Isqua Istari

Take it easy. It’s something my dad has said for a long time, as a farewell. Until today, I pretty much thought of it as just that: a farewell. Yesterday, however, I said something to Eric Perry that made me think, and that thinking changed how I heard what my dad said. Yesterday I saw Eric Perry, a fellow Bandit, in the halls of Glaske, the science/engineering building here on campus. On my asking how he was doing, he replied, “Oh, tired and overworked, like every other LeTourneau student.” Instantly the thought except for me flashed through my mind. I said, without really thinking about it, “Well, don’t work so hard that you can’t enjoy life.” He muttered something about trying.

That’s what got me thinking. “Don’t work so hard that you can’t enjoy life.” I’m not saying don’t work hard. I’m not even saying don’t push yourself so hard that it’s unenjoyable. But I do think I’m saying that at the end of the day/week/month/other unit of time, you should be able to sit back, pour yourself a glass of your preferred beverage, and have a nice time. I think I really live by this philosophy. Sometimes I might even take it too far, but that’s, by and large, another article. My life is important to me. Not because I think my life is somehow important, but because there are people in my life who are good enough that as long as they’re in my life, I feel that I should make my life a nice place for them to be, if that makes any sense. Just for an easy example, we’ll use the tired, overworked LeTourneau student. There’s LOTS of them. More than is healthy. It’s probably because this school tends to attract lots of over-acheivers, but that’s neither here nor there. Anyhow, as I alluded to above, I am not a tired, overworked LeTourneau student. Not for lack of my professor’s trying, mind you. But the crux of the matter is, I have a choice. I can have an enjoyable life, spend time with my wife, and my other friends, and do as much homework as I can, or I can do all my homework and ignore my wife, and the rest of my life. LOTS of people go the second route. If I really wanted better grades, I would, too. But my grades aren’t more important to me than the people in my life. I’ll pass my classes with Cs and Ds, and maybe some Bs, but I’ll enjoy my life!

That said, once again, I’m not trying to make a big argument for the moral justification of my not doing much homework. I could, should, and hopefully will be doing more homework, even in the midst of enjoying life. If it’s anything, it’s a big argument against overworking yourself intentionally. Sometimes it might be necessary, for financial reasons or what-have-you, but even then, it’s passing and will end, and you’ll be able to take it easy.

I analyze things. It’s what I do. I scrutinize and examine, I evaluate and compare. I do this to find out what is good. I search for excellence and truth.
On the other hand, I often ignore significant discrepencies. In food, in entertainment, in other’s words, and especially in myself. I think this is why I scrutinize, and the thing I pay the most attention to is words. I search for errors in what people say, especially about God and the state of the universe. What is the truth? That is the question that I seek to answer. Who is God, who are others, and who am I. In this I like to think I follow the Golden Rule, I examine others and dig up their faults because I love it when others examine me and dig up my faults. A few weeks ago someone told me I was being a jerk. It was great! I can not see myself, and so I want others to tell me what THEY see. Sure it hurts to hear it, and to pray about it, and to admit it, but at the same time it is good.
So if you see something in me that you don’t like. TELL ME! PLEASE! I can’t see it when I’m doing it, and I can’t tell you’re annoyed. I probably don’t even know the problem exists.
I know that I’m inviting abuse from all kinds of people (since I’m not really sure who all reads this blog), but I don’t really care. If you have to beat me up to show me my faults… better you than God.

Maybe I have a critical spirit. Maybe I’m over critical of others. Maybe so. Show me the plank in my eye. I can’t see it… there’s a plank in the way.

All this isn’t to say that I will instantly accept any criticism of myself (or anything else). I’ll likely thank you, and then anylize what you have said. It’s what I do.

Good question.

Today in Sr. Design, Dr. Hellmuth repeated something from last week’s devotion–that prayer is a privilege. I remembered him saying that it is a great privilege, and that we should treat it as such, and exercise it as often as possible. That got me thinking, about rights and exercising rights, something which Ziggy and I have had a few conversations about. That sparked me to think about the difference between a privilege and a right.

When Ziggy and I discussed rights, he was always, or at least often, an advocate of execising rights simply because you have them. While his argument was actually that if you don’t exercise them, they’ll be taken away, that’s not the issue that I’m writing about today. My stance was always that I’ll exercise my rights if it is convenient or something that I want to do, rather than as a matter of principle. I don’t carry a knife with me, ever, even though that is my right. In fact, rights are more often than not left unused, until such a time arises that it becomes necessary, or convenient, or what-have-you.

Dr. Hellmuth, though, along with countless other teachers and preachers I’ve heard along my years, insisted that prayer is a great privilege from God, and that we should always make the best of it. It occured to me that a privilege is a gift whereas a right is something that you can expect. Human beings deserve to be given equal opportunity. Americans deserve being able to voice their opinions. Rights are not bestowed, they are assumed, and ignoring rights is considered “inhumane,” or barbaric, or politically backwards. Privileges, on the other hand, are earned. You work for your privileges. A child, for example, may have to clean his room to earn his privilege to play in the backyard, and if he fails to prove himself worthy, the privilege is taken away and he is forced to sit in his room until he cleans it. Some privileges, though, are a gift. We humans, Christians or not, have done nothing to deserve direct access to the throne of God, nothing whatsoever to deserve his ear.

He did, however, give us that privilege anyhow. That strikes me as still one more excellent thing that God has done for us. Not only has He died for us undeserving whelps, but He lets us talk to Him directly! And, just as a little kid wants to go out and play, to exercise the privilege that mom or dad has given Him, we, God’s children, should always be quick to pray, because it’s something that God gave to us for us to use, not neglect, and we should take advantage of his kindness. Remember that it is not your right to pray, it is your privilege. And even though we never earned that privilege, God gave it to us anyhow, and we should treat it as something that we earned ourselves.

Check out the crazy fish tank! It’s a work in progress, but the form seems to work well. Now all I need is a heater and some fish. Like it says on the site, the project was inspired by hampster tubes. So far there are no major leaks (one slow leak on one joint, but that may be from the tube, not the seal) and the air bubble pump works splendidly. Stay tuned for updates. There should be fish shooting around the tubes pretty soon!

Just tacking on a great comic link. It’s so true.

Take a look at this
Ok, that’s not what I’m writing about. But it’s darned funny anyway.

I want to write about personalities. Keep in mind that what follows is purely speculation, comments and development are eagerly sought. One major personality disctinction is the in/extrovert duality. I have heard it said that introverts are energized when alone, and find being around people drains them. Extroverts undergo the oposite process, being energized when in a social setting, and becoming weary when alone. My purpose is to ask, why?
Why are personalities, the ability to think and work, affected so much by the presence of others? This could be linked to some people needing to talk to think about their ideas, except for those people who are extroverts (energized by social settings) and yet hardly talk at all. The english words are constructed from the latin “to turn inward” or “to turn outward” and are used in medicine to describe very literal physical behaviour. Is it because the spirit of the introvert turns inward, and the presence of others forces him out of his natural state? Does the spirit of the extrovert feed on the presence of others, and without that presence become hungry? I do not know the answers. However, it does seem strange that this behaviour does not seem strange to us. It is so universally common that we accept it without questioning what causes it.
A few speculations. Introverts tend to embrace philosophy (theough self examination) or narsissism (self love). Extroverts tent toward building others up, or tearing others down (encoragers or cynics if you will). Neither personality seems more or less pre-disposed toward good, as either can be equally sanctified or corrupted.

Being a self-proclaimed introvert I can’t claim much knowlege of others personalities and relationships, so I submit these thoughts to you who are disposed to ponder them.

For those interested, I’m putting up screenshots of my Night Elf Hunter in the WoW Stress test here . Enjoy.

New Pics up!

A heads up for those interested, a new section of pictures is available at my wedding site.

In other news, school started this past Tuesday, and I bought $650 of books today. College books are WAY too expensive.

In more interesting news, my wife is REALLY cute in the discontinued shirt of this picture.