A Pitbull Named Plug

My Political Views. pt 1

2012-01-19T08:41:00.000-08:00

I spend a lot of time in my head. When I'm not required to actively interact with people I usually have earbuds in, listening to podcasts. Some favorites are listed on the sidebar of this blog. My attention broadly falls into two categories, political science/politics and history. And since I've been stewing in this accumulation of information for so long, I finally feel a need to sort of aggregate and organize some things I believe. I also think a person should know what they believe and be able to articulate and defend it.
So here goes the first of what hopefully will be a long series of posts as I work on doing just that.

First Principles.
My favorite classes in college were Political Philosophy, which impressed on me that before we can discuss politics, there needs to be a philosophical/theological foundation. Something that recognizes "principles of life," for lack of a better term. At some level a person is forced to make assumptions about how the world around us came to be and about how it functions. Hopefully these assumptions are at least based on direct observation, but can also be shaped by tradition, popular opinion, and individual circumstances. Because of all this there is a limit to how deep we should go when discussing first principles. I think of it like a fractal zoom, but of ideas and logic.

At some point we go over into the realm of philosophy and theology. This needs to be thought out at some point, but for the sake of my current purpose, I want to recognize that door but not go through it.
So what are some first principles about individuals, society, and power?
1. We exist in history. We occupy a particular moment in time as a consequence of past action by our ancestors. The world was here before us and we have every reason to believe that it will be here after. A worldview which does not consider history is incomplete. And we have an obligation to the generations to come.
2. We are social animals. A fundamental human need is to love and be loved. We need to know that our lives matter to other people. We constantly strive to belong to a group. Our individual happiness and fulfillment depends more on our connections with other people than on personal wealth or achievements.
3. The iron law of oligarchy. In any group leaders and hierarchy will always emerge. What form that takes and by what criteria depends on the situation. In a chaotic situation, the ability to use force will be most valuable and a leader will be the strongest physically or militarily. Think of all the Caesars of Rome who seized power after winning in battle. In more stable situations the ability to attract people to your ideas will be valuable and a leader will be the most compelling or entertaining. Think of modern Protestantism with its market research, demographically targeted programs, brand image, and entertaining worship. All of it designed to attract people to a particular church.
4. To use the word State is to use the word Force. Our common vernacular doesn't distinguish between the State and the government. But the State is the legal and traditional framework for organizing a society. The government is simply the collection of individuals who do the tasks required by the State. The fundamental (but not only) purpose of the State is to establish and maintain order. Which means the State must safeguard the person, property, and welfare of its people.
5. Violence can be justified. Just as a person is justified in self-defense, so the state can protect itself. In fact the State is obligated to do so, whether that threat be from other citizens or from outside the state. This also applies to indirect threats. I think it also applies to offensive action toward other states and actors who threaten the stability and welfare of the globe. However, violence tends to cause more violence and is never to be used lightly.
6. There must be a balance between realpolitik and ideology. Even a hyperpower such as the US is limited in what it can control. We will need to work with regimes that are opposed to our values of liberty, equality, and opportunity. But we don't want to be morally ambiguous. We want to support other societies who support these values and influence others to our way of thinking.
7. There must be a balance between humility and pride. The US is an amazing society. We have many things to be proud of. I've had the wonderful opportunity to spend time in Mexico (~9 months over a couple trips) and Thailand (3+ years in country) and through that experience I see that we are not nearly so bad as our critics say. But neither are we the greatest country on earth. We're just another people figuring it out as we go along. We have things to learn and things to share.

I'm starting to drift into moral imperatives and my kids just woke up so I'll call it quits on this post here. I'm sure I can keep adding to this list, but next time I'll take a stab at looking at the system as it now stands.

Crack House

2011-12-26T11:20:00.000-08:00

Prior to moving into this house which is 2 blocks off of MLK, we lived in some apartments ... 2 blocks off of MLK. One of the "funny" things we've noticed since moving in is that everyone we've met here wants to tell us how bad it is with all the transients, drug deals, slum lords, and ne'er-do-wells. We brush it off because it's actually a step up from where we were.

One of the most interesting features of our previous neighborhood (South 14th and M St) was the crack house (the green one to the left in the picture). To the left, out of frame, is a daycare facility (naturally) with some shrubs and trees between it and the street which made a great cover for junkies to use. Our apartment was kitty corner from this. I could look out of our front window and see the whole streetscape, all the comings and goings.
After living there for a couple of years I observed a few patterns which I wanted to write down before they all fade into distant hazy memory. These aren't meant to be complete or to even tell a coherent story about the place, just things I noticed over time.
When we first moved in, we met K, a friendly black guy who lived in the apartment next to us who wore a neck beard and a bald head. A nice person who took the time to meet us and occasionally we'd stop to talk. Unfortunately K was mixed up with the dealing. Often times, coming home we'd have to steer around a group of half a dozen men dressed in their baggies and timberland wear, with K in the middle. These weren't church friends having a barbecue, there wasn't much collegiality, guys wore their business faces. Nobody ever caused a problem for us directly, but there were frequent fights and arguments. One time after putting kids to bed, Lisa and I heard yelling out front. Looking out, we saw two men fighting, with K in the middle trying to break them apart. One was obviously getting the worse of the exchange, and at one point he was on all fours trying to shake off the punch that put him there, then got kicked so hard in the face it stood him back up. Crazy.
I'm not sure what K's connection with the crack house was, but I'd see him over there all the time, hanging out in front. I wasn't even sure that he was involved until after about 6 months or so, K and family (wife? and 3 girls) were evicted. I'm unsure what the pretense for the eviction was, but the aftermath in the street was fascinating.
A few days after leaving, half a dozen new faces appeared in the street. Loud ostentatious people, usually in groups of 2-3. All black. (In fact, in this story, everyone I saw was black. The only non-black people I saw were some of the junkies.) This lasted for a week or two, then the new people stopped coming around. What confused me though, was that the "staff" at the crack house remained the same. What vacuum did K's eviction create? Where did those new dealers come from and how were they connected to the crack house? The upside was that there were no more people coming onto apartment property, most traffic shifted across the street.

The crack house itself had 2 people I came to recognize. One was an older guy who lived there. The other I called Prop Joe (after a character he reminded me of from The Wire) who was the center of all action. Prop Joe was about 6 feet tall, wore a long black leather jacket, and was always in the middle of every crowd. As far as I could tell he rarely did the direct dealing, he'd have others do that for him.
At about 3 in the afternoon each weekday the first crackheads would appear in the neighborhood. They'd usually stay out of sight. They'd go down alleys, camp out on steps and between buildings. Always keeping a lookout, frequently peering at the crackhouse, but staying in places where they couldn't be seen by anybody looking out from there. As the afternoon wore on, they'd get more active and more obvious. Their numbers would steadily grow. One time in the summer I counted 12 people who were milling around the streets trying to be invisible.
Then between 5 and 6pm, usually closer to 5, Prop Joe would come out of the house, joined shortly after by a second or third helper. He'd either sit on the steps or a folding chair at the bottom of the stairs, and the crackhead groups would each send a gofer to go make the deal.
Most of their customers would come on foot, but about a third would drive up. That was curious to me because I sometimes saw people park on the street a block away (in front of the tall brick apartment buildings across from the hilltop Safeway) and walk to the house. One memorable vehicle was a bright orange and white SUV with rims and the words "Peel This" on the back window. As it happens, that vehicle is parked about a block from my new house.
And so it would go until the early hours of the morning. Although I might add that as the night progressed, less of the activity happened directly in front of the crackhouse. Rather, a group of 3-5 would migrate down the sidewalk a bit.
I'd leave for work at 5am and it was rare when I didn't see people. There was some sort of connection with a group working MLK and 14th. There was usually a group standing in the shadows of the abortion mill there (called Cedar Rivers, I think) who I often saw walking to the crackhouse or back.
In a way, I feel for those guys. Anyone you can see working the street is literally at the bottom. They aren't making much money, they're working long hours standing, and it can be bitter cold at night. Plus you're constantly dealing with crackheads who are the most retarded people on earth. Most of them weren't starting with a full deck and the drugs just took them downhill from there. It's shitty work.
In 2010, I forget the date, summer I think, there was a big bust on the place. It was later in the evening. Lisa and I were at the kitchen table when one of us observed that that siren sounded awfully close. Looking out at the assorted lights, it was if the neighborhood were throwing a rave. I counted 12 squad cars that I could make eyes on. I watched a couple of guys get put into cars and taken away.
The next day business was slow, but a few days afterward it looked to be back to normal. I even saw Prop Joe again. But the resurgence only lasted a short time, within weeks Prop Joe was gone and the crackhouse looked leaderless.
Again, an influx of new faces, new crews. Brash loud bright. No violence. I wonder if there is some sort of gang leadership which chooses which crew to send to a new area, or if it's rather like natural selection within a free market. Do conditions favor and/or attract guys with those characteristics? Either way, things bounced along. It settled down to a few regulars. There was mostly street dealing now. The house still had occupants and people still came and went with regularity, everything was just smaller.
Come spring, business picked up. I don't think Prop Joe ever came back, but the system returned. The street crews receded and a new cast of characters sprang up. There were a few times I wished for a gun or a club- when a dealer or junkie would come onto our property. Fortunately it didn't happen much.
Last summer, around July/August there was renewed police presence. Nothing as dramatic as before, just squad cars parked on the curb in front of the house, and more frequent patrols. Then one day the front yard was filled with crappy old furniture, boxes, and clothing. Someone got evicted.
By the time we found and bought this house, and were planning our move, it looked like all drug activity had died. Which brings me to what I see in our new neighborhood, but I'll put that into a different post.

Ironing closet to key and phone cubby

2011-12-14T21:07:00.000-08:00

It's been a while since I posted. Partly because I haven't done much of note lately, but mostly because I have fallen into the habit of watching Breaking Bad after putting kids to bed, which uses up my available free time before bed. I had a notion to write some super-awesome article on the topic of political science and philosophy, but that'll have to wait since I did some more home improvement this weekend and took pictures.

To begin, when we moved in the house had a little closet in the kitchen out of which unfolded an old ironing board. I knew that this was an unproductive use for the space and so shortly after moving in, I took out the board and removed the door. I covered the surfaces with a light coat of trim paint, screwed a few hooks for keys, and left the project for some future date. That date turned out to be December 10th.

My first step was to remove the back panels which revealed the lath and plaster backing for the wall of the dining nook. You can see in the picture that the hinges for the ironing board needed removal. Fortunately I had an assistant to help me with that and the ensuing clean-up.

Unfortunately, however, I let stupidity get ahead of me and as I tried to dislodge the 2x4 with a pry bar, I blew a hole through the drywall. The kids thought it was such fun and took no small amount of joy in peering through the new window and greeting me. Now, I love my kids, but there is something just a little irritating about screwing up and giving yourself double the work you thought you had, and I've got zero experience patching dry wall, and then have a 2 year old taunt you with giggly "Hi Daddy!" nonstop for an hour.

You can also see in the picture, the 6 giant nails which were holding the 2x4 on. Had I stopped to consider this possibility, I never would have been screwing around with the pry bar. As it was, I took my circular saw and cut two vertical grooves (the blade was too small to cut all the way through and I wasn't in the mood for yet another trip to the hardware store), then took a hammer and banged the now weak sections until the wood buckled and came free. Later I used my bolt cutter to clip the nails and pound them relatively flat.

So I spent the rest of my day learning how to fix the hole and then trying to do so. Since this picture, I've added a second layer of joint compound which completely obscures the circle shape of the seams. I also put a coat of primer on it. I'm pleasantly surprised with how well it looks to turn out.

At Lowes you can buy wood panels of various sizes which I used to create a new backing for the cubby. I wanted .5" thick but all they had was .75" or .25", since I want to be able to attach shelves and hooks from it, I decided to go with the beefier option. I cut it, sanded it, and installed it. And that ended my weekend.

Since then I spackled the edges and applied a couple coats of primer. I should have it finished by the end of the week.

Pallets for Occupy Tacoma

2011-11-15T10:11:00.001-08:00

I had some unexpected free time yesterday so I did something out of the ordinary. I helped some political homeless people have better beds to sleep on.
About two weeks ago I dropped in on the Occupy Tacoma camp on 21st and Pacific. I wanted to meet some of the people there and to see the place in person. I saw that they have an info board with a list of wanted items. On it was pallets to put under tents in order to lift them off of the cold wet ground.
Yesterday while driving by Bellevue Healthcare, I noticed a couple neglected stacks of pallets in the corner of the parking lot. I went in and asked if they would mind be taking some. They were cool, so I loaded 6 in the truck and drove down to the camp.
I walked up and told the first person to make eye contact what I had brought. They were quick to unload it and when I offered to get more if someone came with me, a guy named Chris hopped in. Later I made a third trip with Toreone. Everyone was cool, supportive, thankful, helpful.
In my conversations with 4 people over a couple visits, I've come to adjust my idea of what exactly the Occupy Tacoma camp is.
Their level of discourse is low. Their level of knowledge about politics, economics, and the big picture is low. I had to argue hard against someone who insisted that the voting age is 21. I had to argue that celebrities might be rich, but don't actually control that much money in the economy. I had to make a similar argument that politicians don't actually make that much money, and firing them all or reducing their salaries will not solve any systemic problem.
Everyone I've talked to was homeless prior to moving to the camp. They're frustrated, they want to work and have homes, and there is something wrong with a system that doesn't let them. They plan to be there over the winter. That sounds hard to me, but then again, they're already homeless so where are they going to go? At least in the camp their homelessness is a visible symbol of the problems within our society.

Backyard Rototill

2011-11-11T23:59:00.001-08:00

Two weekends ago I rototilled the back yard. I rented the biggest machine Home Depot had and spent at least 12 hours criss-crossing what was left of our grass. This is part of a larger project to convert the backyard into an urban garden oasis .
First I used RoundUp on the entire yard. This took about 3 hours one morning while Lisa was with the kids elsewhere. It took about a week for the grass to turn yellow. Then I spread 50lbs of lime over the space I'd be rototilling, which consists of the entire yard starting about 15 feet from the house and ending 10 feet from the alley. I used a mixture of agricultural lime and dolomite as recommended by Steve Solomon in his book Growing Vegetables West of the Cascades. I highly recommend this book if this is your thing. I also spread about 20lbs of complete organic fertilizer which is made from:

4 parts seed meal (I used cotton seed meal)
1/2 part bone meal
1/2 part lime
1/2 part kelp meal (I didn't use this on the lawn since it would be so expensive, but I did make a batch with it to use in the future)

I got all of the ingredients from McLendons in Summit.

I was a little scared to see what I'd find when I tore up the ground. Fortunately it wasn't all bad. You can see from the photos, that someone had long ago laid down a lot of big chunks of concrete (sometimes referred to as urbanite) possibly as a foot path. They turned out to be my bigest headache of the day. Which in the grand scheme of things makes it a pretty good day. I took an hour to dig them out, and Lisa helped me move them.
The gravel in the center of the yard went deeper than I had hoped. Part of the problem was that the rototiller sort of fluffs up the soil, making it deeper, so I never did penetrate through the gravel and make it to the soil underneath. No matter. For the most part I anticipate that that space will be where we walk. I won't be trying to grow veggies in it anyway.

Prior to my final pass I sowed the crimson clover seed and then tilled it under. I also included some leaf mulch my mom had given me.

It's been a couple of weeks now, and the clover is just starting to break through. I've been stressing it. Going out there, looking at the soil, searching for germinating seeds. The weather has been frosty a couple mornings and we had a windstorm with some bitter cold rain. Fortunately we've had a warmer spell this week which encourages plant growth.
Interestingly, the seeds on the south side of the property are not as far along as those on the north. My guess is that the south edge spends more of its day in the shadows of the neighboring apartment buildings. Good information to have if you plan on growing plants.

I'm hoping for a few more days of relative warmth and sunshine to keep the clover growing. To get established and not be stunted by the low light or cold rain that will come. But according to weather websites, we're in for 10 days of 49 degrees and rain.

At any rate, the clover will be tilled under next spring anyway. It's a green manure. Its job is to produce organic matter to add to the soil, to break up the subsoil with its roots, and to fix nitrogen. Next spring I'll plant some of the yard as ground cover, and some as garden.

The next outside projects are to fix the lawnmower (it needs a tune-up), set up a composting system, and build a back fence. I can do the lawnmower whenever I want to take the time. I still need to figure out how I want to approach compost. And as for the fence, I've just landed on an idea that I like, but need to run it by Lisa. Basically I'd set some wooden posts, run wires between them, and use the wires to grow grapes, fruit trees, or other climbing or trellaced plants. The benefits of this idea are that the materials are cheap, it would be within my skill set to build it, it'd look decent, and with plants growing on it it'd be very nice. The drawback is that it wouldn't provide much privacy; even with plants, a passerby could easily look into the yard. That's not such a big deal I think, because none of the yard is private. There are windows and doorways of neighbors in every direction which can look into any corner of the yard. Privacy can't be the veto since we don't have it anyway.

Cooking Space

2011-11-11T22:31:00.001-08:00

I've finished building the counters and table around the stove, giving us a decent workspace. With the pot rack overhead, I spend less time in the cupboards. The microwave works well behind the oven, and building the counter-top there freed up counter space elsewhere.

The set-up works. The big table to the right serves as our food prep area. You can see the measuring cups and spoons on hooks below the spice rack. Everything is within easy reach and there is enough space overall. I have a couple of ideas for small improvements like a place to hang oven mitts. There are two openings on either side of the stove where I could put a box to create another storage space.

The space looks nice too. It's visually pleasing, colorful. There is a large vine plant on top of the cupboards by the sink which is able to reach across the top of the doorway.

All in all, I'm pleased with how this project turned out. It's done for now. I have an idea to take out the free-standing cupboard you can see on the right side of the picture. I'd replace it with the curved shelves I've already made. The big cupboard is ugly and it doesn't fit properly into that space and it blocks the sightline to the door. I can fix that and get more storage space in the process. The only problems are that I don't know what's behind it, and the project will involve putting a patch of linoleum down on the cupboards footprint; something I've never done before. For the time being, this'll remain a project for the future.

Moving In

2011-11-02T10:21:00.000-07:00

My last post was prior to moving in to the newly acquired house, which makes it about a month ago. I got swept up in the process and the projects that I didn't even think about this little blog until a week ago. If this blog is a reflection of my daily thoughts, then there are going to be a ton of home improvement project articles forthcoming. So what the hell, let's dive in, eh?

The first thing we had to do was paint. We tried to do this as much as possible in the week between closing on the house and vacating the apartment. My life became a bootcamp of going to work at the gym and working on the house. This lasted for a week. 12-14 hour days, but it felt good.

Then we moved in. Lisa did the lionshare of distributing boxes and unpacking. She basically moved us in while I doubled down on painting and home improvement. My fear was that we'd get lost in the process of settling into the new place, and lose all progress on projects. This, I discover, is my driving fear; that I disliked the perpetually unfinished projects of my parents (sorry mom and dad), and I didn't want to have them here.

So I painted, which is a never-ending process (I still have touch-up work that needs doing), but is at a point where the popular spaces are finished, and only smallest patches need touch-up. The transformation of the feeling of the space has been awesome. Lisa remarked at how amazing it is to so completely change a house so cheaply. So we're feeling good about that, although if I met the man who painted the original trim a dark green-brown, I'd probably bitch slap him to the ground.

One of the unexpectedly fun aspects of painting was organizing work parties. Many friends and family came to pitch in, which probably saved me from death. But the challenge of it is making sure everybody works to a quality standard, and that they are used to accomplish the most amount of work in the time they've given. So I wrote a couple flow charts, detailed directions, and priority lists, and put them up on the fridge. Knowing what had to come next, I could always keep people doing the work that most needed doing.

The first challenge of using the space was the lack of counters or storage in the kitchen. We'd pull food out of the fridge and have no place to set it to prep it. This is compounded by having no dishwasher, so precious space is taken up by a dishwashing station. My next task then, was to create more counter and storage space.

So I built a couple of tables, which I cut to fit the spaces around the stove. I have to admit I was proud of how they turned out, and now Lisa likes to show them off when people come to visit.

That finished, I decided to make myself a magnetic spice rack. I had seen magnetic spice containers at World Market by the mall which would save me the hassle of gluing magnets onto spice jars. I got a thin sheet of steel (I took one of the spice containers into Home Depot to make sure I got a magnetic one) and a piece of an aluminum cut-out design which I put over the metal to give it a more interesting look. I used my label maker from work and took Finley on a spice-shopping trip.
{Insert spice rack pic)

Then the office needed attention. Lisa requested shelves in the closet. So I built those. While doing so I made and painted a much larger set which I will use in the kitchen in the future. For now, I set those aside and kept going. I installed the tv onto a wall post and made some shelves out of scrap to go next to it and hold dvd, cable, modem, and router. Somewhere in there I built and hung a pot rack.

Along the way I pruned the trees and roses, weeded the beds, and cut back the neighbor's encroaching laurel. There were 200 bricks in the basement which I carried outside, then dug out the ground, and laid out some of the bricks on the pathway to the door so we don't track in mud. This wasn't actually that difficult, the ground was soft and didn't have any plants on it. I also sprayed Roundup on nearly the entire back yard. Yesterday I spread lime and complete organic fertilizer. This weekend I'll rototill it.

I just received 5lbs of Crimson Clover seed from Terrestrial Seed Company. I'll sow that this weekend as well. Crimson Clover is a green manure, a Nitrogen-fixing plant which will be tilled into the soil next spring when I make garden beds. I'm nervous about what I'm going to find in the yard. I've already dug up several chunks of concrete, and the center of the yard is hardpacked gravel. My only real hope is that the majority of the yard isn't totally f-ed up due to neglect by the previous owners

Which brings me up to the moment. I have one more counter top/table to finish in the kitchen, but that's it for woodworking at the moment. I still want to install shelves in the kitchen as well as some in the basement, but those can wait. Along with the yard, the task at hand is to set up the office, which I'll start by visiting the file cabinet.

Homeownership / Mission field

2011-09-16T16:49:00.000-07:00

The long-held dream of buying a slightly crappy house in a slightly shady neighborhood is almost fulfilled. We expect to close next Monday.

It's been a long process, but not nearly so fraught and stressful as I had imagined it would be. Here's to studying the process ahead of time, so we knew what to expect from each step of the way. Also to being secure and content with our current situation made us patient. We had very strict criteria (only Hilltop, within easy biking distance to work, 3+ bedrooms, etc) and were willing to wait until we satisfied all of them. We passed up a lot of homes which were nice, but fell short in one way or another. Of course, it does help to buy in a slumping market during a recession when interest rates will remain low; but the biggest factor, I believe, to getting the house we wanted, was being happy with where we're at and therefore being willing to wait.

So now we're going to get a livable house in a convenient location, half a block from one of the coolest mini-parks in the city and about 4 blocks from Wright Park. I'll be literally a half-mile from work, we'll have a back yard to turn the kids loose in, and we'll be in a diverse neighborhood.

I've been obsessively riding past it almost every day on my commute to work. I think the neighbors think I'm some sort of creepy biking vagrant. Speaking of which, I know there are several who hang out in the neighborhood and have gotten into the habit of cutting through the property to get to the alley behind it. I expect to have to have some discussions with drifters about using a different route.

On the flip side, though, one of the things I look forward to most is getting to know the people around us. It's what I love most about the place we're in now, and what I'll miss most about it- getting to know our neighbors.

Lisa and I believe that loving the people around us is the best way to live a Christian life. Our neighborhood is our mission field. Now to clarify, we're not crazy evangelical nuts who keep some silly tally of "converts" who we talked into saying the "sinners prayer." But rather, we genuinely want to love and serve the people around us, and how better to reach someone than through daily interaction and support? This is a big reason we don't want to live in UP or Gig Harbor (no offense to those who do, mind you), because those people don't really need that in the same way.

Around here it has taken the form of going outside and hanging out and talking with the neighborhood kids. Saying hi, smiling, and remembering their names. We've taken a few on regular library trips. We go to the playground and play. We invite them in our home and talk about their day. Simple stuff, nothing heroic, but meaningful.

Now we're going to repeat that in our new place, but we're going to miss the kids around here.

Orthodox Ecology, Part 1 of 2

2011-09-10T16:43:00.000-07:00

The following is a summary/paraphrase of a lecture by Fr. Andrew Stephen Damik, an Orthodox priest, given on Feb 3, 2010 at Bucknell University. The title of his talk is "This Holy Earth- Ecological Vision in the Cosmic Cathedral." You can find the audio of the lecture at the Roads From Emmaus website.
This is not a strict transcription, it's me listening to the lecture and picking out the salient points as I understand them, although Fr. Andrew is very well-measured in his words and rarely do I want to omit or edit what he says. When I've added my own 2 cents, I've enclosed them in parentheses.

Here goes.

A recent global climate change conference saw representatives from dozens of nations discuss world climate and to propose potentially sweeping economic, political, and industrial measures in reaction to claims that the world's climate is negatively changing. And especially that these changes are the result of human behavior.
What you couldn't find was any discussion of the theology of the ecosystem. Instead it was a secular, data-driven, analytical, and deeply entwined with the competing interests of politicians, competing nation-states, great corporate powers, and environmental celebrities.
There is no common vision, only competing interests. To quote from the Bible: Without a vision, the people perish.

The dominant assumption behind the debate over the Environment is that it should be a scientific analysis of the earth's climate and ecosystem, addressed by systematic policy solutions to engender systemic change for the better.
But the underlying vision of the earth that undergirds this approach is rarely questioned or even articulated.

Summary thesis of this talk: A proper view of Environment is as a cathedral which extends out into the whole cosmos whose dome is higher than the heavens and whose altar is this earth.

Assumptions of the popular Environmentalism
In the popular mind The Environment means this planetary ecosystem, with no reference to the rest of the solar system or even the universe. It is "out there," external to us, something we are inside, a planetary container. It is something that we can regard as an object. It can therefore be studied, analysed, measured, adjusted, etc. But this objectification creates problems on several levels.

Because the environment is an object, Science will necessarily take as detached an approach as possible. It will almost necessarily leave out questions of inner meaning and human participation.
An objectified environment doesn't mean anything, it just is what it is. It's just a machine. And the job of the scientists is to give us information about it, to tell us how to fix it, or at least not break it.
We think we want to save it, but we don't discuss why. Except maybe in sentimental or blandly aesthetic terms. The only real moral element within this framework is fear. That we should be afraid of environmental damage that we or our descendants won't be able to live here.

A question lost in the debate is,What makes the environment worth preserving?
There are 2 answers that are often assumed in the objectified framework, which make up the two sides of the debate.

1. Stewardship. Regards the environment as a tool to be used for our benefit as the owner. A more thoughtful stewardship is preferred in order to maximize yield and use, but in the end it is Mans' to do with as he pleases. Associated with conservative politics and popular among evangelical Christians.
But this Christian view does not particularly safeguard the environment, since many of them believe the end of the world is near, that Jesus will be coming back soon. In the early 1980's, James Watt, the US Undersecretary of the Interior took steps to permit massive exploitation of natural resources, often including strip mining and the sell-off of national forests. The Wall Street Journal asked him if he was worried about future generations and their ability to live in and enjoy the land. Watt replied, "I do not know how many future generations we can count on before the Lord returns."
The Stewardship approach basically boils down to an economic argument which is expressed in utilitarian terms. We ought not to exploit the land too much since it will limit our ability to exploit it in the future. This outlook does not take into account the nature of this material world, or what Man's proper role toward it is. The environment is a possession, and the good person tries to manage his possession wisely. This morally weak approach has been widely criticised in the modern Environmental movement. And rightly so, because it is so vulnerable to abuse.
Those who have studied political thought will recognize that there is nothing conservative in this dedication to endless economic development. Little gets conserved in the relentless pursuit of growth. Conservatism as a political outlook used to be about memory, now it's about progress.

(Morgan's note: This has been the unquestioned view of every Protestant (most of Evangelical character) church I've ever been in. Mars Hill (Seattle) springs to mind as being hard on this point, but that may just be because Driscoll's tendency to shout makes them seem harder on everything.)

2. The opposite answer to what makes the environment worth preserving, is to put it above mankind. It can be summed up in the statement: "The earth does not belong to man, rather man belongs to the earth." This is the philosophy associated with political liberalism. The basic M.O. is to limit or remove man's influence from the ecosystem. A guiding question for this philosophy is, "How do we remove man?"
An extreme expression of this view advocates for mass suicide (I recall reading some articles on this very idea while in college.) And while most people who hold this philosophical position won't go that far, there is a general nihilistic tendency to preference the natural world over the human, and to pit the two against each other. After all, how can people justify putting spikes into trees and endanger the lives of loggers? They have placed a greater value on plants and rocks and animals than human life.
In this view, the only man who has any value is the "noble savage." The movie Avatar is a great example of this expression. (I find a parallel view among many friends and family regarding race: Western, white, capitalist oppressor versus noble native. But race is another topic.)
But there is something inherently wrong with a philosophy which eliminates or degrades those who hold to it. For one thing, an ethics based on this view of the environment is impossible to implement with any consistency without planetary-scale genocide. Believers of this philosophy are left to live with a guilt that they are not able to completely eliminate their impact on the natural world.
In it's political expression it is committed to more and more regulation and curtailment of civilization. Thus liberalism is not truly liberal.

Both of these approaches are flawed, since they are based on the assumption that man is separate or estranged from the natural world. As a result of which, it becomes something we should exploit or remove ourselves from.
Likewise man relates to God from a similar state of disunity; seeking some sort of negotiation with divinity whereby he can get what he wants; whether it is prosperity, social justice, eternal salvation, or something else. In essence, spirituality is some kind of transaction. We can see this also in non-Christian spirituality in the west such as neo-paganism and Wicca, whose adherents tend to be environmentally conscious, but are still focused on getting some kind of results.
A theology which is focuses on doing certain acts to get certain results is essentially dedicated to magic, whether it be Christian or pagan magic.

But the Orthodox Christian church with its 2000 year tradition does not divide world up like American popular culture and the European Protestantism underneath it do. Rather there are only two kinds of existence: the created, and the uncreated.
Man and the earth belong to created existence. While only God is uncreated. Some may be tempted to point out that there is a disunity of vision here too, that in this case it is Man and the Earth against God. This would be true, but for Orthodox Christianity the central miraculous paradox of the faith is that the uncreated being took on created being. Jesus, the second person of the Trinity, uncreated, infinite, invisible; took on created, finite, visible form. God became man. That man now has not just the possibility to simply be in an economic relationship with God, but of actually being in deep union, and communion with God. This idea, the Incarnation of God is where the Orthodox Church finds it's vision of Ecology.
To clarify, Orthodoxy is not pantheistic, which is the belief that God is everything, or everything is God. Rather Orthodoxy is panentheistic, God is in everything. Everything is not God, since there is a radical difference between the created and uncreated, but God is nevertheless in everything. But how can this be? Since the essence of God is held by traditional Christians to be unknowable. The Bible says, for instance that, "no man has seen God at any time." Since that is true, that how can be said to be present in His creation except in only the most inaccessible sense. Yes He may be present, but since He is unknowable, how can His presence be accessed?
Orthodoxy's answer to this question is what is called the Essence and Energies Distinction.Yes, the essence of God is beyond knowing, but He is completely knowable in His divine energies. That is, His activity and presence in creation. God's energies are not created effects, but are God Himself, they are uncreated. And they are not only knowable, but they may be participated in. Thus, human beings can become, as it says in 2Peter, "partakers of the divine nature." God is therefore both completely transcendent and unknowable, yet immanent and knowable by means of participation. As a result, Orthodoxy's understanding of man's relationship to God is not transactional or legalistic, as is most common in western Christianity. Rather, the basic sense of man's position in regards to God is in terms of union, communion, or participation. Or to use another term, interpenetration.
And since man is part of the created order, God's action and presence in creation, will also be in terms of interpenetration.

End Part 1 of 2.

To summarize:

The common view is of the environment as something external to us.

The common Conservative/Protestant (which is dominant in US) form of this is the Stewardship model which is basically economic: We should use the environment to best effect.

The common Liberal/secular view is to value humans somehow less than nature: We should focus on reducing the effect people have on the natural world.

Both have flaws because they start with an objectified view of nature.
Orthodoxy starts with a different distinction. It is not man and nature, but created and uncreated.
Orthodoxy has a doctrine of the Incarnation of God, believing that God became fully man in the person of Jesus.
God is also present, through His energies, in all of creation.
Man is called to union and participation with God. Likewise, our relationship to nature will be by similar means.

To find out what that means, stay tuned for the next transcription on this topic.

The Daily Habit

2011-09-07T20:29:00.000-07:00

I used to write on this blog on a daily basis. Now everything I want to write about seems so pretentious. I kept it for 2 years while living in Thailand, and I have felt recently the need for an outlet. What used to be my public writings has turned into the gym blog, and my scope for expression has diminished. But here I sit, motivated to write, and can't think of a topic I'm ready to put to words.
The best way I know to break a writers block is to spend some more time writing about whatever comes to mind.
What about the purpose of this blog? What is something that has been interesting to me recently? Or what is something I envisioned this blog being about?

Theology is one. Because it matters. And differences in theology matter. It matters to society, to the natural world, and an individual's salvation. I consider myself an Orthodox Christian, but any true Orthodox believer might take issue with that. It's more right to say that I am an ally of Orthodoxy, but have not reconciled myself to the church. I want to be, but Orthodoxy is not an easy religion. Orthodoxy is not something you believe, it's something you live. Daily prayer, holy days, fasts, scripture, evangelism, humility, theology, service, suffering. There is much room in my internal life for these things, but I don't have them. In addition to that, there is the simple practical obstacle of not connecting with regular worship. The local church, St. Nicholas, though I love it, is mostly ethnically Greek in orientation. Much of the service is spoken or chanted Greek, and there is no childcare. Trying to keep a 2 and 3 year old happy on a hard pew while Lisa and I struggle to follow what's happening or being said, is a challenge we have yet to master. The priest, Fr. Seraphim is awesome. I dig his energy, his focus, and he's smart. I connect with him and try to get to his weekly bible study.
Orthodoxy just makes sense. It makes sense in ways I didn't conceive of before getting to know Orthodox thought. I want to share it with people because I think there are a lot people like me. Who have questions about God, life, faith, and the church, who are dissatisfied with the answers they find in Protestant or Catholic Christianity.
But I don't plan to talk much on my own authority, I'm an idiot. You shouldn't trust me about anything to do with your eternal soul. So rather than speak on my own authority, one idea I've been mulling is to transcribe and paraphrase some lectures I like to come back to. A great resource is a podcast series called Roads from Emmaus. Also, Orthodoxy and Heterodoxy. I keep these in my ipod and come back to them again and again. I just relistened to a 2-part series on Orthodox Ecology.

It looks like I found my next project.

Owning a Business in Tacoma

2011-09-04T21:41:00.000-07:00

When I started by business, Crossfit Tacoma, 3 years ago I knew nothing, I mean nothing, about how to properly run a business. My general habit was to wait until I recieved a terse letter in the mail telling me to file whatever report with whatever arcane obscure department, which required me to submit information I barely understood, much less has the foresight to actually collect ahead of time.
The worldview of a novice businessman is pretty much focused on whatever is currently on fire and threatens to burn him down. If it wasn't screaming at me, it got put last on the to-do list. This is not a good policy for successful entrepreneurship, nor is it a good way to stay out of trouble. So needless to say, I used to get a lot of red envelopes and letters with big headlines shouting about last notice.
When I could ignore it no longer, I would make my way down to City Hall and shuffle in, feeling like a kid reporting for after school detention. To my surprise, the clerks were always helpful. Maybe not always friendly, but let's not get carried away, I'm trying to pay a bill, not make a friend. More than once I had penalties waived, interest reduced, and extensions on deadlines to give me time to get the information I needed. I never left feeling like a chastened teen who didn't turn in his homework.
What I found even more surprising was that the common widsom is that governments just hamstring businesses. I expected to find some cone-headed bureaucrat looking down at me, but found the opposite- a city government that wants me to survive and is willing to cut me some slack to do so. They also hold free quarterly workshops for businesses in the city, and provide tons of other helpful services for free. It's enough to make you want to go shoot the whiny anti-government-business-apologists in the face.

Hilltop: general impressions

2011-08-30T14:14:00.000-07:00

local crackhouse on left

We moved to the neighborhood near 14th and So M St in December '09. Hilltop, baby. I grew up in Summit near Canyon Rd. Close enough to have absorbed the reputation Hilltop earned in the 80's (when I was in grade school at Fruitland Elementary), but far enough to never get any first-hand exposure.
I came willingly to Hilltop, I wanted to live here and be a part of it. I dread the day I live in an all-white upper-class neighborhood, surrounded by people just like me. (Ok, I'm not upper-class, but like a true aspirational American, I expect to be someday.) I want to be among colored people. I want to be among poor people.
Hilltop has its share of that. I happen to live half a block from a crackhouse, so we get quite a lot of foot traffic and night-time activity. This building and the business it does has become a mini-interest of mine. I'll write about it in the future.
Aside from the crackheads, it's a wonderful neighborhood. I know the names of every kid on the block. I know my neighbors better than any place I've lived in my adult life. I strap Xavier to the back of my bike and we tour around in the afternoons, or we walk the one block to Ferry Park.
Hilltop is a neighborhood of pockets. There are sketchy streets, then a block away are beautiful well-maintained homes. You can't live around here and not occasionally see some twitchy dude pushing an empty stroller go shuffling by at 6 in the morning.
It's awesome.

Buying a House, part 1

2011-08-26T21:59:00.000-07:00

Lisa and I are about a month into the process of buying a house. The one we've got caught on the line is 814 S I Street. It's a 1200 sf 3 bedroom home, a half block off of 9th, 3 doors down from Neighbor's Park, which is one of the cutest neighborhood parks I've yet to find in the city. It's exactly half a mile from work which means that my bicycle will remain super convenient as my primary mode of transportation.

View Larger Map

There is a little convenience store on the corner of 8th and I which I've seen attract some scruffy characters in the year or so that I've been riding by (my daily bike commute takes me through the park there so I'm pretty familiar with that block.) Since getting into the process of buying a house there, I've started going past it at virtually every opportunity. I want to see what the area is like at all hours of the day and week. So far I haven't seen any crackheads or sketchy types.

One slightly funny thing is that there is a drug house half a block from our current apartment on 14th and M. Over time I've learned to recognize some of the cars and faces of people who come through to get their fix. What's funny is that I recognize some of the same people and vehicles near the new place. Lisa made the observation that if they need to drive up to our neighborhood to get their drugs it means that there isn't someplace closer, so that's looking on the bright side.

My favorite thing to do when I go by the place is to imagine what I'll do there. It's kind of overwhelming. I've had ideas in mind for what I'd do with a place of my own for years, and now I'm actually looking at making it happen. Some are ridiculous and I know I'm not really serious, like digging secret tunnels, or creating a secret laboratory (I have zero chemistry skills, so why would I need a lab? Aside from the awesome factor, of course.)

But a few ideas will be worth the effort. For example, I love plants. My intention is to create an edible yard. Fruit trees along the back alley, blueberries along the sides. Salmon berries and huckleberries in the shade and under trees. Strawberries as a ground cover, raspberries on wires along the fence. A few veggie beds, and voila!

Oh but it's work, you say. I can hear the grumblings of experienced home owners, who try to scare first-timers with horror stories about the volume of effort it takes to maintain a home. It's like the expected it to be easy or something, like there is some yard fairy who isn't holding up her end of the bargain. But I like to build things. I like to garden. I know how to work hard, and my hands are already calloused.

Perhaps my first project, apart from getting roots in the ground, is to build a fence across the back. The house has fencing along three sides, but not the back. Lisa found a picture of a fence that she liked:

Looks doable. I like that it comes from recycled materials, that it doesn't use a ton of wood, and that I have the carpentry skills to make this. The only question is whether it's the appropriate fence. Would it look too weird to have something like this running across the back yard? Also, I like living fences and vertical gardens. How can I take this design and integrate living plants into it?