeating the assertion that the train was going 80 miles an hour in a 79 mph zone. It wasn’t entirely inaccurate. Amtrak Cascades had been on a 79 mile an hour zone before derailing.

Posted speed limit where the accident happened is 30 miles on hour.

The Monday morning Cascades commute might have made local news, anyway.

Amtrak Cascades passenger train 501 was the inaugural southbound revenue service run on the new-and-improved Point Defiance Bypass.

Like the other BBC News article said, the train was about a half-hour behind schedule when it left the tracks. That may or may not help explain why it was going more than two and a half times the speed limit.

Wanting to make up of for lost time might be a strong motivation for someone on the train or in managemt who didn’t want bad publicity.

That’s speculation on my part. I don’t know what was happening in anyone’s head that morning. All that’s clear at the moment is that folks are dead and injured, and we’ve got more questions than answers.

I’m particularly curious about why the line’s new safety tech wasn’t used, and why the train was going so very fast. If either happened because of someone’s decision, that raises more questions.

I also don’t know how often speeding trains leave the tracks these days.

Maybe a non-fatal Cascades derailment a few months back on the old coastal route wasn’t unusual, or was a coincidence. That train’s engineer was suspended without pay. (Molly Solomon, OPB News (July 6, 2017))

Tech


(From Dennis Bratland, via Wikimedia Commons, used w/o permission.)
(The current Amtrak Cascades route is red.)

The idea behind the bypass was putting passenger and freight trains on different tracks.

It should have made shorter commutes possible. Safer, too, since the tracks now have PTC, positive train control. Or will, eventually.

I think PTC is a good idea, but it’s controversial. Some objections probably make sense.

I understand that Congress set their requirements in stone, so engineers and technicians can’t recommend changes that would improve performance. They can recommend, I suppose, but nobody’s going to take official notice. Congress has spoken.

It’s new tech, so I’m not at all convinced that legislators in Washington understand how it works, and what’s possible.

I’ll get back to how I see PTC and human error.

Robber Barons


(From Punch, via Victorian Web, used w/o permission.)
(“How to Insure Against Railway Accidents. Tie a couple of Directors à la Mazeppa to every engine that starts a train.”
(John Leech, Punch, (March 26, 1853,p. 126))

Some folks were getting fed up with train wrecks and exploding boilers by the mid-19th century. We’re still sorting out whether blaming problems on some industrialists is reasonable. They’ve been called robber barons at least since 1859.

My own view is that laissez faire capitalism looks good on paper. So does full-bore socialism. The latter might work, in a society populated by intelligent bees or ants. For humans, not so much.

Knowing what I do about more-or-less well intentioned experiments with both, I’m not enthusiastic about either.

That’s something I didn’t need to change when I became a Catholic, although I learned that the Catholic version of social justice makes sense. (Tag: social justice)

Catholics like Luigi Taparelli apparently coined “social justice” — in the 1840s. Taparelli’s “Civiltà Cattolica” says that capitalist and socialist theories don’t pay enough attention to ethics. I think he’s right. (September 25, 2016)

Among the many things I like about being Catholic is that many of us are troublemakers. The good kind. (September 4, 2016)

Rules and Progress

America wasn’t the only place learning to deal with steam tech. That photo shows what happened in Oslo during the 1890s.

My country’s Interstate Commerce Act of 1887 was mostly about curbing monopolies, but arguably helped the ball rolling on regulating rail tech.

We’ve tried nationalizing railroads and deregulating since then, and assorted safety rules.3

I’m no great fan of regulations for their own sake.

But I think we need some sort of authority. I’m not blind to flaws in America’s system, but think it works pretty well: for us. Folks have used other forms over the millennia.

As long as we’re satisfied with a system and it supports the common good, I don’t see a problem with any system. (Catechism, 1897–1917, 1957)

I don’t think we’ll have a ‘perfect’ government a thousand years from now, or ten thousand.

But I am convinced we can do better than any of today’s, or those we’ve tried. We keep trying. With varying degrees of success. And making progress. Slowly. (July 9, 2017; May 21, 2017; October 30, 2016)

Human Error


(From Xnatedawgx, via Wikimedia Commons, used w/o permission.)
(A locomotive near Anaheim’s ARTIC.)

We’ve had mechanical train protection systems since the 19th century.

Train stops had arms by the track that went up when the system detected a train going through a red signal. Raised arms connected to valves on passing trains that controlled the brakes. Train stops didn’t start getting used widely until the early 20th century.

Positive Train Control, PTC, is a fairly new technology, and not on all rail systems. That lets folks point out that not many accidents have clearly been prevented by PTC.

It also hasn’t given technicians and engineers time to spot and fix bugs in the design. In any case, fixing the bugs might have to wait until Congress allows them to make changes.

Taking the option of racing through a low-speed zone out of a human operator’s control, makes sense to me.

Most humans, I think, generally prefer not being at the front of a train about to drop onto a road or into a river.

But sometimes our priorities get scrambled. I can understand wanting to make up for lost time. We can make really bad benefit/risk judgments when under stress.

I think humans have a place as vehicle operators, but not for tasks that rely more on responding to specific situations in a pre-determined way. One of our strengths, arguably, is coming up with new solutions to situations that nobody saw coming.

I’m not overly concerned about ‘trusting’ automatic systems, although I think having the option to override the system’s decision can be reassuring.

On the other hand, I’ve worked with AI and humans. We’re good for some tasks. But when something really daft happens, a 1968 film said it rather well:

“…It can only be attributable to human error….”
(HAL 9000, “2001: A Space Odyssey” (1968))

A Basically Good Idea

I remember two incidents on BART, the Bay Area Rapid Transit system. It’s been used since 1972.

Trains being operated by AI were very new at the time. And controversial.

That may explain heavy news coverage of a ‘robot controlled’ train running off the end of rails during a test run.

Rather late in the cycle I found a very brief mention at the end of one article, about what caused the overrun. The human operator had taken the train out of AI control and didn’t slow down quite in time. Nobody got hurt, happily.

Another incident happened while I was living in San Francisco.

BART trains had two ‘front ends’ with space for an operator and big windows so folks could see that a human was ‘in control.’

And maybe to let the human operator see what was going on. It’s a basically good idea. Like I said, humans seem to be pretty good at dealing with the unexpected. Usually.

Reading local news, I saw an item about an operator who had noticed kids at one of the stations playing with his train’s doors. They’d gone in and out a few times when he decided to leave the train and tell them to stop. That, I think, made sense.

But the BART AI wasn’t nearly as smart as today’s systems can be. The operator was supposed to use a switch when leaving the train. The AI couldn’t ‘see’ whether a human operator was onboard or not otherwise.

This time the operator left the train without using the switch. As soon as the AI noticed that nobody was blocking the doors, it took the train to its next stop.

The human operator tried, unsuccessfully, to catch the train. What he’d have done if he’d succeeded, I don’t know. I gather that the BART AI wasn’t equipped or programmed to check for pursuing train operators.

That train arrived at the next stop with no incident. Humans at BART control had most likely noticed what happened, and had a substitute driver ready to board the train there. I don’t know what happened at the errant operator’s next performance review.

How I see technology and dealing with change:

1 Wrecks and explosions:

2 The Amtrak Cascades derailment, mostly:

3 Rules and history:

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Rejoicing Anyway

Posted on December 17, 2017 by Brian H. Gill

If I thought my faith depended on feeling cheerful, I’d be worried.

Since I’m a Catholic, I think faith is willingly and consciously embracing “the whole truth that God has revealed.” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 142–150)

Faith is easier when my emotions are in sync with my reason. So is acting as if what I believe matters. Emotions can tell me that something needs attention, but “…conscience is a law of the mind….” (Catechism, 1777–1782)

Believing won’t do much good unless I love God and my neighbor, and see everyone as my neighbor. As Jesus said, it’s “the whole law and the prophets.” (Matthew 22:37–40)

Feelings and Quirks

I haven’t been feeling all that cheerful lately: hardly surprising since I haven’t had a good night’s sleep in over a week.

The last two nights were as close an approximation as I’ve achieved. Maybe tonight will be better.

The good news is that the family hasn’t had a major medical incident over the last week or so. Stress can help folks experience insomnia. “Help?” Never mind.

I’m still dealing with habits and response patterns developed during decades of depression. That gets me back to faith, feelings, and making sense. Sort of.

Depression, the sort I still deal with, is a disorder; not a choice. There’s a ‘spiritual’ angle to it, but ‘exorcising demon depression’ doesn’t make sense.

Taking care of my health, within reason, does. (November 26, 2017; November 19, 2017; October 8, 2017; May 7, 2017)

Depression isn’t my only psychiatric issue. PTSD has been part of the mix since I was 12. Today’s parents or family doctors often spot signs of autism spectrum long before kids reach their teens.

Add congenital hip dysplasia, and by some standards I’m a mess. (November 19, 2017; March 19, 2017; October 16, 2016)

“Rejoice Always”

This Sunday’s second reading has good advice: more like an instruction, actually.

“Brothers and sisters:
Rejoice always. Pray without ceasing.
In all circumstances give thanks,
for this is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus….”
(Thessalonians 5:16–24)

I quoted the first part in September. (September 24, 2017)

Psalms 118:24 and Philippians 4:4 say that rejoicing is a good idea, too.

I don’t feel like it sometimes. Physical and psychiatric issues could seem like excuses for griping, grousing and grumbling. But I can remember reasons for rejoicing, no matter where my emotions are at the moment.

Living in this wonder-packed universe is near the top of my list. So is the best news humanity’s ever had. God loves each of us, and wants to adopt us. (John 3:17; Ephesians 1:3–5; Catechism, 52, 1825)

“Pray Without Ceasing”

I’ll probably get back to prayer and all that, but not today. That may wait until I’m more nearly awake.

I can, however, say something about prayer. It’s a gift of grace, and something I can’t do unless I decide it’s worth the effort. (Catechism, 2725)

Prayer is also a battle against attitudes I’ve learned from snags and snares dating from when time did not yet exist. My own shortcomings, too. (Catechism, 391–395, 2725–2728)

More-or-less-related posts:

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California Fires, 2017

Posted on December 15, 2017 by Brian H. Gill

The good news is that only a small fraction of California is on fire or incinerated.

The bad news is that this year’s California wildfires have been big, destructive, and aren’t over yet.

I’ll be talking about a few of the fires, why I think troubles aren’t over for folks living in California, a little about wildfires in general. Also how I see disasters, God, nature and beliefs: sensible and otherwise.

Rain and Fires


(From Phoenix7777, via Wikimedia Commons, used w/o permission.)
(Top: 2017 Northern California wildfires from January 1 to October 11. Bottom left: California wildfires in October 2017; bottom right: California wildfires, December 2017.)

It’s been a bad year for wildfires in California. Oddly enough, getting adequate rain early on helped — if that’s the right word — keep the fires going.

More than the usual year’s growth of grass dried up later in the year. Sparks from poorly-maintained power lines or other tech we weren’t using wisely probably weren’t the only causes.

Lightning, volcanic eruptions, or other natural events start fires, too. With acres of tinder-dry grass, it wouldn’t take much.

Nature Preserves in Perspective


(From Getty Images, via BBC News, used w/o permission.)
(“The wildfire has devastated acres of land in Ventura and Santa Paula”
(BBC News))

My extended family-by-marriage is spread out a bit. That let me I talk with a California resident at a holiday family get-together.

Their house is well away from any fires, which is good. Air in their part of the state, however, is foul.

Smoke from a small wildfire can dissipate pretty rapidly. Months of smoke from a whole lot of huge fires is another matter. I’m quite sure life on Earth will endure, but effluvia from those fires is a real problem. I’ll get back to that.

I gather that a significant number of the fires have started because the State of California hasn’t been taking care of the state’s infrastructure.

I haven’t researched the assertion, but it seems plausible. Not getting around to spending money on routine maintenance happens.

Back in 2007, an Interstate bridge here in Minnesota collapsed. Apparently the official explanation is that the problem was a design flaw.

That’s likely enough a factor, but at the time there was a fuss being raised over not-entirely-adequate maintenance. On the ‘up’ side, the bridge held for four decades before breaking. Death toll was 13, with 145 injured. It could have been worse.

Controlled Burns

Wildfires can be a real problem for us. But they’re not all bad.

We’ve learned quite a bit since my school days. Between Smoky the Bear’s “only you can prevent forest fires” and a growing desire to not ‘spoil’ nature, most folks figured fires were always bad news.

Then some folks noticed that vegetation grows back after a fire.

Scientists and conservationists had records from before we started suppressing fires.

Just as important, we’d been preventing most fires in nature preserves for years, decades. Most fires, that is. A few started and spread a bit anyway. That let us compare places with no fires and comparable spots that had burned and recovered.

The recovered forests and grasslands looked more like they had when we started keeping records. Lesson learned. Now controlled burns are part of routine maintenance in many nature preserves.

Controlled burns are just that: controlled. They’re carefully set, watched, and kept from spreading into areas that we want to keep. Most of the time. That’s when they get in the news, more often than not.

Wildfires: They’re Not New

A bit upwards of 200,000,000 years back, something killed a whole lot of critters.

It happened in what we’ve been calling the Petrified Forest Formation of the Chinle Group, in north-central New Mexico.

Some scientists recently looked at fossils from the area. From the condition of the fossilized bones and wood, they figure that most likely they died in a wildfire.

The point of that paleontological digression is that wildfires didn’t start when we started making power lines and barbecue grills. They’ve been part of life here for a very long time.1

That doesn’t make California wildfires less of a problem. But I think remembering that humans don’t cause everything makes sense.

Southern California


(From NASA/ESA, used w/o permission.)
(False-color image of the Ventura County burn scar on December 5, 2017, using data from the European Space Agency’s Sentinel-2 satellite. Active fires are orange, the burn scar is brown. Unburned vegetation is green, developed areas are gray.)

“California’s Thomas Fire scorches area larger than New York City”
BBC News (December 11, 2017)

“The most destructive wildfire raging in southern California has expanded significantly, scorching an area larger than New York City.

“The Thomas Fire in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties has consumed 230,000 acres (930 sq km) in the past week.

“Fanned by strong winds, it has become the fifth largest wildfire in recorded state history after it grew by more than 50,000 acres in a day.

“Residents in coastal beach communities have been ordered to leave….”

I’m not going to add up how big this year’s fires are — not this week. That’s partly because the numbers keep changing.

A recent total was around 245,000 acres. That’s 990 square kilometers, 382.24 square miles.

If they’d all been in one place, the area would be around 19 and a half miles on a side.

The fires have destroyed about $9,400,000,000 of insured property so far. Insurance can’t cover everything, though. I think it’ll take years for businesses and people to recover from time spent cleaning up and rebuilding. Those able to rebuild, that is.

California Wildfires: Comparisons and Health


(From The New York Times, used w/o permission.)
(Wildfires near Los Angeles, around December 7, 2017)

“Where the Fires Are Spreading in Southern California”
K.K. Rebecca Lai, Derek Watkins, Tim Wallace; The New York Times (December 8, 2017)

“Several wildfires continued to blaze in the Los Angeles and San Diego areas on Friday, burning more than 100,000 acres and forcing nearly 200,000 people to evacuate….”

The good news is that the Los Angeles metropolitan area didn’t catch fire. Just parts of it.

The bad news is that fires are still burning.

News services based in America’s east coast comparing the burned and burning areas to New York City, BBC compared them to London’s footprint. Either way, these are big fires.

After the Fires: What I Expect

Losing your home is bad, but stuff can be replaced. Except for family photos and other one-of-a kind things.

I haven’t seen numbers, but I’m guessing that many folks don’t have a place to work now. Losing a job or business hurts, too; although it can be less personal than losing a house.

But like I said, stuff can be replaced. People can’t.

At least 44 folks have died so far, 192 or more others have been injured. My guess is that the toll in lives and health will keep growing over the next few decades.

There are probably smoke-free spots in California, but a whole lot of folks who aren’t anywhere near a wildfire are downwind of one.

Breathing wood and grass smoke isn’t particularly healthy. When more-or-less-new buildings burn, things get complicated. And toxic.

There are good reasons for using PVC pipes, and polybrominated diphenyl ethers make pretty good fire retardant. But sometimes structures burn anyway. Smoke from today’s building fires has some distinctly-unhealthy stuff in it.2

My guess is that folks in many parts of California today will have more than their share of health problems over the next several decades.

To Sleep, Perchance to Think

One of these days I’ll probably talk about St. Francis of Assisi. But not today.

Last night I enjoyed a full night’s sleep — for the first time in about a week. That’s made focusing — my mind, eyes, or pretty much anything else — more challenging than usual.

We need sleep, and it’s better if we do it while the sun is down.

Taking care of my health, within reason, is a good idea.

I don’t know why Medieval and Victorian pop religious literature made such a big deal of swooning Saints. But stories about them sold quite a few books over the centuries. I’ve talked about Saints and ham sandwiches before. (July 2, 2017)

Some Saints, and certainly not all, really did do very unhealthy things to themselves. But it’s not why they’re Saints. And that’s another topic.

Dominion and Doing Our Job

My culture had a badly-distorted notion of our “dominion” over this world for entirely too long.

More of us started realizing that nature was beautiful, important, and not immune to stupid behavior while I was in my teens.

I think the change in attitude made sense. Today’s notion that a core Christian value is destroying nature is distorted: putting it very mildly.

As I keep saying, the part of God’s creation we can see is “very good.” We do have “dominion” here, but we don’t own the universe. It’s God’s property. Taking care of the place is part of our job. (Genesis 1:1–28, 2:15; Catechism of the Catholic Church, 216, 373)

Our job description includes making reasoned use of its resources for ourselves and future generations, and keeping our home in good working order. (Catechism, 2402–2406, 2415)

Faith and Getting a Grip

That reminded me of the durable notion that using post-pharaonic Egyptian medical tech isn’t ‘Christian.’

I think trusting God makes sense. But taking care of ourselves is a good idea, too. Again, within reason. (October 8, 2017)

I still run across folks who don’t ‘believe in’ vaccinations. I figure they really believe that God doesn’t like vaccines because they’re not mentioned in the Bible.

I read and study the Bible. It’s part of being Catholic, or should be. (Catechism, 101–133)

But movable type isn’t in the Bible either. Even so, I’ve never run into an ‘it’s not in the Bible’ enthusiast who will only read hand-copied Bibles. And that’s yet another topic.

Getting and staying healthy is a good idea. Within reason. Prayer is important too, and so is science. (Catechism, 1506–1510, 2288, 2289, 2292)

The notion that there’s virtue in being sick isn’t going away any time soon. Neither is assuming that folks get sick because God is smiting them. I don’t think either makes sense. (July 21, 2017; August 21, 2016)

The same goes for disasters. Assuming that God smites sinners and rewards ‘good people’ may be comforting to healthy folks who still have their homes. That doesn’t make it true.

“‘Or those eighteen people who were killed when the tower at Siloam fell on them—do you think they were more guilty than everyone else who lived in Jerusalem?'”
(Luke 13:4)

More of what I think about faith, health, disasters and making sense:

1 More than you may want to know about wildfires:

2 New materials and health:

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