Zen and the Art of /.*/

I recently received a forward from a family member:

A Little Boy’s Explanation of God — Fabulous!!! Out of the mouths of
the Babes–I certainly don’t think an adult could explain this more
beautifully!

The so-called “freedom of religion,” which is supposedly protected by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, which reads:

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” (emphasis mine)

is also, quite clearly the freedom FROM religion, if that is what the individual seeks.

A recent Time article, Can Atheists Be Parents? explains that:

There is a well-known prayer in the fire service known as the Fireman’s Prayer:

When I am called to duty, God
Whenever flames may rage,
Give me strength to save some life
Whatever be its age.

Updated Tuesday, March 9th, 2010 at 10:40 pm.

Original letter sent to the faculty of the economics department at the College of Saint Benedict / Saint John’s University in Collegeville, MN on Monday, July 13th - 11:45 am

My name is Mike Phenow. I am a 2005 graduate of Saint John’s. The nature of my correspondence to the Economics Department is a little unconventional and I thank you for your time in indulging me.

Recent developments have brought the discipline of economics to the fore of nearly everyone’s mind — layman, practitioner, and academic alike. In this regard, I am no exception. The much-watched and closely-scrutinized political events of the past few years — in which I have participated, in my own small ways — have led myself and others on an intellectual journey to discover the true causes of the economic crises — and how the vast majority of economists could have utterly failed to either foresee them or satisfactorily explain them.

On this Mother’s Day, as we reflect on the role of motherhood and express our gratitude to the many mothers that have impacted our lives–and as I idly flip the silver dollar I keep in my pocket–I am struck by the choice of a woman–the ancient Roman goddess Libertas, or Lady Liberty–as the symbol of freedom.

I just returned from a meeting among some like-minded folk discussing victories and defeats in the past election and plans to help rebuild the party so that we can win some elections in 2010 with some real liberty-minded candidates. I was reminded of this letter-to-the-editor I wrote prior to the February 2008 caucuses and which was printed in the January 30th edition of the Osseo Press. It is interesting to re-read now, over a year later. Here it is, for what it’s worth.

I long ago signed up for an account on LibraryThing, but never got around to actually entering all of my books. A recent friend request from a real-life friend and coworker prompted me to revisit the site.

Taking advantage of the fact that I recently bought a barcode scanner for the sake of taking inventory of pull-tab boxes, and using it as a good excuse to further postpone other nagging responsibilities, I spent a couple hours scanning in my collection of books.

I was at book club again tonight (booksandbars.com) for probably the first time in 6 months, which was in turn probably the first time in the 6 months prior. Every time I go to book club, I see great people that I have not seen in too long and get to discuss delightful topics over pleasantly potent potables.

But every time I go back, I have a hard time explaining why it’s been so long. I always feel like I’m making excuses, usually some variation of “I’ve been really busy,” which always feels like a cop-out.

Of course, that is in fact the truthful proximate cause–I am damn busy. As my friends like to give me a hard time about: “I got shittodo.”

But this is certainly not the ultimate cause.

Well, I certainly did not expect to be completely incapacitated for four days, but such is the price one pays for having thin corneas, apparently.

On Wednesday afternoon, I underwent photorefractive keratectomy. It was a fascinating experience on many levels. First, and most obviously, having your eyes partially numbed, drawn upon, propped open, scraped, and then burned is a slightly terrifying experience. It was in some ways better and in some ways worse than I expected.

Let’s ease into this whole blog thing with something decidedly uncontroversial…

I type this wearing years-old glasses that do not, in fact, focus images very well on my retinas. I have been wearing them for the past few days in order to allow my eyeballs to return to their natural shape, free from the deforming influences of contact lenses.

This is being done in anticipation of a surgery I will be undergoing tomorrow (well, technically, later today). About 12 hours from now an optical surgeon will be performing photorefractive keratectomy, whereby he will use a microkeratome blade to remove the epithelium (outer layer of the cornea) of both of my eyes and then use a laser to reshape my eyes’ corneal tissue to correct myopia, all within the span of a few minutes.