Penny For Your Thoughts

I had to be out early the other morning (you know, the other morning), so I went the drive through route for a quick breakfast. My change was to be $7.30 after I gave the attendant a twenty. "I don't have any pennies. Is that okay?"

"Fine," I replied. I don't why she felt she had to tell me that, though, seeing as the quarter and nickel she handed me for the thirty cents literally, uh, foot the bill for my change.

She probably has gotten used to telling that to most everyone I'm sure. Perhaps management insists upon it. Still, the instant she apologized about the lack of cents (a pun!) I did find myself thinking, what's that to me, given the circumstances? Oh well.

The Truth Is

If we aren't seeking truth, then what are we doing? I can't think of a useful alternative.

Should we seek change? All that really means is doing something different today than yesterday. So why do it, unless we see that, ahem, in truth the change was worthwhile?

Perhaps we want diversity. Well, murder and carpentry are certainly diverse. It appears though that we can legitimately be a carpenter while we should not murder. How can we know this? By seeking truth.

Follow science? Science is a very raw and unfiltered discipline. It merely demonstrates low grade, rote truths: aspirin can cure headaches and the like. What we do with science is useful only through the guidance of higher truth. Science tells us poison will kill a life form and that is all. Whether we ought or ought not kill it comes from a consideration of the truth of such matters. 

Education? But don't we have to make judgments about what to teach and how to teach it? How do we determine that? By looking for truth.

I'm open to suggestion here. But you're going to need some incredibly convincing arguments to sway me. That is, if you want me to accept the truth.

Oh The Humanity

Those of you who know me well know I don't like change. Yes, yes, yes, change is inevitable, I should accept it, indeed (yuck) embrace it, blah, blah, blah. I get that. That all makes a bit of sense. Circumstantially, philosophic Marty must add. I still don't like it, and you can't make me. But even I will admit to sometimes considering absurd ideas merely to avoid a mild, unimportant change in my expectations.

When I arrived here in Hessel last Thursday I discovered that the local Church had changed its Sunday Mass time from 8:30 to 9 AM. This is a nothing change, I readily admit. But my first impulse was, 8:30 to nine? What's up with that? That, that's a whole half hour. It was thirty minutes later than I was expecting. Two percent of the day had been altered. My Sheldon clock would be off. Why would you do that to me, Our Lady of the Snows?

I thought about driving to the Soo (The Soo is Michigan shorthand for Sault Sainte Marie, the French 'Sault' being pronounced as 'Soo' or, if it helps, 'sue') to attend a 4PM Mass on Saturday at the large Catholic Church there. But dude, that's 35 miles away. You're actually going to make a 70 mile round trip which will add every bit of 90 minutes to your Saturday, with gas costing five bucks a gallon, to avoid what amounts to no huge change to your Sunday but merely an alteration of a half an hour?

Well, yeah. I thought about it.

In the end, cooler heads prevailed. I went to the 8:30, uh, 9 o'clock Mass. It was okay, too, pretty much like the old, earlier service. I ended up just fine with it.

But if they change it again before my next visit, oh, the letter they're gonna get. I will take it all the way to the Pope if I have to.

A Question

Have you ever noticed that the people who want you to change rarely change themselves? That's because it's not about any sort of positive change. It's about wanting you to do things their way.

Just sayin'. It's a bit like tolerance. It sounds good until you realize how often it's only about you tolerating them. Their tolerating you, well, that's a whole nother story. You're wrong.

Again, just sayin'.

A curmudgeon's rant

I see no point in changing anything, not my habits, not my attitudes, just to change them. It borders on senseless and, quite frankly, is arguably childish.

There's nothing wrong with change per se either, I'll admit. And sometimes change is good and necessary. That being the case, why change? is still a fair question to ask.

Expand your horizons, perhaps? Well, what if the horizon isn't all that clear? Besides, what's wrong with what I'm doing now? I realize that either question calls for a certain amount of extrapolation and introspection. It's ultimately all in the details. But remember the question is, why change simply to change?

When we took the kids out for ice cream I almost always got black cherry. Why? Because I liked it. Why try something new when you know you can get what you know you like?

Am I being obstinate? Sure I am; but aren't you being equally obstinate in ordering me to change? I mean, what's it to you? It's not like I'm doing anything immoral (on the ice cream question, anyway). I have the right in that sphere to order what I want; what argument do you really have against me?

It might be nice to change. Okay, but it might be nice to get what you want too. It's a wash; wait, no it isn't. It's my right to do what I want among legitimate moral choices. What you think I should do means nothing. It's only you being bossy.

Don't try to change me just because you think the change is good. That's all there is to it.

Rant over.

Non-denominational is good

It's all about the Benjamins, the saying goes. The Benjamins are cool, yes. But so are the Georges, the Abrahams, and the Andrews. Money comes like religion: by denomination. I have been paid by several denominations, often in a nice mix. Sometimes those payments have been a bit unusual.

Yesterday a customer's order came to $140.00. He said, "I hope you like change," and paid me in all five dollar bills. Yep, 28 Lincolns. Another time on a $470.00 tab a guy from Canada gave me 47 tens. He said it was what they gave him at the currency exchange. Hey, I don't care. It all spends.

But about 40 years ago Pops was paid off in the most unusual way I've seen so far. For a $1900 dollar machine he was paid with 1890 singles and a ten dollar bill. Yessir, One Thousand Eight Hundred Ninety dollar bills. The customer owned several laundry mats and most of income was dollar bills, from change to run the washers and dryers to buying the single load boxes of detergent from the self service machines. He lived on singles.

Pops didn't even bother to count it. The stack was impressive enough that he took the guy at his word. And it all spent.

Change? Why?

I see no point in changing anything just to change. It borders on senseless, quite frankly, and is arguably childish.

There's nothing wrong with change per se either, I'll concede. Still, that being the case, why do it at all? is a fair question to ask.

Expand your horizons, perhaps? Well, what if the horizon isn't all that clear? Besides, it becomes fair to ask in answer to that, what's wrong with I'm doing now? I realize that either question calls for a certain amount of extrapolation, as it's ultimately all in the details. But remember the question is, why change simply to change?

When we took the kids out for ice cream I almost always got black cherry. Why? Because I like it. Why try something new when you can get what you know you like?

Am I being obstinate? Perhaps; but aren't you being equally obstinate in ordering me to change? I mean, what's it to you? It's not like I'm doing anything immoral (on the ice cream question, of course). Further, as I have the right in that sphere to order what I want, what argument can you possibly have against me?

It might be nice to change. Okay, but it might be nice to get what I want too. It's almost a moral wash; wait, no it isn't. It's my right to do what I want among legitimate moral choices. What you think I should do merits nothing for your position. It's only you being bossy.

Maybe I should have labeled this becoming a curmudgeon to the nth degreee. But so be it. Leave me alone where I've the right be left alone; that's all I ask.

Spare us the change

Embracing change is easy. Embracing Orthodoxy is the real challenge.

-a paraphrase of Mr. G. K. Chesterton

We hear it all the time, don't we, fellow conservatives? We hear the importance of embracing change, of being willing to change, of the need to alter our beliefs and desires to the will and whim of the current society. That's all we need to do is embrace the change which the modern society wishes us to do.

If they meant for us to change in the sense of becoming truly better persons, of changing from bad habit to good, of learning to like what we ought and dislike what we ought as well, of becoming more truly and usefully charitable and kind, there would be no problem. But they don't mean that. They mean, 'accept our ways of thinking and acting'. Or, more precisely, accept the change we want imposed on you.

But the trouble with accepting change merely as it is change, merely because it is what modern society may want rather than what may really help both the individual and the world at large, it that it will leave us we know not where. For accepting it is simple. Do nothing, reflect on nothing, question nothing, and change will occur. There's no effort involved.

Yet embracing Orthodoxy, and we capitalize it on purpose, accepting and living by proper rules, traditions and mores, now that's the challenge. That's where we grow and nurture our selves and our souls. That's how we create better people and a better world. By living right according to the just precepts which have been with us since the dawn of time. Change is all right, yes, if done to that purpose.

Otherwise, it will happen anyway. But would you rather do what you can to control change, or merely be stuck in its tight and unwieldy (and worldly) groove, as Mr. Chesterton also suggests? For you will lose control of yourself by merely agreeing to eternally change. Yet tradition works. That's how it became traditional in the first place.

Got any Change, Buddy?

Embracing change is easy. Embracing Orthodoxy is the real challenge.

-a paraphrase of Mr. G. K. Chesterton

We hear it all the time, don't we, fellow conservatives? We hear the importance of embracing change, of being willing to change, of the need to alter our beliefs and desires to the will and whim of the current society. That's all we need to do is embrace the change which the modern society wishes us to do.

If they meant for us to change in the sense of becoming truly better persons, of changing from bad habit to good, of learning to like what we ought and dislike what we ought as well, of becoming more truly and usefully charitable and kind, there would be no problem. But they don't mean that. They mean, 'accept our ways of thinking and acting'. Or, more precisely, accept the change we want imposed on you.

But the trouble with accepting change merely as it is change, merely because it is what modern society may want rather than what may really help both the individual and the world at large, it that it will leave us we know not where. For accepting it is simple. Do nothing, reflect on nothing, question nothing, and change will occur. There's no effort involved.

Yet embracing Orthodoxy, and we capitalize it on purpose, accepting and living by proper traditions, now that's the challenge. That's where we grow and nurture our selves and our souls. That's how we create better people and a better world. By living right according to the just precepts which have been with us since the dawn of time. Change is all right, yes, if done to that purpose.

Otherwise, it will happen anyway. But would you rather do what you can to control change, or merely be stuck in its tight and unwieldy (and worldly) groove, as Mr. Chesterton also suggests? For you will lose control of yourself by merely agreeing to eternally change. Yet tradition works. That's how it became traditional in the first place.