Blog on the Lillypad
Saturday, February 28, 2004
 | The New Age Expo
I paid $8 to enter the New Age Expo today in Raleigh. Now that I knowI have scoliosis, I figured it would be the best place to see the latest in chiropractic and acupuncture, as well as some of the recommended alternative therapies like rolfing and natural movement. I'm skeptical that anything can be done, because my ribs have deformed (actually reformed) to accomodate to the curvature. According to my chiropractor, once that happens, the condition is permanent unless you resort to surgery, which is far too drastic in most cases. Some alternative systems help you move in terms ofthe deformation so that you stress the unbalanced muscles less. |
There were a couple chiropractors set up, but they were focused on diagnosing people and not showcasing the latest in chiropractic and wellness therapies. One booth that was some type of light touch healing insisted that at least one person they'd treated had been straightened significantly from scoliosis. They even had a "before" and "after" series of photographs to back up their claim. But I didn't believe them.
There were all kinds of things I would advocate: reverse osmosis water systems, food bars made of high quality multigrain foods that are not wheat or dairy (for high allergy people like me), massage therapists, orthotic sales reps, herbs and teas from the rain forests (processed from a steward approach rather than an exploitive approach to the rain forests), etc. But there were also things I think are swindles and quacks: the psychics----all women, and most (I suspect) with incredibly tangled and messed up lives. There were yoga/yogi booths too (much to my surprise). And in one corner where jewelry was sold, a young woman read my palm.
I do believe that everything we do and are is written everywhere--a witness in the heavens and in the earth. When Job defended himself against his accusers, he declared that the evidence of his life was in the sky. When Caine killed Able, God said that the earth cried out. God Himself said that the heavens and earth are His witnesses (which means they keep an articulate account of what transpires). So I'm a lot less skeptical than most Christians about the idea that there is an account of all of our lives in nature. The witness of everything we do is all around us.
But palms? It took me back to the Tuesday Night Mystery Movies that aired three decades ago on NBC.
Nevertheless, I sat down next to her. She didn't touch me but asked me to show her my palm, so I held my right hand open to her, at about where I thought her vision would focus to read it . "You're an old soul," she said right off. "Not afraid of other people, not afraid to be seen for what you are. You make an honest presentation----well, wait. You can make an honest presentation, and you like to think of yourself as open, but you can make the choice to be reserved when you think you need to be. You do have an ability to be guarded, but it's not your preference."
"What about my palm tells you that?" I asked her. "What are you looking at?"
She suddenly beamed at me. "Just the way you open your hand to have it read. Nothing in the hand itself." She imitated my hand by opening her hand alongside it. "You spread it right out, palm spread wide and exposed. Most people hold back a little. I had one lady today who nearly had hers cupped. Those people are a lot more in their shells."
It's the psychology of how you present the hand, I thought. Centuries ago, when gypsies plied this trade, were the successful ones actually the first successful psychologists? advising the brave to be circumspect? the timid to dig in and persevere? the self-conscious to find courage? Is the most significant truth about you revealed in the way you open your hand to a stranger?
But she wasn't finished. She told me a few more things---things I regard as general truths for most people. She recognized that I had a disrupted and difficult childhood. But then she said, "After your childhood---but I don't know when except after childhood---a person came into your life who did you a great deal of good. This person mentored you and had a great influence on how you live your life. The person taught you how to live."
"Yes, that's absolutely true," I told her. "She saved my life. I believe that." (NOTE: If you've read VALKYRIES, you recognize that I based Maddie Murdoch off of this person.)
She commented about meeting up with some very bad people when I was about 30 (also true). Then she told me that I've had many jobs in my career, a lot more than most people. I verified to her that I am a contractor (or I was until a week ago). I move from contract job to contract job and have had too many to count. She told me that I've influenced a lot of children, probably too many to be born to me. I didn't tell her that I wrote children's books. She told me that I've been a teacher. She also remarked that the first part of my adult life was marked by a lack of direction, but that's behind me now. She told me that I am adaptable. That's my key trait. I analyze and then adapt. She said that several times.
She also told me that I've had one health problem after another starting in late childhood or early adulthood, but nothing life threatening, and the palm indicates protection---probably from me and not another person. She guessed that I probably stay on top of my health and try to deal with each health problem consistently---eat right, exercise, etc. She did, in fact, tell me that my hand shows long life, and greater protection in the last part of life in terms of my health.
She also told me I would have two great loves in my life as well as another less significant love, but long-lasting romance/marriage comes in the later part of my life.
I asked her about financial security, and she told me that from the series of lines that indicate my many jobs and endeavours, one line sprouts up and runs almost the length of my hand, and this indicates that one of my ventures will be financially successful. "You may not have as much money as you want---because everybody always wants more---but you should get through life with enough," she said, and then added, "As far as I can tell."
Great, because if it's bad news I don't want to know any way. She told me about a humanitarian endeavour of mine, and she told me a few things that are too personal for me to write down here, but nothing all that earth shaking. And then, as I moved my hand (thinking we were finished), she said suddenly, "Oh, and you stand apart from the crowd. You really walk to the beat of your own drum. You are definitely an individual that doesn't follow any crowd. And you should walk to the beat of your own drum."
I asked her how she knew this, and she told me. It made me laugh. But I'm not going to tell you.
As I walked away, I felt pretty impressed. Most of what she told me I would categorize as being true for more than half the people she would meet. But those one or two things--especially my mentor that taught me how to live and the fact that I've worked so many jobs--are individual to me.
So what do I think? Well, I can believe that what we are and what we do is written in our hands. I saw far more charlatans today than genuinely helpful people (although there were some genuinely helpful people). And even though I stumbled across a friendly, genuine young woman who honestly says what she can find and what she cannot find in the palm, I think in today's unregulated market, you're more likely to find somebody who is just going to take your money from you.
For me, seeing that the heavenly order is etched into everything is a great boost to my faith. The vividness of God's declaration that the heavens and the earth are His witnesses comforts me and warns me. Believing that my anger and vindictiveness (or whatever sins I am tempted towards) are being recorded has helped hold me back and made me more conscious that there is a record kept. Both shame and repentance are closer to me now, and I feel them more sharply, because heaven is so much nearer. In the final day, what will God say to the unrepentant sinner who stands before Him and swears he did no wrong. If you ever read the Chick Tract series, you know that the judgement is presented as though your life is projected onto a big screen. But perhaps the Creator will only say, "Open your hands and let Us see them," and every deed will be written there as you open them before Him. Everything we are is written into us in our DNA. Could it be that everything we've done is also written in us? Documented in our hands?
 | BASSENCO's Next Big Adventure
A new Doctor Who convention has been announced: United Fan Con East. Strictly speaking it's not a Doctor Who convention as it has several guests from different SF series, but Liz Sladen (who played Sarah Jane Smith) is supposed to be there. As I am under doctor's orders to relax and unwind more, I have decided that surely I need to go to this convention. I am not a big city person, and I'm terrified of trying to figure my way through Boston. So I suggested to Kevin Parker, former lead man for the Elisabeth Sladen Information Network, that he travel with me on the train. Kevin is planning to attend as well, and he has arranged to have a dealer table. I agreed to help him run it, and he accepted his role as my traveling companion. |
| Kevin has a magnificent evil beard, and everybody knows not to mess with guys who have such good beards. (Think Roger Delgado/The Master, all you WHO fans). Kevin agreed to catch the train just outside of DC and ride up with me. As for the beard, he writes, "Regarding being a bodyguard: when I first grew the beard, one of my coworkers told me that if he worked for airport security and I walked up, he'd just shoot me." Well, luckily for us, Kevin, we're going by train, and Amtrak has almost no security guards. There now, don't you feel better? Kevin has some fanzines and newsletters to sell from the Elisabeth Sladen Information Network, and I will be helping him. |  |
Friday, February 27, 2004
 | Cindy Swanson's Latest Quiz of Note
Cindy Swanson is an addicted internet quiz taker. I loathe most internet quizzes that I run across. Even on the FFF, I usually don't answer the polls (just another type of quiz, really). However, I am not such a purist that I neglect all quizzes. And I live in the opimistic hope that there is a strata of quizzes out there in the ether that will intrigue me. Therefore I use Cindy's cheerful, bookish, and quiz-ish blog to track the latest internet quizzes. She has rewarded my confidence in her by discovering The Book Quiz. You answer a few questions and the quiz returns a book that suits you and a brief assessment of your personality. |
For taking the quiz, I was identified with ANNE OF GREEN GABLES and given the following assessment: "Bright, chipper, vivid, but with the emotional fortitude of cottage cheese, you make quite an impression on everyone you meet. You're impulsive, rash, honest, and probably don't have a great relationship with your parents. People hurt your feelings constantly, but your brazen honestly doesn't exactly treat others with kid gloves. Ultimately, though, you win the hearts and minds of everyone that matters. You spell your name with an E and you want everyone to know about it."
 | Hero of the Faith or Tyrannical Villain?
Just before closing down for two weeks, Secret Radio re-visited the death of notorious preacher Lester Roloff. In the story, the strikingly similar Julius Fallows pilots his private plane directly into a thunderstorm and crashes to earth, killing himself and all those aboard. You cannot help but notice the similarities between the fictional Fallows and the real life Roloff. In Secret Radio, Fallows is presented as a kook for the most part, sincere in many ways but definitely operating at maximum, frenetic overdrive while living in a world that no longer (and maybe never did) exist. |
A visit to the web to do research on Roloff results in two extremes presented to readers: the sites in favor of him describe him in glowing terms and portray him as a hero of faith who stood up to secularism, provided care for abandoned or self-destructive children and teens, made adoption available for babies of unwed mothers, and stood like a lighthouse of truth in a dark sky of sin. Roloff's time in prison makes him a martyr to these people, a man who refused to let the state bring secularism into his homes.
The sites that oppose him give accounts of constant abuse in the homes, prison camp conditions (and they are horrifying and completely inappropriate for children), the constant blaring of recorded sermons of Roloff hammering at the inhabitants, and punishments that included beating, whippings, being chained, and being locked in solitary confinement with no means of showering. Several (if not all) of Roloff's homes at one time or another have been closed down over issues of hygiene and abuse. Roloff's imprisonment to these people is evidence of his megalomanic drive to exert complete control.
Certainly, after reading what accounts I could of the treatment of the people who lived in these homes, I think that Roloff was culpable for the extremes that occurred. If you run a Christian home for children and have to beat them, chain them up, or lock them in solitary, then you should recognize that God has not given you the power to reach such children. There's nothing Christian about prison camp conditions. What struck me most strongly about the homes was the lack of education for the children. Former inhabitants/inmates rarely write about this, but it's obvious. Nobody ever talked to these young people about the things they might do if they learned. Nobody assessed them for abilities or skills (or disabilities). There was no real parenting of any of them. In that sense also I think the Roloff homes were all failures. But then, I think Roloff himself was an incredibly ignorant man. I think Independent Baptist Fundamentalism is a religion that fosters ignorance. I've written before of the irony that the role of IFB colleges is to dumb down young people and limit their education as severely as possible. You don't become educated by going to Hyles Anderson or Oklahoma Baptist college. You become more ignorant.
IFB colleges distort or destroy historical perspective so that the student loses all sense of perspective on current events. They fail at Greek and Hebrew and substitute a mad, imbecilic theory that the KJV is just as (or more) authoritative as the Greek/Hebrew manuscripts of the Bible. Systematic study of the Bible is destroyed as the preacher is elevated to such a high level that students believe what he tells them about the Bible rather than learning to engage in dispassionate, objective study of the Bible. Science becomes a devil of secularism instead of a means to find the great patterns and systemization of the universe (all of which points to God our Creator).
But back to Roloff: It looks to me like he put blinders on young people. And he fettered them. Roloff lived in his mind and he saw life through his mind. He did fly a plane in unsafe conditions, and he went down, (November 2, 1982) killing himself and a singing group of young women called the Honeybees. Whatever you think of his life, his death was caused because he was incredibly, culpably reckless as a pilot.
If you want to view the series of episodes regarding the plance crash of Julius Fallows, here is a list of posts:
First Post (posted Feb 23--last few paragraphs of the post)
Second Post (posted Feb 24)
Third Post (posted Feb 25)
Fourth Post (posted Feb 26)
Fifth Post (posted Feb 27)
Thursday, February 26, 2004
 | Stealing some Thunder from a great Blog
If this blog gets a little too intense for you, be sure to check out Ra's blog. She is a Christian wife and mother of two precocious boys, a one-time fan of Doctor Who, and a very good writer, though I always want to see more fights scenes in her stories. She blogs at an uneven pace, but when she posts something new, it's always worth reading. Here's her latest sample regarding her three year old son, which kept me chuckling |
"Now that he's feeling better again, Nicholas has started talking in similes -- an interesting new development, seeing as he invents his own and they don't always quite follow the usual pattern. Today, for instance, he told me that I was 'stubborn as a mouse'. And this evening he told me solemnly:
'Mommy, you're as famous as a donut.'"
Wednesday, February 25, 2004
 | Follow-up on the "Outed!" Series
Jim Vineyard has gone off to Israel, and apparently his entourage of trolls has followed, as Dissenting View (who may be Vineyard himself, in my opinion) and Supporter have not been heard from on the Oklahoma Baptist College forum of the FFF. They disappeared within hours of Vineyard and co. leaving for Israel. In their place, two new posters have arisen, an odd follow-up, if you like. They are Cochise and Inspector. |
Cochise claims the regulars on the OBC forum are not doing enough to get Vineyard out of the pulpit. This would sound to you like Cochise doesn't like Vineyard. But until today I could not find any post where Cochise made any hard, fast statements that Vineyard is a fallen preacher. He focuses instead on how those who oppose Vineyard are not doing enough.
I've seen this before: counter-accusation. One goal in such a strategy is to take over by getting the adversary off-track into defending themselves against the accusations. The counter-accuser uses accusations as a means to consolidate power for himself or herself. A strategy of counter-accusation also gets the topic diverted from the real culprit. I'm not sure if he really intends this. He has difficulty coming to a point. Cochise's method is to ask questions but not to define what he's saying. He's been stuck for days on a concept called "precepts and promises," and has yet to really explain it, but he wants others on the forum to either agree or disagree with it. So Cochise more or less fell flat. At first I thought he was a troll, but now I think he may just be person who wanders in what he says and never makes a point. Except he does resort to counter-accusation (for whatever purpose), and it's a distraction from the main point when you're dealing with a pastor who said lewd thngs to a young lady and then called her pastor a fart and pip squeak.
The other prong of the lame follow-up is Inspector, apparently a woman, who mounts lame arguments and then uses them to sidetrack the issue. She tried to sidetrack focus from what JAV did by blaming the pastor who outed him for having secret motives. She also tried to get focus off Vineyard by raising possibilities that the girl he cornered "for counseling" had placed herself in serious moral danger in her dating life. When these failed to shift focus, she tried to get more theological and somehow pulled the group into a discussion of legalism. Her huge gaff in confusing the definition of legalism and then saying Galatians was written to unbelievers (Maybe her bible doesn't have Galatians chapter three in it) cut short that sidetrack. So she tried to sidetrack again by directing an attack against people who object to legalism. But that didn't work either.
Sunday, February 22, 2004
 | Wolf Whistle by Lewis Nordan
Whew! What a book! I've never read anything like this before. Loosely based on the lynching of 14 year old Emmet Till in 1955 (for whistling at a white woman), Nordan's novel is as far away from a crime novel as you can get. A grim and bizarre comedy of callous, drunk, and stupid people, the telling of this tale took me to new destinations in odd but often hilarious ways of telling a story. From the fourth grade teacher who takes her students on a field trip to a mortuary to watch an embalming, to the drunk, befuddled, savvy, vicious, and remorseful Gregg who decides to murder his family except for his eldest daughter (lest she miss her wedding), the residents of Arrow Catcher, Mississippi abound in eccentric, twisted, and macabre individuals (most of them drunk most of the time). |
The hard realities of racial segregation and deep poverty and ignorance keep one foot of the novel in reality. The murder of fourteen year old Bobo is just barely made tragic. My initial impression that this book would concentrate upon racial injustice was incorrect. Wolf Whistle is very much a book about the way things were without making any attempt at analysis. This is one reason that it's so striking and believable, in spite of a certain bizarre style of narrative. At times the story breaks down. Nordan seems a bit too impressed with style, and when he slips the narrative perspective into a buzzard's consciousness, I felt that he was pandering to his own ego or to the demands to be self conscious in a literary sense. Overall the narrative holds the reader tightly to itself, but there were a couple rare places where a savvy editor could have lopped off an entire page and spared the reader from an authorial excess.
If you're a Christian Fundamentalist/Evangelical reading this, I think it's a great book that depicts minds of evil: drunken minds, self centered minds, pompous minds, trivial minds, silly and self deceived minds. But if you're squeamish or balk at occasional spurts of blue language or sexual reference (though no explicit sex), look elsewhere. There's no mystery here: you know who commits the crime. There's no forensic story at all. This is a novel of who did it and what they were thinking and how the different residents of the small community were effected by the impact of the tragedy.
 | A Goof but no Admission
Over on the FFF, a reader asked how the Calvinist War on Secret Radio ended: who won? To my surprise (and disappointment), the IFB-KJVO preacher named PappaBear (who believes that Grace Jovian and I are the same person) wrote, "Considering the fact that the author of it is a pretty vocal dyed-in-the-wool Calvinist, which direction do you honestly think she will throw it?" Now if you've read Secret Radio, you know that the Calvinists not only lost the war, they came off looking incredibly stupid into the bargain. And Secret Radio, fiction or not, levels at least one grievance against Calvinists for not honestly interpreting the Scripture when it doesn't suit them to do so. |
So PappaBear was rebuked for having rendered a verdict when it was obvious he never read the account at all. When he was rebuked for this, PappaBear pulled a classic switcheroo and blamed the story for depicting two people drinking scotch. Of course, he didn't get away with such a blatent attempt to cover his blunder of having rendered a verdict of something he knew nothing about. Ultimately, when he was not allowed to get off the point, he bowed out (at least for now).
I'm disappointed in him. I know that I classify IFB-KJVO preachers as a bunch of blowhards who always talk about topics they have never studied, and then they cover up by acting like blowhards who have a right to be blowhards. You catch one of them with his foot in his mouth (as PappaBear was caught), and he responds by preaching at you for your alleged sin or condemning something you have done or believe. But I had a certain respect for this one. But in the end, he acted true to form. He made a verdict about something that he had not checked, and then when he was challenged on it, he resorted to bluster and accusation, rather than just admitting he didn't know and letting it go by. And, by the way, he preached at Grace Jovian for a scene depicting a married couple drinking scotch and he yammered that alcohol leads to molestation, but I have not yet seen him preach against the actual molestation that we know about that has gone on in IFB-KJVO pulpits.
