Notes to Myself

Alleluia, Behold the Bridegroom Comes

2009-10-30T20:49:00.003-05:00

Another Beautiful Eastern Orthodox hymn

St. Petersburg Chamber Choir

What Does Classical Education Look Like?

2009-10-29T12:02:00.014-05:00

Victor Davis Hanson

Up until recently, I have had a vague understanding of what comprised a classical education curriculum with a sadness that I had not experienced much of it's benefits in my education after about the 5th grade (1966). Even entering college in my 40's and earning my BA was a disappointment. I did not learn half of the things I had hoped to learn. By the time I began university in the late 1990's, the classical approach to higher education had long been supplanted by the progressive/politically-correct view of education. Even if I had known how to ask for what I intuitively knew I needed, I doubt if my college advisors would have known how to help me. My few experiences with classes in philosophy and literature were with ultra-liberal professors that ended up being a drudgery of wasted of time and misspent money.

For the last 10 years, I have mainly focused on learning doctrine and hoping to form a Christian world-view. It has been both rewarding and frustrating. Many times, the resources I have used seemed flat or one-dimensional. Something inexpressible seemed to be missing and I have felt ill-equipped to deal with the age we live in. An aspect I have been plagued with is my inability to translate what I believe in a way that those around me can easily understand. I have found myself more and more vulnerable to an unwilling osmosis or accommodation to the shallow age we live in and now with the recent election of Obama, the progressive ideologies seem to be in a warp-speed extrapolation. It has been more than perplexing to understand how to deal with it all.

About 2 months ago, while under a steep learning curve on our national politics, I began running across online articles by Victor Davis Hanson (author, speaker, and professor - PhD in classical studies). He was one of the few authors where I began to find whiffs of a strong intellectual honesty and with the depth and breadth I was seeking from an author in the public square. Then, I began to run across videos of his lectures. In Victor Davis Hanson, I saw the world I vaguely remembered as a child. This is how I remember adults conversing about the secular world. I saw in VDH, the sharply-honed, fact-based reasoning developed by a classical education.

As I pondered Dr. Hanson's work, I began to wonder if the answer or part of the answer to my dilemma lies in applying myself to a classical education. I have begun to think that it will be a handmaiden to reinforce Christian faith, will play a role in helping me stand firm in the age we live in, and help me better communicate with those around me. Anywho, I've certainly been inspired to read Sophocles. I haven't read any of the Greek tales since I was a pre-teen and Sophocles sounds intriguing.

It has been a joy to see Dr. Hanson employ his classical skills to disassemble the propaganda inherent to the diverse ideologies in the public square. What a breath of fresh air to listen to a man address the age we live in from the clarity of a mind trained to cut through baloney. In his lecture: Where the University Went Wrong, I enjoyed the way he succinctly explained how higher education has changed. Here is the short lecture at the Hoover Institute with a Q & A session (48 minutes total) I found the Q & A fascinating:

More video lectures can be found here and here.

Articles can be found here.

Books can be found here.

BTW: His biography mentions that he is a protestant Christian, but I could not find any other information about his faith.

Tchaikovsky - Hymn of the Cherubim

2009-10-27T09:41:00.005-05:00

This beautiful hymn is from the Russian Orthodox liturgy. I could not find the words, so if anyone knows the words, please email me. Thanks! :)

True Righteousness

2009-10-27T09:33:00.005-05:00

Our righteousness is in Him, and our hope depends, not upon the exercise of grace in us, but upon the fullness of grace and love in Him, and upon His obedience unto death.

~ John Newton ~

I Know That My Redeemer Liveth

2009-10-22T16:54:00.007-05:00

Extraordinarily Beautiful

From Handel's Messiah

Sung by Dame Isobel

I know that my Redeemer liveth,

and that he shall stand at the latter day

upon the earth.

And though worms destroy this body,

yet in my flesh shall I see God.

(Job 19:25-26)

For now is Christ risen from the dead,

the first fruits of them that sleep.

(I Corinthians 15:20)

The Tyranny of Self-Righteousness

2009-10-18T13:31:00.018-05:00

(Click Photo to Enlarge)

One of my pet peeves is the tyranny of the self-righteous and, right now, we are seeing it in spades in D.C. When I read articles about how D.C. wants to start legislating or taxing personal habits like soda or hamburger consumption, or what kind of light bulbs can used, my temperature begins to rise and steam begins to leak from my ears. Americans do not need nannies in the White House and Congress micro-managing our lives.

It baffles me how anyone could think letting our government meddle and intrude into all kinds of individual personal areas could lead to any good. It may not sound so bad at first, but when you think it through, you begin to see how insidious it is and how it is no more than an expression of self-righteousness and wanting to lord over others. Adults should not treat other adults in this fashion. This is not how our democratic republic is designed to regulate our nation or protect it.

I have seen Christians falling for this nanny mentality that doesn't understand that we need to mind our own business in non-criminal areas of people's personal lives whether we agree or not! We are so easily tempted to poke our noses into other people's business and then justify ourselves for doing it. I have found it hard to explain this self-righteous meddling in a way that can easily be understood. That is until I read this article about the kinds of people the Nobel Peace prize are often awarded to. It calls the self-righteous types: Goodists:

The peace Nobel is a much misunderstood prize. With the exception of a few really grotesque picks (Le Duc Tho, Rigoberta Menchú, Yasser Arafat), a few inspired ones (Carl von Ossietzky, Norman Borlaug, Andrei Sakharov, Mother Teresa, Lech Walesa, Aung San Suu Kyi) and some worthy if obvious ones (Martin Luther King, Anwar Sadat and Menachem Begin, Mikhail Gorbachev, Nelson Mandela and F.W. de Klerk), most of the prize winners draw from the obscure ranks of the sorts of people the late Oriana Fallaci liked to call "the Goodists."
Who are the Goodists? They are the people who believe all conflict stems from avoidable misunderstanding. Who think that the world's evils spring from technologies, systems, complexes (as in "military-industrial") and everything else except from the hearts of men, where love abides. Who mistake wishes for possibilities. Who put a higher premium on their own moral intentions than on the efficacy of their actions. Who champion education as the solution, whatever the problem. Above all, the Goodists are the people who like to be seen to be good.

Isn't that a good description of Americanized self-righteousness? We have an over-abundance of Goodists in our nation. Foremost, we have elected officials who want to be seen as do-gooders. They imagine that human nature can be transformed by regulating it, and conclude they can build a utopian world where wealth is redistributed as their imprudence sees fit. The Elite Goodists, most naturally, think they know what is best for the lowly average citizen. Apparently, they see it as their duty to infringe upon our personal freedoms en minutia without regard for the laws of unintended consequences. It's truly amazing hubris when one stops to think about it.

Even worse, they ignore history. History teaches us that those who thought they could build egalitarian utopias where human nature could be conformed to men's ideals became the most inhumane tyrants of all: Mao, Lenin, and Hitler, to name just a few. The future looks dismal under the reign of the D.C. Goodists. They do not appear to fear God, or understand that human nature cannot be perfected by men, or that there will not be any utopia until the Lord returns. They do not seem to understand or fear the judgment that is coming.

Kyrie eleison. May God deny their aspirations to take over our health care, energy resources, financial markets, and may he remove their hunger to use their power to lord over every personal aspect of our lives.

The Lord Knows His Own

2009-10-18T11:20:00.015-05:00

Ever get to thinking about the mysterious ways God works to quietly acknowledge his own in the midst of all the pomp and nonsense of the world? It's not that I think upon deep thoughts like this on my own, but the Lord has a lovely way of bringing these things to my attention.

A recent example was when Obama was awarded the faux Nobel Peace Prize. At that time, I posted about a news report that Mary Ann Glendon had been awarded a real prize for not compromising her faith (she refused to be used for political purposes when Notre Dame gave an honorary law degree to a man whose first act as president was to expand abortion).

Last week in a post by The Paragraph Farmer, another example came to my attention. This time it was when Al Gore was awarded another misguided Nobel Peace Prize in 2007 over nominee Irena Sendler (A Polish Catholic who saved over 2500 Jewish lives during WWII). So what did the Lord do? I love this part:

Sendler's story was brought to light in the United States when students in Kansas found it described in a magazine and popularized it through their original play Life in a Jar. On April 19, 2009, The Courageous Heart of Irena Sendler, a Hallmark Hall of Fame production written and directed by John Kent Harrison and starring Anna Paquin in the title role, was broadcast by CBS.

Isn't that marvelous? Check out this movie promo:

The Lord does know how to acknowledge his own! Want yet another example? How about Eric Liddle's story which inspired the movie Chariots of Fire? This example does break the mold because it won four Academy Awards in 1981! Check out this movie clip:

Even more marvelous is the thought that we will be able to meet these saints in heaven! Pretty astonishing thought... to think we might spend eternity meeting all kinds of wonderful children of God from different eras and nations... kinda mind boggling isn't it?

Chesnokov's "Gabriel Appeared"

2009-10-13T22:08:00.008-05:00

Sung by a Magnificent Basso in Moscow

I wish I could find the text for this magnificent hymn... If you know the words, would you please email them to me? Thanks. :)

You Know You Are In Trouble When...

2009-10-13T16:10:00.015-05:00

You know you are in trouble when...

Jon Stewart on the Daily Show has to point out the lack of intelligent news coverage and the foolishness of CNN fact checking an SNL comedy sketch. Click here to see the satire.

You also know you are in trouble when...

D.C. decides to ram a bill through congress that will result in no one being able to afford private health care. Yet another example of D.C. using a hammer to fix a clock?

As G.K. Chesterton would say, "It's terrible to contemplate how few politicians are hung."

Wisdom From Chesterton

2009-10-13T15:30:00.004-05:00

G.K. Chesterton

"Over-civilization and barbarism are within an inch of each other. And a mark of both is the power of medicine-men."

Stupefying Vacuity!

2009-10-13T14:32:00.010-05:00

What is Wrong With Our Public Schools?

They just expelled a 6 year old...

“Zachary’s offense? Taking a camping utensil that can serve as a knife, fork and spoon to school. He was so excited about recently joining the Cub Scouts that he wanted to use it at lunch. School officials concluded that he had violated their zero-tolerance policy on weapons, and Zachary was suspended and now faces 45 days in the district’s reform school.”

The excuses offered for this piece of idiocy are even more infuriating than the idiocy itself. "MAD, Mad, mad... the world has gone mad." this bloggette mutters. Read the full story of this stupefying vacuity here.

Mumble, grumble, toil, and tumble. It's definitely time to fill out an application for membership with an Amish community. Now, if only I could find their website.

He's Been Faithful

2009-10-13T11:14:00.008-05:00

This is one of my favorite spiritual songs with one of my favorite singers, Damaris Carbaugh. Singing along with this song helped me through numerous days (and years) after the deaths of my husband and son.

In my moments of fear,

Through Every Pain Every Tear

There's A God Who's Been Faithful To Me

When My Strength Was All Gone

When My Heart Had No Song

Still In Love He's Proved Faithful To Me

Every Word He's Promised Is True

What I Thought Was Impossible

I've Seen My God Do

He's Been Faithful

Faithful To Me

Looking Back His Love And Mercy I See

Though In My Heart I Have Questioned

Even Failed To Believe

He's Been Faithful, Faithful To Me

When My Heart Looked Away

The Many Times I Could Not Pray

Still My God Was Faithful To Me

The Days I Spent So Selfishly

Reaching Out For What Pleased Me

Even Then God Was Faithful To Me

Every Time I Come Back To Him

He Is Waiting With Open Arms

And I See Once Again

He's Been Faithful

Faithful To Me

Looking Back His Love And Mercy I See

Though In My Heart I Have Questioned

Even Failed To Believe

Yet He's Been Faithful, Faithful To Me.

The Faithfulness of God in the Midst of All

2009-10-13T11:04:00.022-05:00

I rarely mention to others that one of my favorite movies is Hotel Rwanda. Who in their right mind would want to become immersed in the dreadful tale of the Rwandan genocide? Understandably, the average American recoils and retreats as far away as possible from this saga of gut-wrenching horror. We live in ease and instinctively withdraw from the examples of man's inhumanity to man in history. It is only natural to want to flee from any fiendish evil at work in our midst and Rwanda is the story of real-life satanic evil that few will ever face.

I suppose, I am drawn to stories like Rwanda's because two of my family members took their own lives. Suicide is murder. It is self-murder and the presence of evil can be palpable. I cannot articulate the depth of shock and anguish one feels when the truth of what suicide means impacts your soul's inner core. Experiences like this are intensely personal and cannot be fully shared with anyone, even with others whose family members committed suicide or were the victims of homicide. In the depth of their being, many of the bereaved are profoundly wounded in their souls and as time passes, one wonders where God was in this evil attack upon your loved one and if your wounds are beyond remedy.

Strangely enough, Rwanda's story is one that I draw hope and strength from because the movie reassures me that I am not alone. In their story, I see the hand of God at work in the midst of the mad ethnic hatred unleashed upon this nation. I see God working through a man, the hotel manager, to spare over 1100 lives marked for vicious slaughter. I see God's faithfulness in every step the hotel manager takes to protect the refugees and bring them through the demonic madness until the genocidal war is over.

The movie stops shortly after the end of the Rwandan war. It does not go on to tell the continuing story of a nation left decimated by evil or how it faced the aftermath of this malevolent plague and the shock, confusion, anguish, rage, and despair of the surviving souls.

It does not say how these people began to recover from the evil imprinted upon their souls. Here, one needs to turn to other sources to see how the story of God's faithfulness continues and how the hand of God is at work to restore these people. It is in the months and years that follow, where we find God at work through the Church, his chosen instrument, applying the balm of Gilead. For only the Great Physician, Christ Jesus, can heal souls.

In the past, I have read stories of the repentance and reconciliation in Rwanda, and the wondrous healing that God has wrought in souls there. This morning, I read another story from that time. It is always good to be reminded of God's unrelenting love and faithfulness. Here is a snip from the story:

... Friday, the testimony of a Rwandan religious, Sister Genevieve Uwamariya, provided the monthlong gathering's most heartfelt, visceral reflection to date on this Synod's chosen theme: "The Church in Africa at the Service of Reconciliation, Justice and Peace."

Originally given in French, here's a Vatican translation of Sr Genevieve's turn at the mic:

I am a survivor of the Tutsi genocide in Rwanda 1994.

A large part of my family was killed while in our parish church. The sight of this building used to fill me with horror and turned my stomach, just like the encounter with the prisoners filled me with disgust and rage.

It is in this mental state that something happened that would change my life and my relationships.

On August 27th 1997 at 1 p.m., a group from the Catholic association of the “Ladies of Divine Mercy” led me to two prisons in the region of Kibuye, my birthplace. They went to prepare the prisoners for the Jubilee of 2000. They said: “If you have killed, you commit yourself to ask for forgiveness from the surviving victim, that way you can help him free himself of the burden/weight of vengeance, hatred and rancor. If you are a victim, you commit yourself to offer forgiveness to those who harmed you and thus you free them from the weight of their crime and the evil that is in them.”

This message had an unexpected effect for me and in me....

After that, one of the prisoners rose in tears, fell to his knees before me, loudly begging: “Mercy”. I was petrified in recognizing a family friend who had grown and shared everything with us.

He admitted having killed my father and told me the details of the death of my family. A feeling of pity and compassion invaded me: I picked him up, embraced him and told him in a tearful voice: “You are and always will be my brother”.

Then I felt a huge weight lift away from me... I had found internal peace and I thanked the person I was holding in my arms.

To my great surprise, I heard him cry out: “Justice can do its work and condemn me to death, now I am free!”

I also wanted to cry out to who wanted to hear: “Come see what freed me, you too can find internal peace”.

From that moment on, my mission was to travel kilometers to bring mail to the prisoners asking for forgiveness from the survivors. Thus 500 letters were distributed; and I brought back mail with the answers of the survivors to the prisoners who had become my friends and my brothers... This allowed for meetings between the executioners and the victims....

From this experience, I deduce that reconciliation is not so much wanting to bring together two persons or two groups in conflict. It is rather the re-establishment of each in love and allowing internal healing which leads to mutual liberation.

And here is where the importance of the Church lies in our countries, since her mission is to offer the Word: a word that heals, liberates and reconciles.

This story reminds me of so many Bible passages: How beautiful are the feet of those who bear the good news (Romans 10:15). Or, Mercy and truth have met each other: justice and peace have kissed (Psalm 85:10). I'm sure you can think of many others.

It would be impossible to list all of the promises that might be applied to Rwanda's story. It is a good story to remember during dark days and to remember that God loves us and he is faithful. It is good to remember that he is our healer and he is trustworthy in the midst of all of our experiences. Even in experiences that make our worst nightmares seem tame.

2 Peter 3:8-9

But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

No Wonder...

2009-10-10T17:24:00.012-05:00

The opening line in this article said:

"Each August since 1998, Beloit College has released the Beloit College Mindset List, providing perspective for us old timers on how students just entering college [Class of 2013] see the world. "

When I clicked on the link to Beloit College and read the list, all I could think was: "No wonder our nation is falling off a cliff; this generation's poor brains have been hopelessly scrambled by our culture!" I'm not sure that's the perspective they wanted to impart, but sheesh, it sure gives me extra appreciation for those who turn out well! Check out these items and see what you think:

7. Earvin "Magic" Johnson has always been HIV-positive.

8. Tattoos have always been very chic and highly visible.

10 . Rap music has always been main stream.

13. The KGB has never officially existed.

16. Babies have always had a Social Security Number.

19. They have never understood the meaning of R.S.V.P.

20. American students have always lived anxiously with high-stakes educational testing.

23. The European Union has always existed.

25. Condoms have always been advertised on television.

27. Christopher Columbus has always been getting a bad rap.

28. The American health care system has always been in critical condition.

31. There has always been a Cartoon Network.

33. Their folks could always reach for a Zoloft.

38. Belarus, Moldova, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Armenia, Latvia, Georgia, Lithuania, and Estonia have always been independent nations.

54. Most communities have always had a mega-church.

56. The status of gays in the military has always been a topic of political debate.

58. There has always been a Planet Hollywood.

61. “Womyn” and “waitperson” have always been in the dictionary.

73. Nobody has ever responded to “Help, I’ve fallen and I can’t get up.”

#73 is the killer. No wonder I think the world has gone mad. It's true. I think I'll give up on the Nun idea and join the Amish. :)

When I Survey The Wondrous Cross

2009-10-10T13:23:00.004-05:00

Isaac Watts (1674-1748)

Sung by Fernando Ortega

When I survey the wondrous cross

On which the Prince of glory died,

My richest gain I count but loss,

And pour contempt on all my pride.

Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast,

Save in the death of Christ my God!

All the vain things that charm me most,

I sacrifice them to His blood.

See from His head, His hands, His feet,

Sorrow and love flow mingled down!

Did e’er such love and sorrow meet,

Or thorns compose so rich a crown?

Were the whole realm of nature mine,

That were a present far too small;

Love so amazing, so divine,

Demands my soul, my life, my all.

Watch Your Step!

2009-10-09T20:33:00.018-05:00

Don't step on it!

This is Not a bath towel!

Ok... who's the wise guy

Who thought I was a towel?

Via: An email from the Queen

A Lamb Goes Uncomplaining Forth

2009-10-09T20:24:00.006-05:00

This beautiful Paul Gerhardt hymn comes

Via the delightful Cindy R. :)

A Lamb goes uncomplaining forth,

the guilt of all men bearing;

and laden with the sins of earth,

none else the burden sharing!

Goes patient on, grows weak and faint,

to slaughter led without complaint,

that spotless life to offer;

bears shame, and stripes,

and wounds and death,

anguish and mockery,

and saith, "Willing all this I suffer."

This Lamb is Christ,

the soul's great Friend,

the Lamb of God, our Savior;

Him God the Father chose

to send to gain for us His favor.

"Go forth, My Son," the Father saith,

"and free men from the fear of death,

from guilt and condemnation.

The wrath and stripes are hard to bear,

but by Thy Passion men shall share

the fruit of Thy salvation."

And The Real Winner Is?

2009-10-09T17:19:00.006-05:00

It would be hard to miss today's news that the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to President Obama. It's also hard to miss the irony is his winning the Yassar Arafat award.

What most people have probably missed, is that the beautiful May Ann Glendon won a well deserved award (click here if you need a memory boost for her ties to the President Obama and Notre Dame scandal). Here is a long snip from today's news article:

[Mary Ann Glendon] did not win the Nobel Peace Prize (though in her career as law professor, author, and diplomat, one could very well argue she should), but on Wednesday night at the Waldorf, Mary Ann Glendon was honored by theNational Right to Life Educational Trust Fund “for a trip that she declined to take to a small town in Indiana” because she knows that “a conscience is a terrible thing to waste.”

Glendon was asked to accept Notre Dame’s prestigious Laetare Medal at the same graduation ceremony. But upon receiving the news that she would be providing cover for Barack Obama, the former U.S. ambassador to the Vatican declined.

At the time, responding to Notre Dame’s president’s insistence that there would be a fruitful dialogue between the pomp and circumstance, Glendonwrote that: “A commencement . . . is supposed to be a joyous day for the graduates and their families. It is not the right place, nor is a brief acceptance speech the right vehicle, for engagement with the very serious problems raised by Notre Dame’s decision — in disregard of the settled position of the U.S. bishops — to honor a prominent and uncompromising opponent of the Church’s position on issues involving fundamental principles of justice.”

To put those guidelines aside would be to put principle aside, she worried. To put identity aside. She wrote: “With recent news reports that other Catholic schools are similarly choosing to disregard the bishops’ guidelines, I am concerned that Notre Dame’s example could have an unfortunate ripple effect.”

During her Waldorf speech, Glendon warned that “choices last,” and said that is why she made the one she did. Continuing to use the word that happens to be the abortion industry’s favorite euphemism, she said that “choices make us the people we are.” And “collective choices make us the kind of culture we are.”

“Each time,” she cautioned, we make policy decisions on abortion, euthanasia, and embryonic experimentation, “we are shaping our country’s moral ecology for better or for worse.” She further warned of “how easily today’s atrocity can become tomorrow’s routine.”

Bravo! The Lord's children may be obscured by the constant pomp and nonsense of the world, but the Lord knows his own.

Churchill Posters

2009-10-09T16:07:00.006-05:00

The truth is incontrovertible,

Malice may attack it,

Ignorance may deride it,

But in the end; there it is.

~Winston Churchill Poster Collection ~

Zeptosecond

2009-10-07T13:37:00.005-05:00

Official definition of a zeptosecond = 10^-21 seconds

I like this one better:

Zeptosecond = The interval between passage of a tax increase, and legislators starting to think about the next one.

The Mediterranean Diet & Depression

2009-10-07T13:25:00.006-05:00

The Mediterranean diet is associated with a reduced risk of depression. Do you suppose sitting in the sun, sipping red wine, nibbling olives, and enjoying the views might play a role, too? Hmm... maybe I should consider moving, I've always loved Tuscany. :)

Confession From A News Junkie

2009-10-05T11:26:00.005-05:00

Yes, the more I read the headlines,

The more I miss George and Laura.

Wisdom From Anonymous

2009-09-13T12:18:00.007-05:00

Enjoy life. Think of all the women who passed up dessert on the Titanic.

~ Anonymous ~

Tchaikovsky - Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom

2009-09-10T14:53:00.011-05:00

In Eastern traditions, especially that of the Eastern Catholic Churches, the Divine Liturgy is seen as transcending time, and the world. All believers are believed to be united in worship in the Kingdom of God along with departed Saints and the celestial Angels. To this end, everything in the Liturgy is seen as symbolic, yet also not just merely symbolic, but making the unseen reality manifest.

Sweet!

Nature Deficit Disorder

2009-09-10T11:52:00.026-05:00

I am becoming more and more convinced that living in a mega city and spending too much time indoors is detrimental to my well-being. For me, spending time with God's creation is as necessary as breathing air. Being alone with nature and drinking in God's creation soothes my mind and comforts my soul. Being shut away from nature is almost as bad as not having good hymns in church.

It seems that I'm not the only one who thinks regular contact with nature is important. This article written by Al Mohler, reviewing a book he read, addresses the subject this way:

Author Richard Louv believes that America's children are now suffering from a syndrome he identifies as "nature-deficit disorder." In his new book, Last Child in the Woods, Louv suggests that the current generation of American children knows the Discovery Channel better than their own backyards--and that this loss of contact with nature leads to impoverished lives and stunted imagination.
Louv begins by recounting an anecdote involving his son, Matthew. When the boy was about ten years of age, he asked his father: "Dad, how come it was more fun when you were a kid?" The boy was honestly reflecting on his knowledge of his father's boyhood. Richard Louv, like most of us who came of age in his generation, spent most of our playing time outdoors, building forts in the woods, exploring every nook and cranny of our yards, and participating in activities that centered in child-organized outdoor fun. Louv reflects, "Americans around my age, baby boomers or older, enjoyed a kind of free, natural play that seems, in the era of kid pagers, instant messaging, and Nintendo, like a quaint artifact."
Louv argues that this represents nothing less than a sudden shift in the way Americans live, raise their children, and engage the natural world. "Within the space of a few decades, the way children understand and experience nature has changed radically. The polarity of the relationship has reversed. Today, kids are aware of the global threats to the environment--but their physical contact, their intimacy with nature, is fading. That's exactly the opposite of how it was when I was a child."

That is so true. We oldsters often had magical experiences with nature while growing up. One of my (numerous) pet peeves with being alive in this era is the absence of children playing outdoors. Sometimes, I feel like I'm driving though a ghost town when I drive through a suburban neighborhood.

In reality, many children have almost no contact with nature. They play indoors, focusing on electronic screens that produce an artificial experience. They are surrounded by creature comforts and watched over by anxious parents who are afraid that violent criminals are lurking behind every green tree. "Our society is teaching young people to avoid direct experience in nature," Louv observes. "That lesson is delivered in schools, families, even organizations devoted to the outdoors, and codified into the legal and regulatory structures of many of our communities."

Teaching young people to avoid direct experience in nature? Codified into the legal and regulatory structures? Now, I'm really dispirited, desolate, distressed, and depressed. (Ever notice how many words that describe being slimed with nasty stuff start with the letter D? I have. Ever wonder if it has something to do with Devil starting with the letter D? All bad words start with D or rhyme with devil (except donuts and devil's food cake, of course). Ok, ok, I know, get on with it and stop the stuff and nonsense):

Is contact with nature necessary for healthy childhood? Louv is absolutely confident that children have a deep need for contact with the natural world and its wonders. "Unlike television, nature does not steal time; it amplifies it," Louv insists. In his view, "whatever shape nature takes, it offers each child an older, larger world separate from parents." The natural world offers children an opportunity to think, dream, touch, and play out fantasies about how he or she imagines the world. Nature brings a capacity for wonder and a connection with something real that is endlessly fascinating and largely outside human control.
Louv tells of interviewing thousands of children in the course of previous research. At one point, he received this candid comment from a fourth-grade boy in San Diego: "I like to play indoors better, 'cause that's where all the electrical outlets are."
In the experience of all too many children, the electrical outlets are the determining reality. We have allowed our children to be so seduced by entertainment and information technologies that many believe that without electricity, experience is virtually impossible.

Grrr... razzum frazzum... she fumes... blow-up them thar durn new-fangled contraptions! This is enough to make me want to become Luddite!

Richard Louv is a keen observer--watching our culture and taking careful note of how nature has become an abstraction for many of us. Why are so many Americans putting television and video screens in their vehicles? Louv observes: "The highway's edges may not be postcard perfect. But for a century, children's early understanding of how cities and nature fit together was gained from the backseat: the empty farmhouse at the edge of the subdivision; the variety of architecture, here and there; the woods and fields and water beyond the seamy edges--all that was and still is available to the eye. This was the landscape that we watched as children. It was our drive-by movie."
These days, many parents allow kids to start the DVD player as soon as the car hits the interstate.
Interestingly, Louv also points to the epidemic of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder [ADHD], suggesting that a lack of contact with nature may be, at least in part, a cause for the attention deficit and disconnectedness experienced by many young children--especially young boys. He suggests that a "nature-deficit disorder" may be behind the phenomenon now routinely diagnosed as ADHD. Louv goes so far as to suggest that a dose of real contact with the natural world may be more powerful than Ritalin in helping children to overcome patterns of hyperactivity and distraction. The same prescription would likely help parents as well.

I can't take anymore. The world hasn't just gone mad, it's now contagious. Read the rest of this insightful article here. I'm going outside to play.