Christmas Came October First

This is a re-write of Carolyn Arend's song "The Last Word", in thanks for her new Christmas CD.

Christmas Came October First (Her Christmas CD)
To the tune of “The Last Word”
Mark Dopita

Verse 1
Sat down at my PC, I just had to smile
A Kickstarter message, top of the pile
I clicked and it opened, announcing for me
Her Christmas CD

Verse 2
Now I got me Comcast, it just doesn’t fail
Selected the hyperlink inside the e-Mail
I entered the code and there waiting for me
Her Christmas CD

Chorus 1
Yes, today’s the day
And the download’s done
And all those songs are playing one-by-one
With the volume up
People know for sure
Christmas came October First
Christmas came October First

Verse 3
I sit here distracted, as I try to write
The music is playing, I’ll listen all night
There’s no doubt a legion, listening like me (to)
Her Christmas CD

Chorus 2

Solo Chorus

Verse 4
I know it seems funny, what I like to do
Rewriting lyrics to songs old and new
This I give as tribute, most thankfully (for)
Her Christmas CD

Chorus 3

Poem :: The Peak Toward Which He Climbed

The Peak Toward Which He Climbed

The peak toward which he
Climbed is not attainable
And he,
Wounded,
Falls back into the Earth,
Consumed

And so, now, the joy is
Gone from his life
Was he just
A little feller
Whose parents had taken
His favorite old toy?

For some not-well understood transgression

Yes, it was old
Yes, it was dirty
But it had once been
New, clean, loved
As he had been
Those many years ago

But it is now gone
And so he sits deserted
Wondering
Will he get it back
From his corner
Small, betrayed, alone

Does the punishment fit the what is the crime

And he now realizes
As was sung many years ago
This is his own Tapestry
As he reached for that something
Only for his hand
too, to come up empty

And soon, worse still
The whole world would
Soon know of his failure
And his utter embarrassment
Would shine in the light of day
For others to mock him

Would that I were not he!

I am he

"The pursuit of truth and beauty is a sphere of activity in which we are permitted to remain children all our lives."

Albert Einstein

I Know I Talk Too Much, But . . .

"The worst of all deaths is to be talked to death."

Mark Twain

Science v. Creationism or Putting God In A Box

A big topic in the news lately is the recent debate between Bill Nye the Science Guy and "creationist" Ken Ham. As I understand it, Nye won the debate because he used the observations of science - observations of the world around us we all can make - while Ham's big argument was "the Bible says such-and-so": that is, billions of years of evolution versus six literal days to create the world.

Being the quiet wallflower everyone knows me to be, I decided that I would do the smart thing and stay out of it . . . right? But no! Jumping right in am I!

First things first . . . I am a Christian. Have been for as long as I can remember. And will be, forever.

Next, I believe in science. It was not too many years ago that Christian scientists made discoveries about our world. Gregor Mendel, for instance, was an Augustinian Friar who famously studied the inheritance of various traits in pea plants (leading to the science of genetics). Nicolaus Copernicus, Catholic priest, observed that the Earth revolved around the sun rather than the other way around. Amongst others: Galileo, Rene Descartes, Tycho Brahe, Johannes Kepler . . . There are many Christ-believing scientists, even today, I'm sure.

I believe in both the spiritual and the scientific. I don't know why anyone wouldn't. And that's why I can't back the creationist point-of-view. It's the ultimate in "putting-God-in-a-box".

Think of it - ages ago we were only trying to understand the world we were given. We identified and categorized various disciplines and investigated them. Hundreds of thousands of people have studied astronomy, biology, botany, chemistry, genetics, geology, mathematics, medicine, metallurgy, physics, sociology, psychology, zoology - all with the goal of adding to the understanding of the world around us. The world God gave us.

Is it possible to deny the facts of science? Take physics . . . what about gravity? Hold an item up in the air. Let go of it and what happens? It falls . . . every time, towards the center of the Earth. Why? Because the Earth exerts a tremendous gravitational influence on everything around it. Do the same thing while far enough out in space and the item will fall toward the sun. Again, why? Because the more massive an object is the more gravitational force it exerts. The sun is more massive than the Earth. Therefore, assuming one is far enough away from Earth, the sun wins.

What about geometry? Measure the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter. Any circle . . . any size . . . anywhere on Earth, under its seas or in outer space. What number do you get? We call it (in English) pi: 3.14159, generally, but a number that has actually been calculated to ten trillion digits! A number that cannot be written as a fraction (e.g. 3/4), and never settles into a repeating pattern (e.g. 22/7 = 3.142857142857142857).

In those two examples alone we see the incredible work that God has done. (If you truly don't believe in God, the world is still awesome!) This is an incredible world we've been given, full of wonderful and amazing things. To say that we must believe that it was made in only six actual 24-hour days - or what, we're not Christian enough? - is ridiculous, when the science we've discovered over the past several thousand years tells us something different, but equally as wonderful. And if you believe God created the world, well, we are fearfully and wonderfully made, indeed!

Our intellect, the intellect God gave us, demands that we must use our minds to their fullest extent. Wonder. Discover. Postulate. Experiment. Prove. Pass on to the next generation a greater understanding of the Earth and the universe around us.

To those Christians who aren't swayed by these arguments, please remember that the Bible is full of metaphor - did Jesus actually tear down the temple in three days and re-build it, or was He speaking metaphorically? I believe it's the same with the creation story. But, assuming what I believe to be true actually is, I can ask Him myself when I die. And if I'm wrong, and it actually was six days . . . it was a heckuva six days!

Now, for those of you who don't believe in a God and think even my mention of such diminishes my arguments, I have to ask "what came before the universe"? I believe I know, and I invite you to seek Him, too.

Wow!

Has it been almost 10 months since I posted last? Hunh . . . wouldn't have thought that much time had gone by. I better post something soon. Something short but meaningful. Something like this. (He smiles.)