Sunspots 716

Things I have recently spotted that may be of interest to someone else:

Christianity: Relevant asks whether Christians should participate in the Pledge of Allegiance.

Christianity Today, and other sources, report on a survey as to whether people believe that humans have evolved or not.

Cliff Sims, evangelical Christian and former White House Staffer, was interviewed by Christianity Today. He said that, although he supports the President on many things, he does not believe that Trump is a born-again Christian.

He Lives has a good post on "Christians and gambling."

The Houston Chronicle reports on sexual abuse by Southern Baptist youth pastors. Anything but a pretty picture.

Environment: The much-reported spending bill, recently signed into law, includes establishment of a new US National Park, Indiana Dunes NP, according to USA Today.

Finance: Robert J. Samuelson says that not many retirees live in poverty, or are anxious about their finances.

Health: NPR reports that microbes living in insects may be a source of new germ-fighting drugs.


History: Listverse tells us about the accomplishments of 10 African-American women, most of whom you probably have never heard of.

Humor: (or something) NPR reports on speed dating on a ski resort chairlift. Really.


Politics: NPR reports that the national debt is higher than it has ever been, and will almost certainly rise more.

A report in Scientific American on research that suggests that both left- and right-wing people are susceptible to Fake News.

Catherine Rampell suggests that we abolish Congress, and says why.

Science: Listverse reports on 10 interesting facts about frogs and toads.


The graphic used in these posts is from NASA, hence, I believe, it is public domain. 

Thanks for looking!

Profile Change

I changed the wording around my picture, on the right, a little. It now reflects the fact that, although I am (I hope) on the payroll for a month or two yet, and covered under the health insurance plan for the rest of June, I have no official duties that I am aware of at my former place of employment.

I finished teaching a biology class for non-majors yesterday. It was a very small group. Started with four, ended with three students. Among other things, we took a field trip to the Greenville, SC, Zoo. It had been a decade or more since I had been, and I was impressed. Not with the quantity of animals--they don't have a lot. No bears, so far as I could tell, for instance. But I was impressed with the landscaping and the signs. The place looks good. One of my former students works there, and we happened upon her. She corrected me on one fundamental fact, and told us that elephants (her specialty) need a lot of foot care. Since she mentioned it, I guess they would have to. They put a lot of pressure on those feet. I enjoyed the class--the whole class, not just this field trip. I hope the students did.

God has been good to me. Most of my classes, most of my students, all of my colleagues, and most of my duties have been enjoyable.

So what's next? Well, for one thing, I guess I'll post on. Thanks for reading.

Short post, maybe

One lesson from retirement, and also from cleaning up the place when my parents-in-law's house was put up for sale:

Don't keep anything you don't need! Or, to put it another way, some of us keep too much stuff. Or, yet another way: when in doubt, throw it out.

Several of us went through my parents-in-law's house, deciding what to try to sell, what to keep for someone, and what to throw away. A niece and I spent a few hours going through every paid bill in their married history. We found some gems, such as a receipt for wedding jewelry, and a contract on the house, but seven trash bags of receipts weren't of any value. Sooner or later, someone will lose or throw away even the items we kept. My wife and I have decided that, as far as possible, we will throw away the useless stuff in advance, so our kids don't have to. Then they can throw away what we thought was worth keeping.

We live in this world for a short time. We can't take anything with us till the next.

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On an entirely different note, a daughter commented on this post, about assembly lines: "[I] would argue that it is actually a type of management and in this particular case it is a type of management that leads to exploitation of the worker. . . . assembly lines lead to a deskilling of labor. they not only lead to the laborer being disconnected from his product . . . but they also lead to deskilled labor, which is a way for management to pay lower wages and get away with it."

(reposted, with some improvements in wording on the first part)

Work and Retirement, 2

I've been a bit ill, so not much of a post today.

My wife raised two points (bold) about yesterday's post, my admittedly idealized and unrealistic prescription for work in the US:
1) It was assembly lines, which is one type of work that may disconnect the worker from the end-product of labor, which made much of today's production and wealth possible.
My response: OK. Why didn't Henry Ford at least show the workers a few cars every week or so? She said that perhaps he did. Perhaps so.

2) Speculation may really be productive work. A speculator may at least be making a living.
Obviously, it depends on what is meant by productive. I don't understand day-trading, futures, and the like. I have a suspicion that most or all of these amount to a form of gambling, and don't really increase the value of anything, but I stand to be corrected.
This is probably oversimple, but one of the problems with Enron was that they weren't really producing anything.

Work and Retirement

Modified from Punch, May 16, 1917, as uploaded by Project Gutenberg
(for illustrative purposes only--I don't play golf--so far!)

Our Sunday School lesson for May 29th had this as part of the text:

2 Thessalonians 3:10 For even when we were with you, this we commanded you, If any will not work, neither let him eat.
11 For we hear of some that walk among you disorderly, that work not at all, but are busybodies.
12 Now them that are such we command and exhort in the Lord Jesus Christ, that with quietness they work, and eat their own bread.
13 But ye, brethren, be not weary in well-doing. (ASV)

There's also this: 1 Thessalonians 4:11 and that ye study to be quiet, and to do your own business, and to work with your hands, even as we charged you;

I told my University that I would not be available to work for the next academic year, except, possibly, on a part-time basis. My salary slot has been filled. My wife has already finished her work as a public school teacher. Her slot has, too. We are, in short, retiring.

What, if anything, does the Bible say about retirement? Does retirement violate this, and other, biblical commands to work?

I have found a few web pages on this matter. Here's one that gives some history of retirement as an idea in the U. S., and says that Social Security should be abolished, because it leads to violations of the 4th and 5th commandments. This page points out that Samuel gave a retirement speech, upon the selection of Saul to be king, and he promised to continue the work of prayer for Israel. (1 Samuel 12:23)

Here are a few thoughts:
>Humans are expected to work, and to contribute toward their own support. (There must be exceptions for young children and for infirmity.) This is not only fulfilled by working for pay, but by other work, which may not be paid, but is just as important, such as edifying others, housework, maintenance, and care for those unable to care for themselves.
>For many retired workers, retirement funds are a form of compensation for previous work. However, I don't believe that that entirely relieves retired persons from keeping busy, or from helping others.
>At least some work, of some types, is good for us. Physical effort, in moderation, is good for us.
>Work should be satisfying, at least occasionally. A worker should be able to look back on a good job well done. There is something wrong with a society where some types of work are so disconnected from the final worthwhile product that workers can't get satisfaction out of their work.
>Work should not interfere with being able to worship (not necessarily on Sunday morning).
>The end product of work should be for the good of others. Some lines of work (prostitution, drug dealing, working to cheat others) are morally wrong. There is something terribly wrong with a society where some people can't seem to support themselves without making their bodies into sex objects. There is also something terribly wrong with a society where cutting corners (for example by illegally influencing legislation, violating legitimate regulations, mistreating employees, or cheating customers) is rewarded highly. (I am not sure that some kinds of speculation are really useful work.)
Study and learning are usually useful work.
>There is something fundamentally wrong with a society where the pay of supervisors is two or more orders of magnitude above that of those who are actually producing the product, especially if supervisor pay is not linked to wise management.
>We place too much value on entertainment. Entertainment is legitimate, in moderation, but retirement spent mainly in seeking entertainment is fundamentally wrong, as is a working life aimed at such a retirement. There is something seriously wrong in a society which compensates entertainers so highly, and doesn't compensate many of those who care for relatives at all, and those in caring and protective professions so poorly.
>There is no legitimate retirement from serving God, although the way we serve Him may change with changing circumstances.

I may post some more about this matter in the future. Let me close with an admonishment to younger readers: save for your retirement! It's never too early! I guess that this indicates that I expect, and hope, to find justification for what I have done, namely retired.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License. Feel free to use it, but not to restrict others from using it.

She's done!

My wife's salaried life is over. She put in her last day of teaching yesterday.

We thank God that she was able to work this long. We also thank Him that the state retirement system exists, and He helped us to obtain full retirement compensation from them, even though she did not work when either of the girls were little.

There were some problems. All jobs have them. There were unreasonable regulations, co-workers (none part of her team) whose main goal seemed to be to avoid work, parents who didn't have a clue as to how to guide their children, and children who didn't cooperate. There were emotions because a child wasn't doing well, or had awful circumstances at home. There were discipline problems. There was an incident when a child hurt herself and tried to get my wife in trouble for it. She often wished that she and her team members had been closer.

On the other hand, there were good things, and good times. Many of them. There were kids who loved her, parents who appreciated her, kindnesses done by co-workers, kids who really learned, or who were really turned on, and other great experiences.

It's been, overall, a God-given career. On the whole, she liked it. Let's put it this way--she offered to come back and help her co-workers as a volunteer next year. Thanks, Lord, for allowing her to help others for these many years, and for all the other public school teachers who are your servants, and are coming back to work next year.

Sunspots 8

THANKS TO GOD! I didn't say that explicitly at the retirement luncheon for me and several others, held at my institution this week, and I surely should have. Not thanks that I am retiring, but thanks for 41 good--no, great--years. Thanks also to a lot of other people, who will never read this, but who made the arrangements, and said various nice things, and to my wife, daughters, and grandson, for showing up, and acting like they enjoyed it. Daughters, that was great. Thanks again.

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I began teaching a class the day after the luncheon. . .

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The latest Christian Carnival is here. For anyone interested in Women in the Church, there is a link to a post by that title, about 2/3 of the way down the Carnival's listing of posts. I'd link to it directly, but that might deprive someone of seeing a mention of another post that they really should read.

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Google Guide gives good tips on using Google, but is not affiliated with that service/site/behemoth/whatever.

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Suggestions from Project Gutenberg, which posts public domain books--lots of them:
Christopher Morley's Plum Pudding of divers Ingredients, Discreetly Blended & Seasoned, a book of essays published in 1921, includes two gems on writing as a profession, "The Perfect Reader" and "The Rudeness of Poets." (There are more gems, on other subjects, that I didn't get around to reading, I'm sure.)
Kate Greenway's A Apple Pie is an alphabet book with color illustrations done in 1886. I suggest downloading the zipped version.

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For anyone interested in my basketball post, yesterday, here's more on Kwame Brown.

Be spontaneous!

I received this e-mail from one of my favorite students on the last class day of my last semester:

BE SPONTANEOUS. I hope that you and your wife have a wonderful retirement and that you do many things that you have always wished to do. Go places you have never gone and do things you have never done . . .like rock climbing or bungee jumping or taking a trek across the Sahara Desert or taming wild lions or joining a traveling circus!! Those are just a few things I would like to do. :) I hope that whatever you do, God will bless you and your family tremendously. (excerpt from personal e-mail, May 5, 2005.)

A reminder, which I didn't need--I already knew it--that I am perceived as a little dull.

There are worse things than being dull. Spontaneity can get you into big trouble. But, on the other hand, doing daring, spontaneous things is part of what the Christian life is supposed to be about, and, I think, she is right. I haven't been as spontaneous as I should have been. I haven't stood up for the right in unpopular ways as often, or as forcefully, as I should have.

Rahab spontaneously decided to protect the spies. David spontaneously decided to go against Goliath. Mary heard news that was going to change her life radically, and accepted it, apparently on the spot. Years later, Mary told Jesus to do something a little rash, and his first miracle was performed. The Twelve left their jobs and families behind, just dropping their nets, or walking away from the cashbox, and followed Jesus. Paul couldn't restrain himself, and stood up and made a speech at Mars Hill. Spontaneity can be good. No, great!

Thanks for the advice! We do plan to go some places we have never gone, and will do some things we have never done, I hope. (Don't hold your breath till we bungee jump or tame wild lions!) I also hope we have the courage, if God calls, to do some things for Him that we have never done. His church could use some real sanctified spontaneity.

I don't name private persons on this blog, but the person who wrote the above quote knows who she is, and if she reads this, and I hope she does, I am letting her know that I will try to pray that she will do some wonderful things, too, some just for the fun of it, and some of them just for Him.

End of year goodbyes

Saying "good-bye" is hard to do. Some people won't say it. Working as a college professor, where every end of semester means the end of some relationships, is probably no different than, say, being a librarian or a truck driver, but I've never been either of them, and it seems like there are a lot of goodbyes that go with this job. I check several blogs by students, and one by an employee, of my university, and most of them are writing about the emotional difficulties of ending a year, or their college years.

Looking back, I remember a large number of events, and people, fondly. Not enough--I know I've forgotten a lot, based on what other people remember that I don't.

I arrived on the campus on September 3, 1964. I had never been within 500 or more miles of the place before I showed up. (We interview candidates now!) Claude Rickman, now deceased (as are almost all of my co-workers from my first year) was the Academic Dean, and, I am sure, eager to see exactly who it was that he had signed up. He came to my residence and told me that another faculty member, the late Marling Elliott, had a rare flower that he was sure I would want to see. I went to see it, and Dr. Rickman got to talk to another rare flower, as we went to see the one with roots. I wonder what he thought? Too late to ask him. (I don't normally mention the names of living people in this blog, unless they are public figures, or have posted their names themselves.)

I always went to chapel when on campus. I wasn't always on campus. I got sick a few times. I had some appointments, but I always went when I wasn't away, with one exception. In my first year, some students and I were doing some experiments with rabbits. One of them didn't survive the experiment, for some reason--I hope we weren't cruel to it, I'm much more sensitive to that now than then. So someone, most likely the one who is now a funeral director, suggested that we dissect the rabbit. So we did, and the dissection took us through the chapel period. I had never dissected one, and they hadn't either. It was a most interesting experience.

We weren't accredited when I first came, and we weren't very big. Physical education was one of the areas that we couldn't do as much with as we'd like to have. We did have athletic activities, for those interested. They included football, basketball, and softball. There was a field. There was no gym. A psychology student graduated, and was hired to teach physical education. I don't remember who did it before he did. He was resourceful, and he had to be. I knew, because I attended his physical education classes--I wanted the activity. It also helped me to know the students outside of classes. We learned "square ball," a sport/activity that could be played on a sidewalk with a large ball that bounced, and a lot of other things that didn't take elaborate equipment, or a gymnasium. He did a great job.

Later, when we did get a gym, but before my knee went bad, and before computers came along to take up so much of my time, I used to play basketball with whoever would, in our gym, which was often open for such activity. I had some great times. I played against some really good players, and some not so good. I wish I could remember them all, but I don't. Thanks to all of you for giving me a good time.

I used to teach ecology. I got bold enough to hold a field trip. We went all the way to the ocean, to Huntington Beach State Park, about 225 miles away. It was a great experience, in many ways. On one trip, a student got out and ran along the road when we went through Columbia. On another, or maybe the same one, there was one student who had never seen the ocean. She was, obviously, awestruck, as she should have been. (I had never seen it, either, until a month or more after I took the job.) Once I managed to back the college's van into a live oak tree in a restaurant parking lot. The business manager was very understanding, and at least one student was very helpful.

Every now and then I meet a former student in a grocery store, or some such, and I'm always glad to see them, even if I can't remember all their names. I hope I didn't treat any of them unfairly, and I hope I did some of them some good.

Two days ago, I had some more experiences. A couple of students threatened to have a retirement party for me, during our last class together. Considering the pressures of exam week, I didn't know what, if anything, to expect, but they came in with cookies, which they distributed to the class, and I got the leftovers. The whole semester with that class was super. There was a diverse mix, including three retirees, in the class, and they all got along very well. I'll miss them all. A student I haven't had for a year or so wanted to come by and say goodbye that afternoon. She had never been to my office, but found it, with some help. She said that she thought good teachers weren't appreciated as much as they should be. I pointed out to her that she was planning to become a teacher, herself. I'm sure she'll be a good one, and I'm sure that not enough people will say "Thanks!" I was glad she came.

Goodbye to all of you, those mentioned above, and those not. Having had good experiences makes it easier, and harder, to say it.

Exalted, not flattered

My University, Southern Wesleyan, has found a number of ways to honor me, as my full-time employment there draws to a close.

Ravi Zacharias once noted that God knows how to exalt us without flattering us, and to humble us without humiliating us. Jill Carattini, "Like Water Spilled," A Slice of Infinity (Ravi Zacharias Ministries Blog) April 5, 2005

Tuesday, as the first chapel announcement, the yearbook's editor told us that the current issue was ready, and that it was dedicated to me, and I received a copy. Someone (probably her) had arranged for some alumni to write words of appreciation. Someone had gone back through forty years of previous yearbooks and found a few shots of me when I had more hair, and darker. There were a couple of pictures from this year, each taken by a student I have had--I remember when they took them, and I knew they were for the annual, but I didn't know they would end up in the dedication--thanks, ladies. The editor, herself, had written an appreciation, which is especially meaningful, as she is as good a student as I have had in my time here, and I have had her in several classes.

Last Friday, when I asked my wife where she wanted us to eat (she makes these decisions) she named a restaurant where we have eaten only twice, and named a time later than we usually eat. I thought nothing of these strange choices. We went to Anderson, SC, and I sat in the car and graded papers while she shopped, then we went to the restaurant. When I went to the receptionist to check in, my Division Chair appeared and informed me that we were already part of a group. My eight colleagues, and their spouses, treated us to a meal, a card, and a check which will go a long way toward purchasing either a digital camera or a camcorder. They also said some very nice things.

In December, I was asked to give one of our commencement addresses, and given an honorary degree. My wife, a brother and his wife, my wife's two brothers, a sister-in-law, and two nephews took the time to sit through a long ceremony for people they didn't know, because I was being honored. Last month, I was asked to speak in chapel, a rare invitation for an instructor--usually we feature our President, our chaplain, invited guests, or ministerial students. (The previous links are what I consider to have been the most important parts of these addresses.)

(I would like to name all these people, but have decided that it is better not to embarrass anyone, or give out personal information on living people, in this blog. If any of you mentioned above read this, thanks!)

I understand that, in a sense, I am taking it out of context, but one of my favorite Bible phrases is part of Esther 6:6, which says "What shall be done unto the man whom the king delighteth to honor?" (ASV, which is public domain)

I am grateful to my University for the honors bestowed on me, and any further honors that may come. I am grateful to the people who have worked and paid for the honors. I am grateful to God for giving me this long opportunity, and sorry that I haven't used it better. Psalm 84:11, the verse that inspired the title of this blog, says that God does not withhold any good thing from those who are righteous, and that He gives glory. I don't think I feel flattered by any of this, but exalted.