Opus 2020-037: Firsts: Winning in the Men’s Room

There was a day when I could not change a diaper.  Two children and two grandchildren have changed all that.  This week expanded the experience. 

I was on duty in a medical office building.  I was watching the toddler while my daughter had a routine visit to the OB/GYN.  After an hour and forty-five minutes of waiting, my granddaughter started walking funny.  It was the dreaded blue line.  A diaper needed to be changed.  After waiting this long I knew my daughter might emerge from the elevator at any moment.  I also knew it might be another hour.  I remembered seeing one of those baby changing stations in the men’s room.  I stepped up like a man.

I won’t say it was the neatest job of diaper change but no one fell on the floor, nothing got dropped, the baby did not touch any unclean surfaces and the diaper stayed on.  I call that a win.

And yes, all hands were washed before we went back to polite society, only to find that my daughter had emerged from the elevator as soon as I left the lobby.

This is how I am spending my time right now.

homo unius libri

Opus 2020-036: The Joys of Not Blogging

I am having one glorious time.  Our second grandchild just arrived and we are the blessed hosts to my daughter, her toddler and the newborn.  She came back to the states for the birth and so far is glad she did.  This time she produced a boy and he is again reminding us of how dumb we all are at birth.  Her husband joined us for the birth and a few weeks of leave but had to leave last week. 

It is glorious.  There is no such thing as free time.  I had a great time this morning rocking my grandson to sleep and holding him for an extended period of time.  Every once in awhile I remember that I have not posted anything on this blog in a long time.  I look down at the sleeping baby and say, “So what.”  No offense but there are more important things than sharing my thoughts with the waiting world.

Since my daughter can’t lift the toddler for another week I have become the go-to guy for diaper changes.  It is a lot of fun.  The technology of modern diapers takes the guess work out of wet diapers.  They develop a blue line that tells the story.  For the number twos the smell is enough to tell you it is time to do something.  If you have never had your own children or grandchildren you have no idea how much fun it can be.

Meanwhile I am getting nothing done but child care.  I only have a few more weeks to enjoy it and then they all fly overseas again. 

I am sure my writing will get more frequent.  What is that I hear?  Could it be a toddler heading my way?

homo unius libri

Opus 2020-035: Headlines: Give Joe Some Slack

(I wrote this days ago but have not been able to get to posting.)

I have seen repeated reference to Joe Biden calling a young lady who asked him a question a liar.  It seemed in keeping with the weird things going on in his mind.  I finally came across a video of the incidence and watched it.

I won’t cry “Fake News”, but I would say it is a bit exaggerated.

Did he call her a liar?  Yes.  Was it an insulting attack by a delusional man who is losing his mind?  No.  What I saw was an experienced politician bantering with a nervous young lady and being so ridiculous that it was funny.  It is one of the reasons I don’t like talking on the phone.  You can’t read the body language.  If you take into account the body language it was obvious that she was telling a lie to get over a hump.  He made a joke out of it.  It is called humor, folks.  Think of it of a combination male humor and hyperbole. 

I don’t know if he went on to answer her question.  The clip wasn’t that long but it did show her face after his comment and it was not the face of someone who had been insulted.  Maybe you read it different.  I hear that later in an interview she claimed she was humiliated.  If he had said it in a bar over a few beers it would have either been falling-off-the-stool funny or fightin’ words, depending on the mood and the friendship.

I will never vote for slow Joe, unless he runs against Hillary.  On all the key issues I care about he is on the other side of the fence.  He has said a lot of stupid stuff.  Between the legitimate bad policy and repeated statements that are ridiculous we really don’t need to Bush him.  Remember how they always called Bush stupid and gave Obama a pass.

We are better than that even if he is worse than that.

homo unius libri

Opus 2020-034: Heroes and Valiant Men

This morning in my worship time this verse caught my attention,

(Isa 5:22 NAS77) Woe to those who are heroes in drinking wine, And valiant men in mixing strong drink;

I thought of our culture of drunks.  We might not admit it but we laugh at a lot of drunk jokes.  As I look through different internet sites I often come across guys who are bragging about how much they drink or how real men can put it away.  I have been around the guys and they all think that getting rip, roaring drunk is the sign of a great time.  They are heroes and valiant men by this measure.

I accept that alcohol might have a place.  It is common in all cultures.  The wine snobs are almost as obnoxious as the coffee snobs.  It is also one of the greatest sources of evil and destruction. 

One of the changes we need to see in America involves the casual drinking that goes on.  At best it is a temporary sedative.  More often it is a subtle poison.

Of course I offer these words of wisdom as someone who does not drink.  Consider the source.  You might also consider what the prophet Isaiah had to say.

homo unius libri

Opus 2020-033: The Calvinistic Toddler

It became clear this morning that my granddaughter was not worried about falling out of grace with her grandfather.  She can cry and poop in her pants.  She drops food on the floor and refuses to give me a hug.  She kisses the cat, her doll, her toys and anything else except for me.  In spite of all that there is no chance of her falling from grace.

She is a natural born Calvinist.

Her security is not just based on my love.  It is also based on her immaturity and lack of ability.  It is rooted in a knowledge that I have that certain steps need to be taken and they won’t happen until it is the right time.  I remember that my son didn’t start reading until he was eight.  When he was ready he started and we have not been stupid enough to try to stop him.  When he was young and the world of the internet was developing he ran up some horrible phone bills on the dial-up modem.  If he did something like that today he would be banned from the house.

There will come a day when my granddaughter will no longer be allowed to act like she is eternally secure.  It came for my son.  It came for my daughter.  They know we will love them forever.  They also know that if their lives go in certain directions there will be no inheritance.

You might say that they have become Arminians.  They are very secure.  They trust us.  They also know there are limits.  You can read about those limits on God’s love in just about every book of the Bible.  I am not worried about you if you are a mature Calvinist.  You have no intention of exercising license in your liberty.  You know I John 1:9.  It is the immature Calvinist I worry about.

Isn’t it good that we are saved by grace and not my opinions?

homo unius libri

Opus 2020-032: 21st Century Robber Barons

The concept of the robber baron is another case of the Progressives* taking a part of culture and warping it to remove its meaning and drag down Western culture.  They have done such a good job that if you look for a definition it skips the original medieval source of the word and ignores modern examples.  Welcome to Progressive* education.

The real robber barons were men who had strongholds in key locations on trade routes.  They would force merchants going through to fork over large sums in order to pass.  The fees were not fair in any sense.  They were robbing the traders to line their own coffers.  This made them rich, put a damper on trade and increased the price of goods.  They gave nothing.  They only took.

Move forward to the industrial age in America.  There were a group of men who developed industries and became very wealthy doing so.  Think of Carnegie in steel, Rockefeller in oil or Vanderbuilts in shipping.  The myth here is that these men got rich by robbing the working class.  In reality they became wealthy while lowering the cost of the products they produced while they provided jobs for millions of workers.  They understood that if the workers could make enough to buy the products they were producing then everyone benefitted. 

The list could go on beyond that era in American history.  Edison and Bell brought us into the day of electricity and communication.  Ford made the automobile something that anyone could afford.  Sears brought the material goods of the city to the isolated farmer.  Sony opened the world of entertainment.  Bill Gates would qualify as a robber baron.  People like Jeff Bezos would also fit the bill.  The key is that these people brought prosperity to millions while they made millions.  It is called free enterprise.  They are definitely robber barons in the good sense of the word.

In the historic sense of the term the modern robber barons are the people who have lived in a thriving location like California, amassed a fortune from its blessings, done everything they can to turn it into a socialist paradise and when the fan starts to get clogged with the feces, move to a free state with their wealth.  They have joined the elite by amassing their wealth.  In many cases they have done little to benefit the common man.  They have done everything to destroy prosperity for those outside of their little circle.  Then, when the house of cards is ready to collapse they cash in their chips and run. 

California is on the verge of collapse.  Virginia is starting down that road.  Colorado is testing the waters.  The modern robber barons have their sites set on Texas and Florida.  They want a return of feudalism with them in the castles.  We live in interesting times.

*(Liberals, educators, socialists, communists, elites, Rinos, Democrats, leftists, Never Trumpers, etc)

homo unius libri

Opus 2020-031: Warm Hearts, Empty Heads

Someone said about the missionaries that went to Hawaii, “They came to do good and they did very well indeed.”  The same kind of comment can be made about modern educators.  As a group they are warm hearted, caring people who want to do good.  It reminds me of a child I heard about who wanted to help out so he stuck the hose in the gas tank and turned on the water.  Public school teachers no longer represent the best and the brightest.  While they do not get rich on their salaries they are definitely doing well.  I say this as a retired public school teacher.  Show me a job in the private world where you get automatic pay increases, three months off in the summer, two weeks off at Christmas, a week for what used to be Easter, a week off for Thanksgiving and full health benefits.  Oh yes, and you are almost impossible to fire.

We indeed do well.

Just as you will probably find a few informed, patriotic Democrats you will find a few informed, patriotic educators.  The emphasis is on “few”.  For the most part they have drunk the koolaide and relaxed into the comfort of conformity.  They embrace every theme of the left without thinking.  I remember sitting through eight years of faculty meetings when George W. Bush was president and hearing constant references to how stupid he was.  In eight years of Obama I did not hear any discouraging words. 

We recently went to a celebration of a 40th wedding anniversary.  It was a house full of really nice people.  Most of the women were involved in education.  The one in depth conversation we had soon degraded into Trump hatred.  I seriously asked what she disliked about Trump.  All I could get was that he was not a nice man.  Later my wife commented on the empty heads in the house. 

Again, they are nice people.  They might make nice neighbors.  They probably take good care of their pets and mow their lawns.  Hopefully they don’t play loud music late at night.  But they probably should be denied the right to vote.

homo unius libri