Ukraine, Russia, Annexation; and Learning from History

Posted on April 30, 2022 by Brian H. Gill

Ukraine's Ministry of Internal Affairs, photo showing folks looking for bodies. Gagarin building of the secondary school number 18 in Chernihiv. (March 6, 2022)
(From Ukraine’s Ministry of Internal Affairs, via Wikimedia Commons, used w/o permission.)
(Looking for bodies in Chernihiv’s secondary school number 18. (March 6, 2022))

I hadn’t planned on writing about the mess in Ukraine this soon.

But stuff happened.

So I’ll be writing about Russia’s purported military. Also what two alleged generals said, and a whole lot of allegedly-dead Ukrainians.

“Purported?” “Alleged?” “Allegedly?”

Pulitzer's New York World front page headline and illustration stating that a torpedo or bomb sunk the Maine. (February 17, 1898)Seeing news services avoiding “Remember the Maine”-style sabre-rattling is nice. So is their implied caution about claims which haven’t been verified.

But the “purported” proliferation of “alleged” has gotten on my nerves.

So I’m not dropping “alleged” and “purported” into every other sentence.

But I haven’t verified everything I’ll be talking about, much as I’d like to. I don’t have the resources available to outfits like BBC News and Reuters. And even they see fit to qualify their statements.

So I’ll skip “alleged” and “purported,” and assume you realize that I’m not omniscient.

Another thing: I don’t like war. It kills people and breaks things.

Avoiding war is a good idea.

But sometimes war is better than the alternative. I talked about life, love and legitimate defense last month.1

So, much as I’d prefer that Ukraine stop being a war zone, I sympathize with Ukrainians who have been fighting Russian troops.

Scylla, Charybdis and the Moskova

Chernilevsky's photo of the Russian cruiser Moskva. (July 22, 2009)
(From Chernilevsky, via Wikimedia Commons, used w/o permission.)
(The Moskova, pride of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, while it was still afloat. (2009))

The guided missile cruiser Moskva was the Russian Black Sea Fleet’s flagship, and arguably most powerful warship in the Black Sea region.

Then it sank.

Why it sank depends on who’s talking.

Ukrainian officials say it’s because they fired two R-360 Neptune missiles at it. A senior American official says the Ukrainian version fits available evidence.

Russia’s Ministry of Defense say the Moskova sank because it caught fire, which set off some of its munitions.2

I’m not sure which version makes the Russian navy look worse.

They Said What?!

From Mack Sennett Studios: a publicity still from 'In the Clutches of the Gang.' (1914)
(From Mack Sennet Studios, via Wikimedia Commons, used w/o permission.)
(Keystone Kops. On screen, funny; as role models, not so much. (1914))

The Moskva may not have been state-of-the-art, but the Soviet-era missile cruiser had a sophisticated defense system.

The outer layer of its triple-tier defenses should have detected and stopped the missiles three or four minutes before they hit.

And if the first two layers didn’t work, the Moskva still had its AK-630 rotary cannons.

Granted, the AK-630 was designed for defense against aircraft and helicopters, not missiles. One the other hand, firing several thousand rounds per minute as a missile flies the last couple miles, pinpoint accuracy may not be vital.

At any rate, the Moskva’s S-300F and OSA surface-to-air missiles, chaff and decoys, and electronic jamming should have kept both Neptune missiles from reaching the ship.

Maybe the Moskva’s radar wasn’t working. Or the crew was distracted. Or the ship’s missiles wouldn’t fire. I don’t know.

Whatever the reason, Ukrainian missiles flying through the Moskva’s three-layer defense system doesn’t make the Russian navy look good.

Russia’s official explanation isn’t much of an improvement over Ukraine’s.

Their version has the Black Sea Fleet’s flagship run by folks who let their ship catch fire, after which it sank.

Either way, the captain and crew of the Moskva come out looking like latter-day Keystone Kops.3

Nazis and NATO

A frame from Ukraine's National News Agency's video showing aftermath of Russia's liberation of Bucha. (April 3, 2022)
(From Ukrinform TV, via Wikimedia Commons, used w/o permission.)
(Ukrainians, liberated by Russian troops in Bucha, Ukraine. (April 3, 2022))

What’s happening in Ukraine depends, again, on who’s talking.

I gather that Russia’s line is still that they’re hunting neo-Nazis. Or liberating Ukrainians. Or something like that.

And anyway, Putin and company say NATO is out to get Russia. So Russia is just defending itself. And Ukrainians who are really Russians. You can tell which Ukrainians are ‘really Russians.’ They’re the ones whose bodies aren’t littering the streets.

The national parliaments of Canada, Estonia, Latvia, Poland and Ukraine say that Russian troops are committing genocide. Some legal scholars say yes, others say no.

Oddly enough, I haven’t run across claims that disagreeing with Putin proves that Canada, Estonia, Latvia, Poland and Ukraine are run by Nazis: neo- or otherwise.4

Sadly, what Russian forces have been doing in Ukraine will probably reult in NATO members becomming more actively hostile towards Russia.

Perceptions and Responses

Ministry of Defense of Ukraine's photo, showing results of a Kramatorsk railway bombing. (April 8, 2022)
(From Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, via Wikimedia Commons, used w/o permission.)
(Some of the 57 Ukrainians who missed their train in Kramatorsk. (April 8, 2022))

I’m no legal expert, but I suspect that proving genocide will be difficult. Mainly because it strikes me as needing proof of intent.

That said, assorted rapes, torture, informal executions — “extrajudicial killing” in academese — and looting by Russian troops look like genocide.

Or maybe the result of giving weapons to a bunch of marginally-trained yahoos. Who are upset because Ukrainians fought back.

But the situation, bad as it is, could be worse. As far as I can tell, not even Russian officials are trying to brush off bodies in the street with “boys will be boys.”

And a remarkable number of national governments are acting as if Russia’s invasion isn’t business as usual. Some are even saying they’ll help Ukrainians avoid being wiped out.5

I strongly suspect having everything from satellite imagery to camera phones giving us something besides government press releases as evidence helps.

Information technology, evidence, testimony, propaganda and bias — are cans of worms I’ll leave for another time.

Today Donetsk, Tomorrow the World?

Ishvara7's map of empires and colonies. (1900-1910)
(From Ishvara7, via Wikimedia Commons, used w/o permission.)
(‘The good old days’ of empires and colonies, before World War I. I don’t miss them.)

Hitler didn’t say “today Germany, tomorrow the world.”

But he might have said “Denn heute gehört uns Deutschland/Und morgen die ganze Welt.” At any rate, that’s part of “Es zittern die morschen Knochen,” a marching song for the Reich Labour Service.

“Tomorrow the World!” is also a 1944 film hardly anyone watches any more, and I’m drifting off-topic.

Or maybe not so much.

Germany annexed Austria and Sudetenland in 1938.

The Slovak Republic became, on paper at least, an independent state in 1939: a day before Germany annexed part of Bohemia and Moravia.

Sudetenland, Bohemia and Moravia had been part of Czechoslovakia.

Czechoslovakia is a country that happened when World War I’s winners decided it should stop being part of Austria-Hungary. I gather that the territory became a couple socialist republics in 1992 or thereabouts.6

Although all that annexation sounds like what Russia’s military has been doing in Ukraine, I don’t think Putin is a Nazi.

But I do think remembering people and events that happened before this week’s news cycle is a good idea. And I think that, although the 1938 Munich Agreement may have seemed like a good idea at the time, its “peace for our time” didn’t last long.

Goals and Fears

Lencer's map of Ukraine, showing areas which were disputed or not internationally recognized. (March 6, 2022)
(From Lencer, via Wikimedia Commons, used w/o permission.)
(Map of Ukraine, including places previously “annexed” by Russia. (March 6, 2022))

I don’t see much chance of achieving “peace for our time,” Munich 1938-style.

“Ukraine war: US wants to see a weakened Russia”
Matt Murphy, BBC News (April 25, 2022)

“…Russian President Vladimir Putin has accused the West of attempting to ‘split Russian society and destroy Russia from within’.

“Mr Austin, a retired four-star general, was speaking after meeting Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv….

“…At a news conference in Poland after the visit, Mr Austin told reporters the US wants to see ‘Russia weakened to the degree that it can’t do the kinds of things that it has done in invading Ukraine’.

“The Pentagon chief added that US officials still believed Ukraine could win the conflict with ‘the right equipment’ and the ‘right support’….”
[emphasis mine]

“Kyiv accuses Moscow of ‘imperialism’ after Russia flags interest in south Ukraine”
Pavel Polityuk, Reuters (April 22, 2022)

“KYIV/MARIUPOL, Ukraine, April 22 (Reuters) – Moscow wants to take full control over southern Ukraine, a Russian general said on Friday, a statement Ukraine said gave the lie to Russia’s previous assertions that it had no territorial ambitions.

“Rustam Minnekayev, deputy commander of Russia’s central military district, was quoted by Russian state news agencies as saying full control over southern Ukraine would give it access to Transnistria, a breakaway Russian-occupied part of Moldova in the west.

“That would cut off Ukraine’s entire coastline and mean Russian forces pushing hundreds of miles west beyond current lines, past the major Ukrainian coastal cities of Mykolaiv and Odesa.

“Moscow says it is conducting a ‘special military operation’ to demilitarise Ukraine and liberate its population from dangerous nationalists. Ukraine and its Western allies call Russia’s invasion an unjustified war of aggression….”
[emphasis mine]

A Newfangled Idea that Makes Sense

Thomas Nast's 'The Usual Irish Way of Doing Things.' (September 2, 1871)Even if I wasn’t Catholic, I’d almost certainly think that genocide is a bad idea, or any government policy based on the notion that having the ‘wrong’ ancestors made folks enemies of the state.

Mainly because many of my ancestors are Irish. And that’s another topic.

Again, I don’t know if Russia’s leaders have decided that since Ukraine should be part of Russia, culling Russia’s metaphorical flock is okay.

If that’s the case, then we’re looking at what happens when one nation’s leaders uphold traditional values while others act as if a newfangled idea makes sense. The newfangled idea in this case is the notion that genocide is not a a ruler’s sovereign right.

“…When Lemkin asked about a way to punish the perpetrators of the Armenian genocide, a law professor told him: ‘Consider the case of a farmer who owns a flock of chickens. He kills them and this is his business. If you interfere, you are trespassing.’ As late as 1959, many world leaders still ‘believed states had a right to commit genocide against people within their borders’, according to political scientist Douglas Irvin-Erickson….”
(Genocide, Wikipedia
and see Raphael Lemkin, Early years, Wikipedia)

I think what’s happening in Ukraine looks like genocide. But I also think that it could be what happens when kill-happy thugs are let off the leash, an old-school ruler decides that it’s time for conquest, or maybe a combination of the above.

“Actions that Threaten the Security of the Continent”

From Lx 121, via Wikimedia Commons, used w/o permission.

Detail of 'The Apotheosis of Washington,' United States Capitol rotunda; Constantino Brumidi. (1865)My youth and the Sixties overlap, so I don’t have the old ‘Washington the ascended’ attitude toward my country.

That’s not, actually, a foregone conclusion, and that’s yet another topic.

I’m pleasantly surprised that so many national leaders, including mine, say that killing Ukranians is a bad idea. I’m even more pleased that a fair number are apparently backing up their words with actions.

But I am very much aware that not cooperating with a wannabe conqueror is risky.

“Russia sharpens warnings as the U.S. and Europe send more weapons to Ukraine”
Charles Maynes, NPR (April 29, 2022)

“MOSCOW — As the U.S. and Europe boost military aid to Ukraine, Russian authorities have escalated warnings and criticism, arguing the aid is not only fueling the conflict but also boosting the risk of direct confrontation between Russia and NATO powers.

“In some ways, Russian criticism over foreign military assistance to Ukraine is not new. Russian President Vladimir Putin seized on the delivery of Western arms to Kyiv as part of his rationale to launch what he insists is a limited ‘special military operation’ in February.

“Yet as Russia’s stated goals in Ukraine have narrowed to the ‘liberation’ of the eastern Donbas, the Kremlin’s amplified rhetoric reflects efforts to build public consensus for the need of a protracted — if not existential — war with the West.

“‘The tendency to pump weapons, including heavy weapons into Ukraine and other countries, these are the actions that threaten the security of the continent, provoke instability,’ Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters Thursday. It was the latest in a series of statements from Moscow that the conflict in Ukraine risks spilling into a wider conflict with the West….”

Helping Ukraine’s military keep Russia’s military from killing more Ukranians will offend Putin and his pals. Which could mean trouble.

United Nations General Assembly, March 2-April 7

Maps by Jurta and Pilaz: showing how countries voted on United Nations General Assembly Resolutions ES-11/1 through 3. (March 2 April 6, 7, 2022)
(From Jurta, Pilaz, via Wikimedia Commons, used w/o permission.)
(UN General Assembly Resolutions ES-11-1, ES-11-2, ES-11-3, (March 2, April 6-7, 2022))

Whoever’s making decisions in Russia may decide that nations criticizing their “special military operation” are enemies of the state and must be destroyed.

Which makes what’s been happening at the United Nations so surprising. Maybe “shocking” is more like it.

“UN General Assembly votes to suspend Russia from the Human Rights Council”
UN Affairs, UN News (April 7, 2022)

“The UN General Assembly adopted a resolution on Thursday calling for Russia to be suspended from the Human Rights Council.

“The resolution received a two-thirds majority of those voting, minus abstentions, in the 193-member Assembly, with 93 nations voting in favour and 24 against.

“Fifty-eight abstained from the process.

“Russia, China, Cuba, North Korea, Iran, Syria, Vietnam, were among those who voted against….”

The United Nations General Assembly had been busy before that April 7, 2022, vote.

From March 2 to April 7, they’d passed United Nations General Assembly Resolutions —

  • ES-11/1
  • ES-11/2
  • ES-11/3

— None of which upheld Russia’s sovereign right to “annex” Ukrainian territory and kill Ukrainians.7

European governments, at least, may remember what happened the last time they achieved “peace for our time.”

Some non-European abstaining nations may be hoping that places like Canada and Poland will foil Russia’s ambitions. And, just in case Russia wins, hoping that they’ll be “annexed” without too much “liberation.”

The Weimar Republic, United Nations and Learning from History

'Reparations' cartoon.The UN General Assembly’s April 7 vote, calling for Russia’s suspension from the Human Rights Council may or may not actually have a practical effect.

The last I checked, the Russian Federation still has the Soviet Union’s old position as a permanent member of the UN Security Council: with veto power.

Just like the French Republic, the Republic of China, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

Maybe we’re looking at a major change in the international status quo. If so, I suspect it’s a change for the better.

I don’t see how the UN Security Council, or the United Nations, could have been formed without giving those five governments so much influence. But I think it’s among the United Nation’s biggest flaws.

As an American, I can ‘feel good’ about my national leaders having veto power in the UN.

But also as an American, I see it as equivalent to — say — Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts and New York state having veto power over a major part of the federal government.

Finally, although I think stopping Russia’s military from killing Ukrainians is a good idea, I also think Russia’s military isn’t the problem.

And weakening Russia’s military may not be a good solution. Not in the long run.

As I see it, Russian troops are running wild in Ukraine because Russia’s leaders sent them there. With different leaders, Russian troops might be less likely to indulge in mass murder. And Russian sailors less likely to scuttle their own ships.

And although I sympathize with a desire to see “Russia weakened to the degree that it can’t do the kinds of things that it has done in invading Ukraine” — that sounds far too much like efforts to cripple Germany, after World War I.8

Maybe the Weimar Republic would have made poor decisions, even if World War I’s winners hadn’t decided to punish Germany for having lost.

But I very strongly suspect that Hitler and the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei would have had a much harder time getting control in the late 1920s and early 1930s.

And that’s yet again another topic.

This is where I’d start explaining why I think keeping someone from killing my neighbors is a good idea, and that treating my neighbors as if they’re people — even if they’re not acting nice — is also a good idea.

But it’s getting late, and I’ve talked about that before. Often:

1 Wars, old and new:

2 Pride of the Russian Black Sea Fleet:

3 Scylla and Charybdis, Keystone Kops and the Russian Navy:

4 One side says Nazis, another says genocide:

5 Dead Ukrainians and “Gulliver’s Travels:”

6 Remembering “peace for our time:”

7 Annexation and the 21st century:

8 A little 20th century history:

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Mostly Good News: New Computer For Me

Posted on April 21, 2022 by Brian H. Gill

My wife and son are giving me a new computer. It’s both a wedding anniversary present, and a much-needed upgrade.

That’s good news.

More good news, at least from my viewpoint: I decided that it is financially possible to upgrade hosting for this blog. One of my next steps will be to talk with the hosting company’s folks, and learn how I do the upgrade with a minimum of unsettling surprises. Maybe I’m being overly cautious. Or pessimistic.

At any rate: a few minutes ago my son asked me if I could give him access to my computer today, so he can start that time-consuming process of transferring files and whatever else needs doing.

It’s been about a decade since I passed the household ‘computer guy’ mantle on to my son, so my skills in that area are not only metaphorically rusty. They’re very seriously out of date.

All of this is good news; or satisfactory, at any rate.

But between my having spent much of this week figuring out whether or not upgraded hosting is practical and my son’s upcoming work with a new computer — I may not have anything ready for my regular ‘Saturday’ post.

So I figured it’d be prudent to let you know what’s happening here, and how events at my desk affect A Catholic Citizen in America.

I hope to be back online later today. Or tomorrow. Or whenever it happens. Thanks for stopping by, and I trust I’ll have something ready by a week from Saturday.

I’ve talked about the “much-needed upgrade” angle before, among other things:

Posted in Journal | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Easter: Parades, Eggs, and the Best News Ever

Posted on April 16, 2022 by Brian H. Gill

Brian H. Gill's 'Easter Egg.' (2016)

Easter Sunday is a very big deal.

It’s “the greatest of all Sundays,” since it’s when we celebrate our Lord’s resurrection.

Begin celebrating, actually. The Easter season lasts until Pentecost Sunday: not quite two months from now.

Maybe “our Lord’s resurrection” sounds routine, familiar, two millennia after that post-Passover surprise.

But let’s remember that the 12 Apostles, make that 11 after Judas Iscariot killed himself, and everyone else close to Jesus expected him to stay dead.

Mary of Magdala, “the other Mary,” Peter, John: everyone who had been traveling with Jesus knew that he was dead. He’d been tortured, crucified, and given a postmortem poke with a lance. (Matthew 27:45–61; Mark 15:33–47 … John 19:34)

I gather that folks had seen Jesus as a king of the military and political sort: someone who would lead them in victory to freedom from Roman rule.1

Which accounts for the triumphal entry we celebrated last week. And the Sanhedrin having conniptions, imagining how Roman forces might react to a popular revolt.

The Sanhedrin’s concerns were, I think, valid: from a political viewpoint, anyway. And if I assumed that Jesus of Nazareth was the grassroots rabble-rouser they feared.

Which I don’t. But I’m living in an era that’s two millennia in their future, which gives me a better look at the big picture.

Jerusalem Riots of 66, Masada: Looking Back

Godot13's photo of Masada, in the Judaean Desert, with the Dead Sea in the distance. (March 28, 2013)Jewish beliefs and culture weren’t a good match with either Hellenization — Greek culture was the era’s Disney and Coca-Cola, impossible to ignore — or Roman law.

Then, three decades after Jesus had been executed, Greek-Jewish tensions and tax protests boiled over in Jerusalem.

Gessius Florus, Roman procurator of Judea, couldn’t restore the status quo. Extracting what he said were back taxes from the Temple treasury hadn’t helped.

After that, Gaius Cestius Gallus, Rome’s Syrian Legate, marched in and led his forces to defeat.

Then Vespasian waded in.

Seven years later, the revolt’s last heroes, or fanatics, depending on who’s talking, regrouped in Masada: a fortified plateau that might have been invincible if the besiegers hadn’t been Romans. But they were.

After turning several thousand tons of rock and dirt into a ramp giving access to the plateau, Roman forces entered Masada: and found pretty much everyone dead.

Or something like that. The incident is still controversial.

Someone said that a contemporary account doesn’t line up with what other Roman forces did in other places.

And it seems that after two millennia, there’s not much forensic evidence left at the scene. So, according to at least one academic perspective, the mass suicide probably didn’t happen. Or can’t be verified.2

I recognize the value of physical evidence, and the wisdom of taking testimony with a grain of salt. Which may be why Thomas is one of my favorite Apostles.

“I Have Seen the Lord”

James Tissot's 'Mary Magdalene Questions the Angels in the Tomb.' (between 1886 and 1894)Recapping, Jesus of Nazareth had been held by the authorities.

He had been questioned, tortured and finally nailed to a cross on Golgotha.

Then he died.

It was a very public death.

After that, he was buried.

“They took the body of Jesus and bound it with burial cloths along with the spices, according to the Jewish burial custom.
“Now in the place where he had been crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb, in which no one had yet been buried.
“So they laid Jesus there because of the Jewish preparation day; for the tomb was close by.”
(John 19:40–42)

Friday night and Saturday passed.

Sunday morning, Mary of Magdala and maybe others noticed that the tomb’s stone had been rolled away.

She ran to tell Peter and “the other disciple” what she saw.

They returned, finding an empty tomb.

Make that almost empty. Mary of Magdala stayed behind, weeping. When she looked into the tomb, she saw two angels.

After a short Q & A with the angels, she saw, but didn’t at first recognize, Jesus. Then she told the other disciples what and who she had seen.

Later, Jesus showed up — in a locked room — which I figure helped many disciples believe that Mary of Magdala hadn’t been having hallucinations.

But at least one of them, Thomas, hadn’t been there. (John 20:1–23)

Testimony, Evidence and Belief

Anthony van Dyck's 'Bust of the Apostle Thomas. (1620?)Small wonder Thomas wasn’t taking “I have seen the Lord” statements as absolute proof.

Again, at least some of the folks who had been following Jesus had seen him die.

And they all knew that dead is dead. Particularly when crucifixion was the cause of death.

So Thomas wouldn’t believe that Jesus had stopped being dead.

Not unless he had physical evidence.

“Thomas, called Didymus, one of the Twelve, was not with them when Jesus came.
“So the other disciples said to him, ‘We have seen the Lord.’ But he said to them, ‘Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands and put my finger into the nailmarks and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.’
“Now a week later his disciples were again inside and Thomas was with them. Jesus came, although the doors were locked, and stood in their midst and said, ‘Peace be with you.’
“Then he said to Thomas, ‘Put your finger here and see my hands, and bring your hand and put it into my side, and do not be unbelieving, but believe.’
“Thomas answered and said to him, ‘My Lord and my God!’
“Jesus said to him, ‘Have you come to believe because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed.'”
(John 20:24–28)

His insistence on evidence inspired the “Doubting Thomas” nickname.

Which I gather dates back to around the 17th century.3

Granted, Jesus said that folks who believed without physical evidence are blessed.

But I think remembering that Jesus showed up for Thomas is prudent. And that Thomas, given the evidence he’d said he needed — believed.

I like Thomas, partly because he asked a reasonable question: and accepted the answer.

And partly because of something I’ll get back to.

“…In the Easter Parade….”

U.S. Bureau of Public Roads' photo by an unknown photographer: New York City's 1900 Easter Parade. (Easter Sunday, April 15, 1900)
(U.S. Bureau of Public Roads, via Wikimedia Commons, used w/o permission.)

“In your Easter bonnet
With all the frills upon it
You’ll be the grandest lady
In the Easter parade….”
(“Easter Parade,” Irving Berlin (1933) via family-friendly-movies.com)

Easter parades aren’t new. They go back, arguably, to our Lord’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem and his trek to Golgotha.

Parades of one sort or another go back to festival and funeral processions in ancient Egypt. And almost certainly earlier, since that’s about as far back as our records go.

Processions can be for advertising, entertainment, showing power or solidarity, or marking the start or end of events.

Catholic processions, from carrying the Gospel Book at the start of Mass to the Lord of Miracles procession in Lima, Peru, are part of our worship.

In a sense, they advertise, entertain and share other aspects with secular processions.

Which doesn’t bother me, since I see worship as part of living: not an airtight compartment, unrelated to the rest of my existence.

Collage from globalnews.ca's coverage of Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. (November 25, 2021)And I enjoy non-religious parades, including Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.4

Even though my culture’s ‘shop till you drop’ winter solstice celebration and Christmas overlap.

That’s partly because the Macy’s procession is on America’s Thanksgiving day. And, although our harvest festival has religious aspects, I see it as mainly a secular celebration.

America’s traditional Easter parades are another matter.

Sunday Best, Symbolism and a Fashion Extravaganza

Adolf Dehn's lithograph, untitled 'Easter Parade.' (ca. 1940-1949) via Smithsonian American Art Museum
(From Smithsonian American Art Museum, used w/o permission.)
(America’s Easter parade, as imagined by Adolf Dehn. (ca.1940-1949))

My ‘Sunday best’ wardrobe is a subset of my ‘out of the house’ clothes. But some other men in the parish wear my culture’s conventional business suite during Mass.

And that’s okay, I figure, since my ‘Sunday best’ shirt and slacks are clean, unpatched and less informal than what I’ll occasionally wear around the house.

I can see how wearing new clothes for Easter symbolizes new life, which is appropriate for celebrating our Lord’s resurrection.

On the other hand, warding off bad luck by wearing new homespun isn’t an option.

Mainly because that’s being superstitious, and acting on superstitions is a bad idea. (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2110-2111)

I’m not convinced that America’s traditional Easter Day parade started in New York City, and that it set the tone for American Easter celebrations from from the 1880s to 1950s; but digging out the fashion extravaganza’s roots would take more time than I like.

However, cultural references like the 1948 Fred Astaire and Judy Garland “Easter Parade” movie, Irving Berlin’s song, and a charming children’s book whose title I forget strongly suggest that Easter parades were a big deal in my country.5

Make that had been a big deal, before I started noticing national-level current events.

Spring Fashions, Easter and Ecclesiastes

Brian from Hoboken's photo of folks in New York City's Easter Parade. (April 8, 2007)I’ll indulge in nostalgia now and again, but I remember ‘the good old days;’ and they weren’t nearly as idyllic as rose-colored memory filters might suggest.

That photo of Easter Day parade participants, taken in 2007, suggests that the event has become at least partly a nostalgic tradition.

Which can be okay.

I don’t see ‘traditional’ as automatically good or bad. It’s just something that we’ve been doing for a while, or had been doing.

Some traditions are worth keeping, some aren’t, traditions aren’t Tradition, capital “T,” and that’s another topic.

Parading down New York City’s streets in the latest — or yesteryear’s — spring fashions may not be intrinsically wrong, and probably isn’t.

But I’m not entirely comfortable with that fine old American tradition.

Maybe because I’ve read Ecclesiastes.

“The words of David’s son, Qoheleth, king in Jerusalem:
“Vanity of vanities, says Qoheleth,
vanity of vanities! All things are vanity!”
(Ecclesiastes 1:1–2)

I’ve paraphrased the book as “I’ve had everything, I’ve done everything, I’ve been everything: add it all up, and what have I got? NOTHING!”

That’s not quite an accurate reflection of the wisdom book.

“There is nothing better for mortals than to eat and drink and provide themselves with good things from their toil. Even this, I saw, is from the hand of God.
“For who can eat or drink apart from God?”
(Ecclesiastes 2:24–25)

Enjoying “good things,” within reason, is a good idea. (Catechism, 1809)

Wearing nice new clothes for Easter strikes me as being within reason. For folks who can afford doing so, at any rate.

Sashaying down New York City’s streets in nifty spring fashions?

Again, maybe it’s not a problem.

“…The Photographers Will Snap Us….”

The George Grantham Bain Collection's photo of folks enjoying New York City's Easter parade. (1908)
(From George Grantham Bain Collection, via Wikimedia Commons, used w/o permission.)
(Easter bonnets on New York City’s Fifth Avenue. (1908))

“…On the avenue, Fifth Avenue
The photographers will snap us
And you’ll find that you’re
In the rotogravure….”
(“Easter Parade,” Irving Berlin (1933) via family-friendly-movies.com)

“…Start on a leisurely stroll up Fifth Avenue,
There is where with haughty air
You’ll see them as they walk!
With velvets and laces and sables enfolding them….”
(“The Streets of New York,” ) Henry Blossom, Victor Herbert (1906) via RagPiano.com)

America’s traditional Easter parade may not be my country’s upper crust showing off their wealth, but seeing it that way takes little effort.

And that’s too close to encouraging pride and envy for my comfort.

Pride — self-esteem run amok, not my share in humanity’s transcendent dignity — and envy are both bad ideas. They’re in the list of capital sins: “capital,” because they’re bad ideas that lead to more bad ideas. (Catechism, 1700ff, 1866, 1929, Glossary)

I don’t know why folks in New York City started adding a fashion parade to their Easter Sunday routine. Maybe it was nothing more than an exuberant expression of happiness that summer was coming, enhanced by the Easter Sunday celebration.

So I won’t denounce America’s traditional Easter parade.

But having it on Easter Sunday, a high point of our year? I’m not comfortable with that.

And that’s why I won’t mind if America’s Easter parade transitions from a nostalgic big-city tradition to a quaint custom of days gone by.

Eggs, Ancient and Otherwise

Diego Delso's photo: Easter eggs in front of the Zagreb cathedral, Croatia. (April 13, 2014)
(Diego Delso, delso.photo, License CC-BY-SA; via Wikimedia Commons, used w/o permission.)
(Pisanica: Easter eggs, Croatian style. Big ones. Photo by Diego Delso. (2014))

Carl Fleischhauer (Library of Congress employee)'s photo of Ukrainian Easter eggs. (1981)Folks in places like Bosnia, Croatia, Poland and Ukraine were decorating eggs before they heard of Jesus.

After becoming Christians, they could have abandoned their egg-decorating crafts.

Instead, they kept writing their intricate designs on chicken eggs, applying their ‘pagan’ craft and symbolism to the Christian celebration.

I could let that bother me. But I won’t, since it makes about as much sense to me as having conniptions about Christmas trees and candles.

Christians in or around Persia may have been the first to decorate eggs as part of their Easter celebrations. Like folks in Slavic cultures, they were applying a pre-Christian craft and art form to Christian celebration and worship.

And again, I could let that upset me. But I won’t.

The earliest decorated eggs we’ve found so far are are ostrich eggshells from the Diepkloof Rock Shelter in Africa. They’re about 60 millennia old, were apparently used as water flasks, and I’m drifting off-topic.

As Christian symbols, Easter eggs can represent new life and our Lord’s empty tomb.6

They’re also colorful, decorative, and something I enjoyed making with the kids when they were young.

Attitudes and Assumptions, Peter and Thomas

'Jesus Cleanses the Temple,' Otto Elliger. (1700) from Pitts Theological Library, Candler School of Theology, Emory University, Atlanta (Georgia); used w/o permission.

“So then Jesus said to them clearly, ‘Lazarus has died.
“And I am glad for you that I was not there, that you may believe. Let us go to him.’
“So Thomas, called Didymus, said to his fellow disciples, ‘Let us also go to die with him.'”
(John 11:14–16)

Jesus the Nazarene did not maintain a low profile after starting his public life. Take the time he told Lazarus of Bethany to stop being dead, for example.

The only record of the incident is in John’s Gospel. It doesn’t fit neatly into the other Gospels.

The lack of conformity to post-Enlightenment Western attitudes has given assorted academics something to write about since the early 1800s, and that’s yet another topic.

Instead of diving down a selection of the higher criticism rabbit holes, I’ll talk about another reason Thomas is one of my favorite Apostles. Briefly, since I’m running short on time this week. Again.

The important part of the raising of Lazarus account is, well, the raising of Lazarus; but I’ll focus on Thomas and his “Let us also go to die with him” remark.

I’ve seen it described as despairing.7

“…Moulton says these words reveal love, but they are ‘the language of despair and vanished hope. This is the end of all — death, not Messianic kingdom.’…”
(The Pulpit Commentary, Volume 7;” Joseph S. Exell, Henry Donald Maurice Spence-Jones; Delmarva Publication (2013))

Maybe so, and I’m glad to see that Moulton also saw love in those words.

What I see in “Let us also go to die with him” is more like grim determination.

Despair? or Grim Determination?

'Crucifixion,' detail, Jacopo Tintoretto. (1565)Jesus had been attracting huge crowds and offending the powers that be. And, as I said before, giving the Sanhedrin conniptions.

Thomas and the other Apostles must have realized how much potentially-lethal attention Jesus was getting.

Attention which they’d share, when someone with clout finally snapped.

I figure that awareness, and sincere concern for our Lord’s welfare, was behind Peter’s “God forbid, Lord! No such thing shall ever happen to you.”

It was a very human response. Problem is, what our Lord had in mind was a God-level operation. (Matthew 16:21–23)

Which brings me back to ‘let’s go die with him’ and perceptions.

Maybe Thomas was feeling despair.

But for the time being, I’ll stick with my ‘grim determination’ opinion.

What Thomas said, as recorded in John 11, reminds me of the way someone characterized an old-school Norse attitude: ‘the gods are doomed, I stand with the gods.’

I’d say where I read that, but I haven’t been able to track down the quote.

The Man Who Defeated Death

'The Resurrection of Jesus Christ,' Piero della Francesca. (1463)

As I said, Thomas is one of my favorite Apostles. Maybe because of the attitude I see in his ‘let’s go die with him’ remark.

But I don’t follow Thomas, or Peter, or John, or any of the other remarkable folks who have decided to follow our Lord.

I follow Jesus because I am convinced that he is who he said he is: the Son of God.

I think that he is human on his mother’s side, came here to save us, and — this is best news ever — defeated death. For all of us. (John 1:1–5, 14, 3:17, 8:58–59; Acts 2:24; Philippians 2:6–8; Catechism, 232-260, 456-478, 529, 631-655, 988-1019)

All of us who are willing to accept his offer of adoption, and that’s yet again another topic.

If this sounds familiar, I’m not surprised. I’ve talked about it before:

1 The greatest Sunday:

2 Seven disastrous decades:

3 An idiom and an Apostle:

4 Processions, from ancient Egypt to New York City:

5 Springtime and my culture:

6 Symbols and eggs:

7 Lazarus and Thomas, a little background:

Posted in Being Catholic, Discursive Detours | Tagged , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

I’m Not as Crazy as You Think I Moose!

Posted on April 9, 2022 by Brian H. Gill

Gustave Doré's illustration for Poe's 'The Raven.' (1884)
(From Gustave Doré, via Library of Congress, used w/o permission.)

I’ll be talking about ADHD, PDD, PTSD, ASD and me; and what that alphabet-soup assortment of acronyms means.

But first, a spot of poetry.

“…Eagerly I wished the morrow;—vainly I had tried to borrow
From my books surcease of sorrow—sorrow for the lost Lenore—….”
(“The Raven,” Edgar Allen Poe (1884) via Wikipedia)

Fast-forward 35 years —

“…Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.

“Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand…..”
(“The Second Coming,” William Butler Yeats (1919))

New York Times 'Crossword Mania Breaks Up Homes' article (December 10, 11, 1924), New Britain Herald 'The Cross-Word Puzzles Bridegroom' cartoon. (July 18, 1924)Instead of the Second Coming, we got the Roaring Twenties and Crossword Mania.

I talked about that a couple weeks back.

But I haven’t talked about the Second Coming, AKA Final or Last Judgment, for some time.

Looking Forward to Judgment Day?

Lucas Cranach the Elder's 'The Last Judgment.' (ca. 1524 (but not before 1520), 'meat grinder' detail.)
(From Lucas Cranach the Elder/Gemäldegalerie, Berlin, via Wikimedia Commons, used w/o permission.)

The Last Judgment is this creation’s closing ceremony. It’s when everything each of us has done, or not done, will go public. (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1038-1041)

But before that, I’m looking forward to my particular judgment. Then, after an interview with our Lord, I’ll live with Jesus for eternity. Or I won’t. (Catechism, 1021-1050)

I’m “looking forward” to my particular judgment, in the sense that I’m anticipating it.

But since each of our particular judgments is a performance review, it’s not the sort of anticipation I feel when looking forward to reading a good book. More like “looking forward” to finals week before graduation. Only more so.

What happens then is up to me: what I do now, how well I love God and neighbor; and what I decide at my particular judgment.

I can opt out of Heaven. It’d be a daft decision, but it is possible. (Catechism, 1021)

Bosch’s “Last Judgment,” a Triptych Tangent

Hieronymus Bosch's (?) 'The Last Judgment.' (after 1482)
(From Hieronymus Bosch (?)/Groeningemuseum, via Wikimedia Commons, used w/o permission.)

Now, about that weird picture: it’s from a “Last Judgment” triptych, a three-panel painting, done by Lucas Cranach the Elder. He’s a bit younger than Hieronymus Bosch, and nowhere near as famous. Not in my country, at any rate.

If you’re a Bosch buff, you’ll likely think the Cranach painting looks like one of the Bosch “Last Judgment” triptychs. Which it should, since Cranach copied the Bosch original.

The Bosch original is in the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna, Austria. Or it’s in the Groeningemuseum in Bruges. On the other hand, maybe there are two identical Bosch triptychs. But that seems unlikely.

I’m pretty sure that Cranach’s copy is in the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin’s Gemäldegalerie.

The Bosch ‘Vienna’ original, assuming that Bosch painted it, has been ‘restored’ a few times, so odds are that the Cranach copy looks more like the original than the current triptych that’s in Vienna. Or Burges.

I don’t know why different folks say the Bosch triptych’s in different places. I suspect that it’s at least partly due to a post-World-War-II scramble, sorting out who had looted what from where.

Looting, souvenir collecting, or whatever, isn’t new. But I like to think that we’re developing respect for the Decalogue’s ‘don’t steal’ instruction. (Exodus 20:15; Deuteronomy 5:19; Catechism, 2401-2449)

Art restoration, these days, at least for museums, focuses on restoring artwork to the way it looked when it was new.1 Art restoration’s goals have shifted over the centuries, and that’s another topic. Topics.

The Last Judgment’s Go Time, Doomsayers: and Something from Sirach

Wiley Miller's 'Non Sequitur.' (June 13, 2011)I take the Last Judgment, this creation’s closing ceremony, seriously.

My native culture’s perennial End Times Bible Prophecies, not so much.

I haven’t run into the COVID-19 pandemic being ‘prophetically revealed’ as a horseman of the apocalypse. (Revelation 6:1–8)

Which strikes me as a bit odd.

Particularly since showing our ongoing supply chain SNAFU as the third horseman’s effect on wheat and barley prices might seem plausible; given flamboyant delivery, a receptive audience and carefully-selected Bible bits.

Then there’s Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine, which so far hasn’t gone nuclear. For which I’m duly thankful.

But with at least three of the four horsemen in daily headlines? Like I said: I’m not sure why someone hasn’t packaged these current events as perilous portents of Armageddon.

Maybe End Times Bible Prophecy books aren’t potential best sellers when folks are faced with real problems. And that’s yet another topic.

As for why I don’t take ‘Bible-based’ doomsayers seriously, apart from effects they have on their followers — I read the Bible.

Our Lord said that only God the Father knows when the Last Judgment will happen. (Matthew 24:36–44, 25:13, Mark 13:32–33)

Sounds to me like go time for Judgement Day is available on a need-to-know basis. And if the Son of God didn’t need to know, I sure don’t.

Besides, I’m in no hurry for judgment.

“When mortals finish, they are only beginning, and when they stop they are still bewildered….
“…The number of their days seems great if it reaches a hundred years.
“Like a drop of water from the sea and a grain of sand, so are these few years among the days of eternity.
“That is why the Lord is patient with them and pours out his mercy on them.”
(Sirach 18:7–11)

I’m Not Normal: ADHD And All That

My methylphenidate prescription, with one day left. (June 10, 2021)

If I yearned with every fiber of my being to be a nice, normal member humanity’s teeming throng, I’d be a mighty morose man.

Brian H. Gill. (March 17, 2021)That’s because I’m not normal.

My second-oldest daughter said I am eccentric, scholarly and eclectic. She’d been asked to describe me in three words. The second word might have been “academic,” or something of the sort, and I’m drifting off-topic again.

The point is, she’s right. On all three counts. My interests are varied, I enjoy doing research and sharing what I find; and I don’t do “conventional.”

Being eccentric accounts for “Cluster A personality disorder” having been among my diagnosed quirks. It’s the DSM’s label for folks who act oddly.

As I said, I don’t do “conventional.” Not convincingly, at any rate. And small wonder. Here’s a half-dozen items that have appeared at various times in my medical records:

  • ADHD: Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, inattentive type
  • ASD: Autism spectrum disorder
  • Cluster A personality disorder
  • GAD: Generalized anxiety disorder
  • PDD: Persistent depressive disorder
  • PTSD: Post traumatic stress disorder

DSM? That’s the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.2
And that’s where I get back to acronyms and me.

ADHD and More

An image from Brian H. Gill's brain scans in 2018.ADHD often gets diagnosed in childhood.

Today.

If I’d been born in the early 21st century instead of the late Truman administration — but I was born when I was born, and was a middle aged man when I began learning about my versions of ADHD and the rest.

I’ve got the inattentive version, apparently, which arguably accounts for my train of thought’s frequent derailments and mood swings. Make that mood ricochets.

On the other hand, I’m not a typical adult with ADHD. Good grief, I’m not even conventionally unconventional.

An article in The Conversation got me started thinking about ADHD this week:

“ADHD looks different in adults. Here are 4 signs to watch for.” (Tamara May, Mark Bellgrove)3 Paraphrasing their four-point list:

  1. An inner sense of restlessness, feeling driven to always do something
  2. Start organized, then feel overwhelmed
  3. Procrastination
  4. Poor timing: underestimating how long something takes

I’m not a perfect match for that list, either. Which isn’t surprising, since that article was giving an overview, not diving deep into details.

The “attention deficit” part of ADHD may be why I skipped from psychiatric disorders and acronyms to weird paintings and the Last Judgment.

ASD, Autism Spectrum Disorder, strikes me as a catch-all category for a whole mess of glitches that we’ve been studying.

I’ve watched definitions shift over the last several years, as researchers collected data, formed theories, collected more data — and I am not going to start discussing scientific method. Not this week.

Cluster A personality disorder? I talked about that earlier.

GAD, generalized anxiety disorder, is just what it says: fretting above and beyond the call of reason. I wouldn’t rank it as my top problem, but I do need to rein in my inner worrier more often than I like.

Depression and Something I Don’t Remember

National Institutes of Health's illustration: regions of the brain affected by PTSD and stress. (ca. 2018)PDD, persistent depressive disorder, AKA dysthemia, is pretty much like major depressive disorder. It’s a mood disorder, and involves neurochemical glitches.

PDD is “persistent” because it’s chronic. In other words, it sticks around. Which can make diagnosis difficult, since folks like me can assume that feeling this way is “normal.”

And that brings me to — oh, goody — PTSD, post traumatic stress disorder.

PTSD has been in my diagnosis list, but wasn’t there the last time I checked. Why it was removed, at least from the copy I can access, I don’t know. If that detail becomes important, I’ll dig into it. But I’ve got enough on my plate without trying to unravel metaphoric red tape.

Assuming that I have experienced PTSD, which seems reasonable, I’m pretty sure that it was triggered by something that happened around Christmas, when I was 12.

Talking or writing about it hurts, so I’ll repeat what I said last year:

“…When I was 12, my mother had a severe stroke. I’m told that I was with her at the time, and accompanied her in an ambulance. My father tells me that he blamed me. That’s understandable. Dealing with me can be stressful.

“I have no memory at all of the ‘stroke’ events, all my knowledge of them and the month or so surrounding them I have second-hand, from my parents.

I suspect that’s how PTSD got on my list, and am as sure as I can be that those events started my experience with depression….”
(August 7, 2021)

Perceptions, Beauty, and a Decision

W. Spooner's (?) 'A wretched man with an approaching depression; represented by encroaching little devils.' Coloured lithograph (1830s)/ Vincent van Gogh's 'Sorrowing Old Man (At Eternity's Gate.' (1890)I remember seeing sunlight on green grass, in the spring after that event, correctly perceiving that it was beautiful, and noticing that I was not experiencing an emotional response to the perceived beauty.

I had grown a foot while staying the same weight that year, and knew that I was going through puberty.

At the time, I thought that maybe all the metaphoric light and color draining out of my universe was normal for someone transitioning into adulthood. The ‘dead-behind-the-eyes’ look I’d noticed in so many adult faces seemed to support that assumption.

I was also wanted to avoid becoming blind to beauty and wonders, so I made a point of paying attention; and I’ve probably talked about that before.

Fast-forward several decades.

At my wife’s recommendation, I talked with a psychiatrist. Then came diagnoses of depression plus an assortment pack of other psychiatric issues. I’ve been taking prescribed medications, including methylphenidate ever since. That’s geek-speak for Ritalin.4

Taking my Medicine

Illustration of 'icepick' lobotomy, from Dr. Walter Freenan II's 'Psychosurgery in the Treatment of Mental Disorders and Intractable Pain.' (1950)Methylphenidate is a Schedule II controlled substance, so every month I have to get authorization for the prescription.

The process usually goes smoothly.

But several times, years back, the authorization documents got lost. I never discovered what kept happening to the paperwork.

But I did get to experience discontinuation syndrome when my month’s supply of meds ran out. Several times, as indicated above.

And I learned that “discontinuation syndrome” is a euphamism for withdrawal. Which helps me understand the (very unpleasant) experience, so I’ll count that as a “plus.”

I like being able to use my brain without fighting the neural machinery, so I don’t mind taking my prescribed medications.

And I certainly don’t mind living in the early 21st century, when lobotomies aren’t as fashionable as they were in my younger years.5 And that’s yet again another topic.

But — is it right to take my medicine?

Since I’m a Catholic, and briefly, yes.

Life is a ‘precious gift’ from God. So is health. Getting and staying healthy is a good idea. Within reason. Even taking painkillers is okay. Again, within reason. (Catechism, 1506-1510, 2279, 2288-2289, 2292)

I was going to say more about (not) being normal, sharing in humanity’s transcendent dignity, and related topics. But getting authorization for methylphenidate was a tad more labor-intensive this month.

And there’s that ‘underestimating how long something takes’ thing, too.

So (not) being normal and all that will wait for another time.

Finally, the usual links of allegedly-related stuff:

1 Art and artists:

2 ADHD, PTSD, and points between:

3 Here’s what got me started this week:

4 Irksome, occasionally; but effective:

5 Rules and unpleasantness:

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Norbert Nerdly Rides Again: Keyboard Concerns

Posted on April 2, 2022 by Brian H. Gill

Brian H. Gill's 'Meet Norbert Nerdly.' (2015)
(Norbert Nerdly — my frustrations, personified.)

I had finished last week’s discussion of crossword mania and the end of civilization before the trouble started. That’s part of the good news.

Then my computer’s operating system told me it was time for an update. I still haven’t decided whether that news was good, bad or just routine. I’ve filed it under ‘routine’ for the time being.

The update went smoothly. That’s what I’m assuming, at least.

When it was over, a browser that hadn’t been there before asked me to make it my default interface for the web.

Saying “no” and making it stick didn’t take more than a few minutes.

Then I noticed that Control-Alt-Delete didn’t work any more.

I’d been expecting this.

My news feed includes the occasional technogeek headline, so I was aware that Control-Alt-Delete was right up, or down, there with the abomination of desolation in terms of bad ideas that should never have been implemented.

In the ardent opinion of one technogeek, at any rate. I didn’t read the op-ed, so I don’t know why Control-Alt-Delete is or should be anathema.

I probably wouldn’t have agreed, since I prefer using keyboard commands for several functions: particularly when point and click becomes, well, pointless. Partly, I suspect, because I remember when graphic interfaces and mice — mouses??? — were new.

Good grief, I remember when electric typewriters were new.

So I resigned myself to life without Control-Alt-Delete. And within a few minutes I discovered that nothing happened when I tried keying in characters like “*” and “-.”

Don’t let my phlegmatic recitation of sequential frustrations give the impression that I remained cool as a cucumber throughout this concatenation of calamitous keyboard crises.

I was — I’ll say peeved, and leave it at that.

Intermittent Weirdness: a Capricious Keyboard

Brian H. Gill: brilliant, talented and on medication. (2021)It’s been years since I thought about remapping a keyboard.

And even then, I hadn’t seriously considered turning my QWERTY keyboard into a much-cooler Dvorak, Colemak or MTGAP layout.

I don’t deplore efficiency or new ideas.

But I learned touch typing on a QWERTY layout, have used that skill almost daily for over a half-century, and don’t see a point in developing a new set of muscle memory routines.

Before I’d gotten very far in my quest for keyboard remapping utilities, my son did a quick diagnostic on my system.

It wasn’t the operating system update that was close to giving me conniptions.

My keyboard was due for replacement. Overdue, actually.

Makes sense. I’d noticed that some of the new weirdness was intermittent. Sometimes I could key in an “*” and sometimes I couldn’t.

Ideally, I’d have suspected that my keyboard issues starting right after the update was coincidence. But, as I’ve said before and probably will again, we don’t live in an ideal world. And I’m not an ideal human being, which is another topic.

Before I could get started on pricing keyboards, my youngest daughter told me that my son had ordered a new one — an ergonomic keyboard, somewhat like the one I’d inherited from my father — and that it should arrive Wednesday.

I decided that trying to type with a capricious keyboard was an exercise in frustration.

Since my frustrations don’t need exercise, I also decided to spend the bulk of this week reading, and working with a graphic/3D program that has a very point-and-click interface.

A Family Visit and Looking Ahead

Streaming together for ThanksgivingSecond-oldest daughter, son-in-law and granddaughter arrived Wednesday.

They were on their way back from a wedding, with side trips to Mammoth Cave and other points of interest.

Areas of interest? Never mind.

The point is that I thoroughly enjoyed the visit, appreciated photos from the wedding, Mammoth Cave and a nifty dinosaur park whose name escapes me.

Then the traveling trio embarked on the last leg of their return trip, the new keyboard arrived and was introduced to my my computer by my son. Not necessarily in that order.

And that’s all I’ve got for this week.

I’ll have more, I trust, by next Saturday. Maybe about curiosity.

One of the Parishes on the Prairie priests pointed me to something St. Thomas Aquinas wrote about “the unknown vice.”

It’s in “Summa Theologica,” II, 2, Question 167; and so far I’m about half-way through. St. Thomas Aquinas is chattier than I am, and that’s saying something.

One more thing.

We’re in the final two weeks of Lent. It ends on Thursday, April 14, this year. Then it’s Good Friday, Holy Saturday and the best news humanity’s ever had.

Maybe that’s what I’ll talk about next week. That’d give me more time to think about what St. Thomas Aquinas wrote.

Finally, the usual ‘stuff that’s not entirely unrelated’ link list:

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