My thoughts on the Muslim center near ground zero

I haven't blogged in a long time, but this is an issue I feel so strongly about that I'm choosing to emerge from the silence and make my feelings known. So here we go...

People, "Islamic" is not a word. Neither is "Islamist." If you're looking for the adjective version of Islam, it's MUSLIM. Now, whatever we all feel about whether or not there should be a Muslim center blocks from ground zero, I hope we can all come together and rally on common ground.

Grammar is everybody's problem.

If I hear one more journalist, pundent, or politician say "Islamic" or "Islamist" again, I'm turning the channel. It's a simple zero-tolerance policy.

While we're at it, the plural for "person" is "people." Not "persons!" We have no need of that word. Also, the act of moving is called "motion" - not "movement!" But we've been lax so long that both persons and movement have become accepted and proper English. We've got to draw the line somewhere.

The word is "Muslim," people. Say it with me. M-u-s-l-i-m...

Meet Penny!

We've been planning to get a second dog for months now, so Zeke will have somebody to play with, especially when we're out. Sunday afternoon we picked up a puppy from a rescue in LA. We're calling her Penny (I think). She's an honest mutt. Her mother was a mutt, with some identifiable Dachshund in her, and her father was a mutt of indeterminate breed. I won't go into responsible breeding here. I just want to show you our new family portrait!

New possibilities

Well, as feared, I didn't get into any of my schools this year. All the rejections came in a three-day period. It was pretty hard, and that's why I haven't gotten around to writing about it until now. It puts me in an interesting situation though. I'll be sending out a new round of applications in the Fall, but I've got a whole year free. We could do just about anything we like. We've got a few ideas.

1.) Move to Europe.

But what do you do next? Yay, I'm in Europe! I'd still have to find a job, get an apartment (Oh, sorry. A "flat."), and then there's the fact that I don't really know anybody in Europe. And I know me. I'm a homebody. Traveling is much more fun when it can be done by supper time and I can sleep in my own bed.

2.) Start a band.




But I'm already in a band! I've played in a bunch of bands in my life. On the upside, I already have a pretty red electric guitar. On the downside, bands have to rehearse. Hours and hours playing the same songs over and over. Listen - bands are cool, but trust me - it's a lot of work.

3.) Hike the Pacific Crest Trail.


The Pacific Crest Trail runs North and South across the West coast, beginning at the U.S./Mexican border and ending somewhere in Canada. My brother-in-law has chosen this option himself, and plans to leave sometime in mid-April, depending on the weather. He's been training since December, and packing since . . . oh, I don't know. August?

More power to him, really. But Julie brought up a good point the other day. What do you do every night? Seriously. You're out in nature, all by yourself, with nothing to do but feed the fire. Yeah, I see the romantic appeal, but I just think I might get bored after about a week of that.

4.) ???

What would you do? I'm open to suggestions here. And yes, I have a few more ideas. But what would you do if you had a year with no real commitments?? (Assume you have to provide for yourself somehow.)

March already?

Seriously, it's March 1st, and I still have no idea where I'll be living or what I'll be doing as of this summer. Of the four schools to which I've applied, not one has responded. However, I have third-hand information that Fordham has already accepted the people they're going to be accepting, except they didn't accept me! So I'm trying to accept that.

That leaves two schools: Boston University and Marquette. Word has it that Marquette sent out their answers at the end of last week by snail mail, so I should know something there by the end of the week. BU says they're informing everyone of their decisions soon too.

Waiting, waiting. Tired of waiting.

Welcome, religious solicitors!

I'm regretting a conversation I had last week. I got a knock at the front door, and Zeke started barking. (What a vicious little dog. What does he really think he's gonna do?) I picked him up and opened to the door to find a young Jehovah's Witness looking for someone to talk to.

I have a policy about this. If somebody comes to my door and wants to talk about knowing God, I'm in. The last time it happened, it was an older lady, and a roommate and I (This was a few years ago) invited her in. She opened her Bible to Exodus 3:14 and showed us that God had actually revealed his name to be Jehovah.

Jehovah's Witnesses have a slightly different Bible from the one you might have (unless, of course, you're a Jehovah's Witness). Most biblical translation is done with the intention of faithfully translating the plain meaning of the original Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic texts. The Jehovah's Witnesses also rely on direct revelation through their prophets, as God tells them how the Bible should really be translated. So theirs reads a little differently sometimes.

I grabbed my own Bible and pointed out the distinction. She really wasn't interested. I shared a theory about the origin of the name Jehovah that I'll share with you as well.

In Hebrew, that text in Exodus 3:14 says God's name is YHWH. We transliterate that as Yahweh sometimes, but that's just a guess at the pronunciation. It's difficult to translate it in English. Most often we translate it as "I Am," but it says more than that. It's "I Am Who I Am," or "I Will Be Who I Will Be." But if you're reading Hebrew, you'll see something funny there. See, the Hebrew language didn't have vowels. But in later years, rabbis added in vowels underneath the text, so you'd know how to pronounce the words. This was an exception.

The true name of God, as revealed in Exodus 3:14 was spoken only once a year, by the High Priest. And there hasn't been one of those for about 2,000 years. So now we really have no idea how to pronounce YHWH. If you look at the word in the ancient Masoretic text, YHWH has the vowels "AOA" below it. That's short for "Adonai," which is what Jews will say instead of uttering God's true name, which they would deem sacrilegious.

Now watch this...

If for whatever reason, no one ever told you that, and you just tried to read the Masoretic text with no knowledge of all that, you might read it as "Yahowah," unless, of course, you were German. So much theological work was done in Germany over the past 1,000 years that German is now a required language for Ph.D. students in theology. You don't really have to know Hebrew or Greek, but you do have to know German (and probably French).

If you're German, and you see before you the word "Yahowah," you're gonna read the Y as a J and the W as a V, cause that's what you do in German. And all of a sudden, bam. There you are with "Jahovah" (or "Jehovah?"). It's just a theory, but do you think that might possibly be where that came from?

Back to my story...

So there I was, with a barking dog in my hands, looking at a young Jehovah's Witness through a screen door, and I just wasn't feeling up to the conversation. I said something like, "I'd be glad to talk to you, but I don't think you're gonna want to talk to me. I've had some training in theology, and usually you guys don't like to hear me out. I appreciate you coming by though."

I was nice, but the kid left. Fine. I've tried to justify it, but really I was just being lazy, as is so often the problem. So let me try and make up for it by saying that if there are any JW's out there reading this blog, or Mormons, or...I don't know...atheists, agnostics, whatever, let me just say I'd be glad to talk. And for everybody else, I hope you at least appreciated the etymology lesson.

-Solid

Waiting, waiting

I realize it's been a while since I've made an update, but there's just been nothing to tell lately. The main thing I'm doing in life right now is waiting for the phone to ring or an e-mail or letter to come through telling me I'm accepted into a Ph.D./Th.D. program. (Incidentally, did you know that Chicago/Turabian style specifies spelling e-mail with a dash? Small price to pay for entry into the ranks of the grammatically elite.)

I'm at the point where every time the phone rings I take a deep breath before looking at the screen and answering. I have the ringer at maximum volume, and I have my email set to make a loud noise whenever something new comes in. Once a day Julie and I go to the mailbox together hoping to see a big manila envelope and dreading a little white one. I could hear something today, or it might not be until mid-March.

Rest assured, friends, that you'll know as soon as I do.

-Solid

Some people have no imagination.

I'm going to see Avatar today for the second time. I'm sure you've heard about these people who are depressed leaving the movie because they can't go live on that planet with the blue guys. I sorta get that. But why Avatar?

My theory is that for many people, this is the first time they've ever felt like they disappeared into a fantasy. I felt like that too, but I feel that way often. I have ever since I was a kid.

When I was young, I wanted to be a superhero when I grew up. I haven't quite gotten over that. I spent an entire summer making superhero costumes out of paper bags. I used one for each foot, cut holes in one to make a shirt, cut holes in another to make pants, and improvised the rest. I had one for every member of the Super Friends.

I know I've been through this before, but I still can't shake the feeling that I'm just one industrial accident away from my dream! Consider this guy....



One day he's just your average teenager with average problems. The next...BLAMMO!




He's the amazing Spiderman! Or what about this joker?




One day he's your average working stiff. The next...BAZOOM!!



He's the incredible Hulk! (Oh, poor me! I'm doomed to walk the Earth with this totally awesome thing inside me!")

I could go on. The Fantastic Four - right place, right time. Captain America? Genetic experiment gone RIGHT. Then there's always the natural route. You know this guy, right?



Batman has no super powers. He has a few high tech gadgets, sure, but mostly he's just got skillz. And sadly, this is probably the route I'm gonna have to go. It's not like you can count on a meteor landing on you, or rogue gamma rays hitting you, or anything like that. I've got a ways to go. But hey, I lost four pounds this week. I'm on my way!