Thursday, August 21, 2014

What we deserve....

So, I'm on vacation this week, and while watching the TV today I heard a commercial that piqued my interest.

"... so get the healthcare you deserve..."

It made me chuckle at first, but then I thought about it some more and it bothered me. I guess maybe I'm just to naive, but I've not ever really believed that my generation deserves the "Entitlement Generation" moniker that is so often applied to us. But this has shifted my view a little bit, because it's really made me aware of the issue.

It just made it so clear how often people use that "deserve" term. It's weird, because deserve has such a different meaning than I think people realize.


Deserve - Verb - do something or have or show qualities worthy of (reward or punishment).


See, deserve implies having done something. Having earned something, even. When viewed in that light, that commercial moves from being a humorous testament to the vanity of a few of us to something frighteningly elitist.

See, the implication is this:


You're being kept from the healthcare you deserve!

How?

Well, there's like... paperwork you have to do... and... complicated things... Oh, and doctors can't video chat all the time.... yeah...

But that just looks to me like what happens with any large system...

Yeah... but... OH! You deserve better because you work hard!

But I don't necessarily work in a field that makes me need better.

Yeah, but things are so expensive...

 Well, that's true I suppose...

See! You deserve better!



See, what their argument boils down to is that healthcare is inconvenient, and you deserve convenient healthcare. Not that we'd like convenient healthcare, because I'm sure we all do, but that we deserve it. As though there is something different about us that means we deserve better healthcare than, say, children in Africa. Or people in Central America. Oh, and all the other third world countries. Where in the heck do we get off feeling we deserve better than them?!

As long as there are people in this world who have NO healthcare, I do not DESERVE anything better. I should be happy, and content, and grateful for what I do have, which is a lot! 

I guess my point is this: be grateful for what you have! Realize that what we have here is greater than what basically anyone else in this world has. And before you go around talking about how much better you deserve, be thoughtful of those who, though thy deserve better, have nothing.

Wednesday, February 5, 2014

Nye vs. Ham...

So first of all, hats off to both parties. Both are men I respect very much, albeit for different reasons. Nye is a great man of science who is passionate about his work, as well as making sure that young people develop an interest in science, so that we as a society can continue to progress. Kudos to him! Also, it's really hard to explain science in ways that average people understand, so again, kudos to him.

Much respect to Ham as well. He is unashamedly open about his faith, and that takes real guts. We saw the sort of reactions that often accompany such staunch devotion to what you believe. I hope that, should the roles be reversed, Ham would not resort to mockery and belittling (although Christians historically have stooped to that.).

Now, I'm not going to come out swinging on who was right or wrong or any of that. I'm a Christian and I  believe that the Bible is the source of all ultimate truth. That's not to say I hold the same unwavering viewpoints as Ham (though many of them I do), but rather that I base my beliefs on what I read in scripture AND what I observe in the world around me (*gasp* the two aren't incompatible?!?)

No, my review is from a communications point of view. Who was the better communicator in the debate?

So, seeing as he went first in the debate, I'll start with Ken Ham.

Well, if his goal was to come across as unflinching and unwavering in his devotions, he succeeded. He seemed to have 3 to 5 target points that hey hit... and hit... and hit some more... and hit again... once more for good measure... and once more for being mean to his mother. Ham drilled his talking points, to the point where I, as someone who agrees with him, got tired of it.

This is a problem on two fronts. Firstly, it tires the audience. If the audience knows what you're likely to say, you've lost them. You need to hold their attention by presenting new information or hinting at things you may pull out of your hat later. An excellent place he could have done this was with his list of alternative dating methods. He displays a list of maybe 50 or so alternatives, but never... discusses... any... of them. He could have mined that vein for all it was worth. Every time the dating issue cam up, he could have used 2 or 3 completely different methods as references, but he didn't.

Secondly, it becomes really REALLY hurts your credibility (ethos). If the audience feels like they've heard all you have to say 10 minutes into your 30 minute presentation, you lose a LOT of credibility. The audience no longer sees you as someone they can learn from. If they know what you're going to say before you say it, they see you as, at best, an equal, and at worst, a simple person. Even really brilliant people can fall into this. The saying "familiarity brings contempt" applies to public speaking as well; if your audience is too familiar, you lose them faster because they can guess where you're going.

Something he did very well on was the Q&A time. He did many things right, but two were really excellent. His, "well, Bill, there's a book that talks about [x]" quip was awesome. It was one part cheeky and 3 parts arguement. On the one hand it's a humorous thing, which Nye sort of had cornered the rest of the debate. Get the audience to laugh, and they listen to you a little more readily. Secondly, though, it really sold his "look, I have an answer" point. He didn't have to ramble and explain and maneuver. He simply had to point to a verse and cite it. Now, Nye can debate credibility of scripture all he wants, but from the basic speaking point of view, referring to your primary citation is a great move.

Now for Bill. Nye:

Though he did well initially, he gave in eventually to the temptation to belittle. A good example is his insinuating that Ham believes Noah had superpowers. Ham never said that, or anything like it. Nye decided to try to make it look ridiculous, which is a perfectly fair tactic in debate, but you have to pull it off in a way that makes your opponent's point look ridiculous while presenting yourself as reasonable and logical. Nye went a little to far with his jab, and ended up looking kinda mean or silly.

One thing Nye did very well was pathos, or emotion. He made the audience laugh, he tugged the "think of the children" string many times, and he repeatedly played the "reasonable man" card, which worked very well for making him look moderate (when in reality he's not). The audience was much more in tune with him than with Ham, because he had better pathos appeal. Now, that being said, you can't win a debate with ionly pathos appeal.

So, from a communications point of view, who won?

Well, first, kudos to Ham for his definition of terms tactic. In classical debate, that nets him huge points, especially because Nye never really addressed it. In classical debate, that means Ham's definitions stand as what we judge by, which puts many of Nye's arguments on shaky ground.

That said, Nye won. Like, by a lot.

The question of the debate was "Is six-day, 6000-year-old-earth creationism a valid explanation of origins in today's scientific climate?"

To which Ken ham said:

"We need to define terms because the terms have been hijacked and we're being brainwashed and manipulated to believe evolution because textbooks misuse words. Naturalists are filling our kids heads with their beliefs and trying to inhibit ours. Christians are scientists too! Here's a lot of them! See! They can talk about their discoveries! Oh, and inventions! Christians can invent too! And carbon dating is wrong and doesn't prove anything. Oh, and Answers in Genesis is great and wonderful and awesome. Thank you."

Bill Nye on the other hand provided piece after piece of evidence that (in his mind) disprove creationism. He presented evidence, discussed it, and moved on to more evidence. It was great! I actually learned a bit from his presentation, and saw some new pieces to consider how to address in my own theology; questions I hadn't heard asked before.

Eventually, when he was really tacked down on some of the issues, Ham started to talk about actual physical evidence, but it was at best 15 or 20 percent of his debate. Considering the question of the debate, he should have come out swinging REALLY hard on the evidence front (and there is lots of evidence!).

So yeah, that's my opinion, take it as you will. Again, lots of respect to both of them. It was a good debate and, as a communications student, quite a neat chance to see in action the things I've talked about.

Tuesday, January 21, 2014

Why can't I write?

Wow, so I've already murdered one of my new year resolutions:

Write more.

And, that wasn't just in the sense of writing my blog more. Honestly, I really meant it as write ANYthing more. Stories, letters, notes, poems, blogs, whatever. Just write. I used to really love it. I used to sit in school when I'd finished my work and write all kinds of stories. Never got very far, to be honest, but I loved the process of creating.

I had one story I'd made about these kids growing up on colonial Mars. They'd been shipped off to a military academy and the story picked up in the capstone battle simulation: a three week long mass-battle in a 10km terraforming arena. It was fantastic, by far some of the most fun I've ever had writing. I wrote about 75 pages, and that was hand-written! I let a friend borrow it over a weekend and that weekend their apartment burned down. Go figure.

Ever since then, I've had trouble getting more than 5 or so pages into a story. It's like I reach a point where it feels like there's no point in going on. But I want to change that. I've recently been goofing off with my sister and writing short-story type things, and it's re-kindled my love for writing. I'm wanting to pick up a story and write. I've got a lot of ideas, but unfortunately, many of them are very VERY close to others' ideas, so I want to be careful not to tread on. But recently I've hit upon an idea.

Perhaps writing about the OPPOSITE of another work would be an interesting place to start. For example, perhaps instead of writing about a dystopian future where mankind is opressed and beset by countless enemies, I might write about a utopian society where mankind are the masters of all and must learn how to wield that power responsibly.

I like that idea, and I think I may start writing again because of it. Which brings me to the thrust of this post:

Would you guys be interested in seeing excerpts of what I'm writing? I probably wouldn't post them frequently (but, you know, I post here SOOO much already :)  ), but it might be a neat experience to share my creative mind and get constructive input AS I write instead of AFTER I write.

What do you think?

Thursday, January 16, 2014

An amusing yet poignant story...

So, a few weeks ago, our pastor shared this story, and I've not forgotten it. Thought I'd share :)

A member of the local Baptist church comes into the atrium one Sunday, 15 minutes early, as usual, heads through the line for free coffee, as usual, says "good morning" to the greeter and deacons, as usual, and heads through the double doors to get their usual seat near the rear of the auditorium. Not so far back as to look like they need distance from the speaker, but not so far forward as to be too close, either.

Well, what shock and surprise truly comes to our devout Baptist friend then to see, of all things, a BUM sitting in their spot! He's dressed in, well, honestly the term rags might be a bit generous, and his hair looks as though it's not been washed in weeks. Oh, and the SMELL! This must be some poor whino who's stumbled in here expecting the afternoon soup kitchen.

Being, as I've said, a devout Baptist, our friend makes an effort to welcome the guest. "Nice to see you."

"Nice to see you as well. I'm glad you're here today. I've heard this message should be pretty good" says the stranger, flashing what must be intended as a kind smile.

"Ahh...." manages our friend. "Well, you see, I, um... don't mean to be rude but... Well, you see, I usually sit here."

The man puzzles for a moment and then seems to get what's going on. "Oh, you mean in this exact spot! I thought you mean in the room here! How silly!"

Our friend smiles and nods. "That's fine. No harm done."

The two look at each other awkwardly for a minute or so.

"Oh... you want me to move..." says the stranger.

Our friend nods.

The stranger motions them to lean close and, though it's fairly disgusting, and our friend decides not to mention it to his friends later, he complies.

"You see, I'm expecting someone today. There's a man coming in today, been homeless for almost ten years, who ran from God many years ago. I want to be here to talk with him."

Our friend adds 'crazy' to the list of descriptive adjectives they'll use to describe this man at prayer group.

"Oh, sorry," starts the stranger, "I forgot to introduce myself. I'm Jesus."

Our friend just stares...

"You know, the Christ... Prince of Peace, Almighty God, Yahweh..."

*blink*blink*

"Well, Jesus, I'm sorry bu you've taken my place."

A sort of sadness seems to seep into the strangers face. With a look in his eyes that almost makes our friend weep, he simply says:

"Well, I've taken your place before, and you didn't seem to mind then..."




Wow, that gets me. like, really gets me. Ouch! Right in the conviction! How often do I do that?! How often do I get so set in my ways that I blatantly ignore the voice of God! Sometimes it's tradition. Sometimes it's schedule. Sometime's it's habit. Sometimes it's sin. Sometimes it's carelessness. But all too often, it happens. *shudder*

See, this hits me really hard because I'm weird. Well, some of you might think i'm weird, some of you may suffer the same affliction as me. When I hear/read a narrative, I see it. My imagination spins it into a visual. And man alive, what a potent visual this story begets.

To imagine looking into the eyes of God, the One who made me... the One who DIED for me!... and having the impertinence to insist on going my own way and ignoring His loving admonition to be better!

*sigh*

Such is the human condition I suppose. But whenever I think of this story (or even that last line), I silently purpose to myself to try harder to listen to Him. As I suppose we all should.

Sunday, January 5, 2014

How "Cars" reminds me of Heaven...

Or rather, how 'Hector', our youngest's, reaction to Cars reminds me of heaven.

So, something I've always struggled to grasp is the idea of heaven. Some people talk about heaven as though it's one unending song-fest. And while I love singing a lot, it really doesn't sound that appealing on an eternal scale.

But recently, I've had an epiphany, courtesy of our youngest boy here, "Hector". See, a few weeks ago, he bought himself a copy of the Cars movie (the one with all the secret agent stuff). Since then, he's watched it probably more than a dozen times (I'm not exaggerating). And he still loves it! He laughs at all the jokes as though it was the first time hearing them! He oohs and aahs at all the right places! He even speaks almost half the lines with the characters!

And it hit me: this is just a movie, but to him, it's so much more. How much more so will heaven be! All of our needs will be met, be they physical, emotional, or spiritual. In the glow of that toal fullfillment, we could probably just sit for eternity and be totally fine, but we won't. Christ will create a new heaven and earth for us to enjoy!

This post is a little short, but after so long absent, I wanted to break back in with something quick and simple. Hopefully I'll be writing a little more regularly :)