tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-40562032009-10-01T01:48:12.248-04:00The Musings of the WandererIn J.R.R. Tolkien's Elvish dialect of Quenya, Arandir means Noble Wanderer. Selected in my youth as I searched for deeper religious truth, this <i>nom de plume</i> remains apt--for I am still a pilgrim and sojourner in this world, truly a ''stranger in a strange land.'' It remains my purpose to record here whatever seems noteworthy of my musings and experience as I travel the way of life.Fr. Ahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11732185067893985903noreply@blogger.comBlogger224125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4056203.post-41462421801606769382007-11-01T11:42:00.002-04:002007-11-03T14:37:06.973-04:00ATHEISMI have a strong impression that no one bothers with this blog anymore. I've left it completely abandoned now for over a year, and practically so for more than two. I have some thoughts of/desire to revive it, now that my situation in life has changed so drastically, but am somewhat uncertain of the propriety of so doing.However, I just read an article which I need to highlight here, if Fr. Ahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11732185067893985903noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4056203.post-1132624477791872162005-11-21T20:54:00.000-05:002005-11-21T20:54:37.823-05:00UMMMM--WHAT CAN YOU SAY?
A couple months ago I was deeply involved in a couple discussions regarding first sex ed and later Church/State over at The Ockhamist and I Ate My Wafer. My opinion regarding sex ed was more or less, "If you have a problem with it, teach your kids yourself," and I stand by that for the most part--but the article linked below kinda makes me appreciate that there is a Fr. Ahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11732185067893985903noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4056203.post-1130010921046046042005-10-22T15:55:00.000-04:002005-10-22T15:55:21.096-04:00YEAH, YEAH, BEEN GONE FOREVER AGAIN
For a good reason. I've been very very busy. But fear not--my busy-ness has given me a lot of interesting thoughts to spout here in traditional Guggian fashion.
Here's something I only just bumped into. I don't know if I and my sort were intended to like this article, but I do. Goldblatt's philosophical promenade down the knife-edge of the denial of the "Fr. Ahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11732185067893985903noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4056203.post-1128555737201221262005-10-05T19:38:00.000-04:002005-10-05T19:42:17.206-04:00PLAGAL OF THE FOURTHMr. Danckaert and I just discovered that Monty Python's Philosophers' Song (by the Bruces) is in the Byzantine mode Plagal of the Fourth. This is cool. It has an ison. And nobody will get this post except for Virgil. ;) Oh well.Fr. Ahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11732185067893985903noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4056203.post-1128475354222040462005-10-04T21:18:00.000-04:002005-10-04T21:22:34.226-04:00YOYeah, I'm still around. I'm very active right now in a couple discussions, over at the Ockhamist and at Bob Golding's. Banned books, sex ed and Church/State are the topics. Fun stuff. Check it out.Fr. Ahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11732185067893985903noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4056203.post-1127621413294216532005-09-25T00:08:00.000-04:002005-09-25T00:12:30.180-04:00I GUESS I MIGHT AS WELL ADMIT ITI am best described as a Capitalist. See? It's all proven, right down there.And look--I almost made it to Libertarian territory. So close...I do think it's annoying that a few questions skewed my results, just because I'm very much in favor of problems being fixed--just not by the government. The quiz didn't allow for that. Oh well. You are a Social Liberal(61% Fr. Ahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11732185067893985903noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4056203.post-1127366289922149242005-09-22T01:14:00.000-04:002005-09-22T01:18:09.930-04:00BOY, THIS IS DUMB:My Conversation with God (because I need to post something before my blog completely dies yet again)Me: So what are you doing on my computer screen?God:Alright then. Same as always. Chatting with people on the web.Me: Why?God:Reductionism.Me: I dunno. Most people online are pretty damn stupid.God:Me either. Humans are not always infallible.Me: And what's Reductionism supposedFr. Ahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11732185067893985903noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4056203.post-1125434545070119752005-08-30T16:27:00.000-04:002005-08-30T16:47:58.860-04:00A PARADOXThere are Christians who insist with the unchanging cadence of a broken record that we are saved by faith, not works, "lest we should boast."And there are Christians who say yes, that is true, but we still have to work.And Christianity is divided over this point.But it is the latter, not the former, who bring their infants to the laver of regeneration for baptism into the Body of Christ,Fr. Ahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11732185067893985903noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4056203.post-1125373765717550642005-08-29T23:47:00.000-04:002005-08-29T23:55:17.236-04:00INSOMNIAMy wife should be a Hindu goddess.Lizzy the Destroyer, Disrupter of Bedding and Waker of Men.And after I'd just made the bed, too.Her and Shiva. I swear!Fr. Ahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11732185067893985903noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4056203.post-1125155735058689472005-08-27T10:35:00.000-04:002005-08-27T11:15:35.066-04:00TRAINSPOTTINGn. An adult hobby closely resembling the childish game of license plates (wherein long drives are whiled away by the tallying up of out-of-state license plate sightings). The similarities of the adult hobby to this puerile pastime are carefully concealed by its studious record-keeping and the apparent absence of any particular adversity analogous to the Long Drive. It is clear, Fr. Ahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11732185067893985903noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4056203.post-1124888054787072922005-08-24T08:47:00.000-04:002005-08-24T08:54:14.793-04:00CONFIRMATION?Speaking of Google Earth, below is a picture of the Parc de la Ciutadella in Barcelona. Unless I'm greatly mistaken, Fontsere and Gaudi's La Cascada is on the left, and the pond around which I rowed Keith Miller is towards the right. Would I be correct, then, to assume that Beat Annex East (the big concrete Mammoth that some of us climbed at various times in the past few years) is atFr. Ahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11732185067893985903noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4056203.post-1124815712851833732005-08-23T12:36:00.000-04:002005-08-23T12:58:36.730-04:00I WILL NEVER GET L0ST AGAINI just downloaded Google Earth. Awesome, awesome, awesome. And it's free! Check this out!A picture, below, of the Church of St. Theodore, the one historic church in Rome (to my knowledge) possessed by the Greek Orthodox Church (specifically, the Patriarch in Constantinople). I was there during the liturgy for Theophany (Jan 6) earlier this year. It's the round building Fr. Ahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11732185067893985903noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4056203.post-1124368878418171392005-08-18T08:19:00.000-04:002005-08-18T08:41:18.423-04:00YES, WE'RE STILL IN KANSASBut so are the lions and tigers and bears.Oh my.Yeah, we have some issues here.First, as I recall, the King of the Wild Frontier was never the bear or anything like that--it was Davy Crockett.Let's overlook that point and move on to the second. This line--"If we only have 10 minutes to present this idea, people think we're nuts. But if people hear the one-hour version, Fr. Ahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11732185067893985903noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4056203.post-1123767501081607872005-08-11T09:38:00.000-04:002005-08-11T09:38:21.146-04:00DRINKING PISS
Waste not, want not, as they say. I think I want one. ;)Fr. Ahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11732185067893985903noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4056203.post-1123700188785001642005-08-10T14:46:00.000-04:002005-08-10T14:56:28.790-04:00MR. GUGG IS CONFUSEDI know, more or less, the basics of the theory of Relativity. The passage of time for an object in motion will appear, to a "stationary" observer, to pass more slowly. The object in motion could just as easily claim that it is the "stationary" observer for whom time is passing more quickly. Right.So by moving more quickly, you can make your time progress more slowly than Fr. Ahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11732185067893985903noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4056203.post-1123689531866829922005-08-10T11:56:00.000-04:002005-08-10T12:07:48.563-04:00FROM IRAQ...An interesting showdown of sorts--two groups of women demonstrating for and against the current draft of the Iraqi constitution. Take a look.Also...Here's a piece from the Guardian giving some background on the issue.Fr. Ahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11732185067893985903noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4056203.post-1123214656639817162005-08-05T00:00:00.000-04:002005-08-05T00:04:16.646-04:00HEY THEREApologies for the hiatus. Since Sunday I've had a couple of my brothers visiting, and have been too busy to blog, as we have been doing touristy things in Boston and/or playing multiplayer RTS games. Hence, I have now gone to a Red Sox game in Fenway Park, done the wave (if that's the phraseology I'm looking for) with 30000 other fans, taken a Duck Tour, watched Hamlet for free on the Fr. Ahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11732185067893985903noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4056203.post-1122664959709627982005-07-29T15:19:00.000-04:002005-07-30T00:19:57.190-04:00THE LEDGER BOOKS OF HEAVENThey're thinner today. Less to record."But the very hairs of your head are all numbered" (Luke 12:7).UPDATEI'm told my meaning is nebulous. Therefore, just to be crystal clear, I hereby announce that I have cut my hair. It is very short. Almost as short as in the picture of me to the left.So much for subtilty. ;) Thank you for your attention.Fr. Ahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11732185067893985903noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4056203.post-1122494245342907362005-07-27T15:41:00.000-04:002005-07-27T15:57:25.350-04:00REGARDING A BAD HABITMine, to be precise. The habit of not organizing my thoughts logically enough before articulating them, leading to such debacles of argument as Days 2, 3 and 5 below. Also, the habit of beginning a post with sentence fragments, but we'll overlook that one for today. ;)Since my first attempts sucked, let's try again.Guggian Political Theory, Mark II.I take issue with several Fr. Ahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11732185067893985903noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4056203.post-1122433299118093402005-07-26T22:31:00.000-04:002005-07-26T23:01:39.123-04:00DAY 7--REGARDING HAPPY MEDIANSI seem to have done it. A week of daily posting. I surprised myself with how much opinion I had pent up. Over 3000 words is a fair bit to write unassigned, even when it's more or less all mere pontification, not researched or cited.I find myself a little disturbed at how much I pontificated. Before this week, I had been thinking that I was a fairly level-headed Fr. Ahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11732185067893985903noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4056203.post-1122306207462817422005-07-25T11:38:00.000-04:002005-07-25T11:53:36.450-04:00DAY 6--ANOTHER STEWART GEOGRAPHY QUIZThis courtesy of Arthur Chrenkoff. You have to place each country precisely where it belongs on the European continent.I got 40 out of 45 right, with an average error of 30 miles on the ones I got wrong. The Balkans kinda threw me, though--them and San Marino and the rest of those itty-bitty countries.The website has other continents as well--try your hand at Fr. Ahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11732185067893985903noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4056203.post-1122263321613413162005-07-24T23:27:00.000-04:002005-07-24T23:48:41.620-04:00DAY 5--GETTING TO THE POINTIt has been pointed out to me by a long-suffering reader of my blog over the past few days that I have been longwinded, radical and unclear as to my actual point. My apologies.The posts of the past three days were supposed to function as mere preliminary steps to a much more basic point/plea.I want the religious right to call off the juggernaut, bow out of politics and Fr. Ahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11732185067893985903noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4056203.post-1122175532644819472005-07-23T23:02:00.000-04:002005-07-23T23:26:58.196-04:00DAY 4--AND ON THE SEVENTH DAY...That's right. It is Saturday, the Sabbath, and I am resting, not composing yet another huge post.On a subject related to the previous posts, however, let me offer this intriguing point/counterpoint for your perusal.Last year the former Cardinal Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict XVI) wrote an article on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the D-Day landings at Fr. Ahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11732185067893985903noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4056203.post-1122094728827761282005-07-22T23:41:00.000-04:002005-07-23T00:58:48.836-04:00DAY 3--AND UNTO GOD...For nearly two millenia Christians have struggled to bring about the marriage of God and Caesar. And for two millenia each effort has failed, besmirching the name of Christ with the countless atrocities committed in service of that marriage by those who bear His name. One wonders where we went wrong.After all, the theory of the Byzantine emperors (who started the whole thingFr. Ahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11732185067893985903noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4056203.post-1121964709703520572005-07-21T10:42:00.000-04:002005-07-21T12:51:49.710-04:00DAY 2--RENDER UNTO CAESAR...Above is the last flag to fly over a Christian Constantinople. Its proponents today consider it the symbol of the ideal Christian state, representing the symbiosis and equality of the secular and religious authorities in a single state. Above is the dream that was Byzantium--the kingdom of heaven on earth.There is a theological rationale for this. Orthodox ChristianityFr. Ahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11732185067893985903noreply@blogger.com6