One question I have gotten a lot in the last two days is, “So, how do you like the new bus system?”
After trying to get to the church last night my comment to Roberta when I got home was, “I’m beginning to think that Guelph Transit’s strategy for reducing operating expenses is to give me reasons to buy a car.”
As a staff member at Kortright Presbyterian Church I am disappointed that the bus stop in front of the church is gone and that the shortest route to the church would seem to be a minimum of 10 minutes longer; however, I do realize that there are far more people than me riding the system and some of them may like the changes. We’ll see.
With that in mind, I have decided to withhold detailed comment for a week, by which time I have hopefully gotten a better view has to how the changes affect my various commutes.
In the meantime my Twitter feed with likely provide you with some play-by-play commentary.
This year as Roberta and I were making preparations for the Christmas Season we came to realize this was the 30th time we had celebrated Christmas as husband and wife. It’s been quite a journey; and this year the journey is taking a new path.
In some ways the change is a small one; like the new address for this blog. After two years of contemplating it I have finally registered the domain myriadshadesofgray.com. However, since the registration was done through WordPress those of you who follow this blog, either by WordPress or email, should not experience any interruption. If you’ve subscribed through a reader, such as Google’s, or through Feedburner you may have to re-subscribe, assuming you’ve managed to see this entry at all.
Other changes are more significant. Eighteen months ago Zellers closed the store where Roberta had worked for 30 years. At first it was quite scary for both of us, but Roberta quickly managed to look upon the situation as an opportunity. Since then she has taken courses designed to significantly increase her computer and accounting skills enabling her to start a new career in office administration. Her courses now complete (she finished the last one with an average of 92%), she is now diligently looking for new employment. Wherever she eventually winds up it will be a change for both of us.
Like many people, much of our lives centre around our work schedules. Even in the short time that Roberta has been in school, that schedule has served to define not just her timetable, but mine as well. It is with a sense of both excitement and of trepidation that we start the year 2012.
Roberta and I taken by our friend Laura this Christmas.
There is however, one thing we are both definitely looking forward to this year. If you haven’t figured it out, the fact we have celebrated 30 Christmases together implies that this is indeed our 30th year, and we will be celebrating on July 17th. Traditionally it would have been our Pearl Anniversary, but since so few people ever actually reach their 60th the modern listings call this the Diamond Anniversary. We haven’t decided how we will celebrate it yet, again a lot of that will depend on where Roberta ends up working; however, whether with diamonds, pearls, or just a couple of iced-teas in the back yard, it should be a heck of a year.
When I was a kid there were two books that served to make me a life long reader. The first was Rudyard Kipling’s “The Jungle Book”, the second was “A Princess of Mars” the first book in the Barsoom Series by Edgar Rice Burroughs.
Barsoom is Burrough’s fictional local name for the planet we call Mars. The planet first appeared in the story “Under the Moons of Mars” serialized in All-Story Magazine in 1912. It’s the story of a Confederate Civil War captain named John Carter who finds himself mysteriously transported to the planet Mars and gets caught up in the warfare happening there between the different races competing for control of Barsoom. Not unexpectedly, he also gets caught in the arms of the princess of Helium, Dejah Thoris.
In recognition of the 100th anniversary of the novel’s publication Disney will be releasing it’s John Carter Movie early next year. I’m really looking forward to it as I still enjoy rereading the series from time to time. Most industry mags say it’s the most expensive movie Disney has ever made and, visually at least, the trailer would seem to back that up.
Now, lets just hope they didn’t spend all that money screwing the story up.
A great many things have happened on December 6th over the centuries, but for audio buffs the world over one event stands out above the rest. It was on this date in 1877 that the first audio recording was made by Thomas Edison. Previously, April 12th was considered to be the anniversary based on a date Edison wrote on a sketch of his device made in 1917; but subsequent research has revealed that Edison had misremembered the date and now many historians accept December 6th as the date of record. (pun intended)
Edison with Phonograph in 1877. (Photograph by Matthew Brady - Courtesy Wikipedia Commons)
That first recording was made with the assistance of Charles Batchelor and John Kruesi. Working under the Edison’s direction they created the first phonograph consisting of a cylinder with a sheet of tinfoil wrapped around it. Sound was received through a funnel, which was connected to a diaphragm. Yelling into the funnel caused sound waves to vibrate the diaphragm, which in turn vibrated a small stylus (needle) that was attached to it. The stylus pressed the pattern of the sound waves onto the tinfoil as the cylinder was turned by a hand crank.
The indented tinfoil sheet then was moved to another, nearly identical, device that had a stylus attached to the diaphragm with a delicate spring. As the hand crank was turned this time the stylus was passed over the indents on the tinfoil. The indentations caused the stylus and thus the diaphragm to vibrate in the same manner as when the original words were spoken. The vibrations of the diaphragm were amplified by another funnel and, if one listened closely, the recording was heard.
Kreusi, who actually built the device from Edison’s sketches, is credited with the first review of an audio recording. His response? “Gott in Himmel!” (God in Heaven!)
The tricky part was turning the crank at the exact same speed as when recorded so the sounds could be recognized. Those early tinfoil recordings were quite fragile and could be played only a couple of times before they would become damaged and be lost forever. In later, more commercial models, wax and other materials would replace the tinfoil.
And what was that original recording you ask? It was Thomas Edison himself reciting the childhood classic “Mary Had a Little Lamb“. As already mentioned, those tinfoil recordings were fragile and the 1877 original is lost forever, but the following link will let you listen to a re-enactment made by Edison at the Golden Jubilee Celebration of the Phonograph made in 1927.
Today, 134 years later, quality recording technology is readily available to almost anyone. You probably have one in your pocket or purse right now. Few inventions have contributed to the shaping of culture and society world-wide as the ability to record and distribute the human voice.
In celebration of this world changing event I leave you with my favorite recording of “Mary Had a Little Lamb” by Stevie Ray Vaughn.
I would like to admit up front that I have always had something of a problem with the traditional pacifist interpretation of Jesus’ command in Matthew 5, “Do not resist an evil-doer.” It has always seemed to me rather like the Prime Directive of Star Trek’s Federation; a convenient excuse to do nothing and just stay out of the way. Too often in the history of the church it has done just that, standing idly by while the downtrodden are oppressed all in the name of ‘turn the other cheek.”
I have just finished reading Walter Wink’s book “Jesus and Nonviolence: A Third Way” and I have to say few books have ever thrilled and challenged me so much. It’s only 103 pages (small pages at that) but each page caused me to rethink years of teaching that I have received on passive-resistance. Consider the following:
“When a church that has not lived out a costly identification with the oppressed offers to mediate between hostile parties, it merely adds to the total impression that it wants to stay above the conflict and not take sides. The church says to the lion and the lamb, “Here, let me negotiate a truce,” to which the lion replies, “Fine, after I finish my lunch.”
“This message [Matthew 5:38-41], far from being a counsel of perfection unattainable in this life, is a practical, strategic measure for empowering the oppressed. It provides a hint of how to take on the entire system in a way that unmasks its essential cruelty and to burlesque its pretensions to justice, law, and order.” [Square brackets mine for clarity]
“When we demonize our enemies, calling them names and identifying them with absolute evil, we deny that they have that of God within them that makes transformation possible. Instead, we play God. We write them out of the Book of Life. We conclude that our enemy has drifted beyond the redemptive hand of God.”
This is my first exposure to Walter Wink and that may be more of a statement to my reclusivity than his obscurity, but I will certainly be searching out his other titles in the future.
I highly recommend this book to anyone seeking a Biblical stance on social justice. Actually, even if you’re not looking you should read this anyway and start.
Myriad Shades of Gray 