David B. Calhoun’s Blog

Well! This is the end of my 31 day blog-a-thon! For the last 31 days, I’ve blogged at least something. I think I technically missed or forgot only two days, which I made up the next day, but other than that I’ve been pretty consistent. I think there’s not a lot to say here for today (I ran out of things to say), except that some experience today has confirmed to me that average or non-pretty looking people (i.e. ugly people) tend to be a LOT nicer than nice-looking people. It seems that people who have made no effort to look pretty, but were born that way, get all the attention they need, and they can be rotten to the core and not many people care. On the other hand, there are people who are not naturally beautiful, and so to get the attention and affection of others, they actually have to work on being nice and work on personality traits. Well, it’s another golden generalization from David. But I’m sure this is true of at least some cases, if not the majority. This is what it seems to be from my experience.

I don’t know when I’ll blog again, hopefully soon, so I can report good news (hopefully). I hope everyone who reads this is doing alright - if not, hopefully things will get better soon.

It’s probably not coincidence that the last chapter of Proverbs (31) is famously about good traits to look for in a wife. It’s almost like God is mocking me, pointing out that I don’t have a wife. Or maybe not mocking, but just pointing it out to me.

“A capable wife who can find?
She is far more precious than jewels,
The heart of her husband trusts in her,
and he will have no lack of gain.”
Proverbs 31:10-11

“She girds herself with strength,
and makes her arms strong.”
Proverbs 31:17

“She opens her hand to the poor,
and reaches out her hands to the needy.”
Proverbs 31:20

“Strength and dignity are her clothing,
and she laughs at the time to come.
She opens her mouth with wisdom,
and the teaching of kindness is on her tongues.
She looks well to the ways of her household,
and does not eat the bread of idleness.
Hey children rise up and call her happy;
her husband too, and he praises her:
‘Many women have done excellently,
but you surpass them all.’
Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain,
but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.
Give her a share in the fruit of her hands,
and let her works praise her in the city gates.”
Proverbs 31:25-31

Bleh - long day, and now I’m making a habit of skipping chapels. The beginning of the end? Hopefully not. School is just starting to kick in its gnack for always having the student busy, without a chance to ever relax

I’m also starting to get that sense of uselessness. It is VERY hard to interact in the world when you basically view it to be like a play or a movie. Then you just come home and play house. It’s weird, maybe my mind is going or something. I feel inadequate and don’t have a sense of much purpose, but I know I’m working on it, so I’m getting better at it. But I would rather not be here in the first place…

“Thus says the man: I am weary, O God,
I am weay, O God. How can I prevail?
Surely I am too stupid to be human;
I do not have human understanding.
I have not learned wisdom,
nor have I knowledge of the holy one.”
Proverbs 30:1-3

“The fear of others lays a snare,
but one who trusts in the Lord is secure.”
Proverbs 29:25

Thank goodness the blogging marathon is almost over! I’m gonna go nuts over this! Haha.

I was thinking of what to say here - I think it’s just another pessimistic comment about the state of philosophy today. Basically, philosophy today is something made by and for philosophers. Now that I start to write, this sounds awfully familiar. Sorry if I’m being repetitive with this, but it’s gonna be a short entry, so no excuses!

Ok, back to the point. Philosophy is by and for philosophers. There is little, if no, interested in non-philosophers. It is the epitome of what it means to live in the Ivory Tower and not associate with the rest of the world. In a very real sense, philosophers are the monks of academia. They have retreated from the world in order to learn Truth. It is assumed that the reason they don’t show interest in helping the rest of the world to this Truth is because they have not yet come up with a satisfactory answer of what Truth is (and do not want to deceive the masses and be held accountable for it), or possibly because they do not even believe the masses capable of coming to the Truth.

Philosophy is insufficient. There is something to be admired even in monks in a monastery, when on certain conditions they allow distraught total strangers into their ranks for a while. Or nuns who reach out to their community, such as the late great Mother Theresa. But there is no Mother Theresa of philosophy. The old philosophers, like Socrates, who lived and died for their philosophy, are gone now.

We find no groups of philosophers helping out with relief efforts, or helping kids in the inner city as the Christian Church and others do. How odd it would be to read in the newspaper something like “Epistemological Reliabilists Traver to Hurricane-Battered East Coast to Help With Hurricane Relief Efforts” (that would be one of the longest headlines anyhow, I guess). PLEASE, philosophers, PLEASE contribute to society or it is all for naught. PLEASE forego your burning desire to leave an impact on intellectual thought for years to come, and make a definite impact in a current need in society. Philosophers are called to be lovers of wisdom, and to WALK in wisdom. As someone on the newsgroups has recently said, show compassion first. Show interest in logic secondly.

I find philosophy very necessary, but in its present state totally insufficient. I don’t know if this is the way it should be or not, I’d just like to point it out…

“Better to be poor and walk in integrity
than to be crooked in one’s ways even though rich.”
Proverbs 28:6

“Whoever gives to the poor will lack nothing,
but one who turns a blind eye will get many a curse.”
Proverbs 28:27

This post is from yesterday, but my site’s MySQL server was being VERY slow so I couldn’t post it then.

I got to drive the IT Helpdesk cart (golf-cart type deal) today! I was with Joe, and I think I scared him a couple times. The most embarassing part was coming into a parking space too quick, and ending up screeching to a halt into the space. Joe joked that he thought we were going to plow through the fence in front of us, haha.

Well, so I got to know the rounds on delivering and picking up equipment! And then we came back, and I left the key to the cart in my pocket. But I didn’t discover this until wayyyy later. More on that soon.

So after that I came back home, and started working on homework that I saved until the last minute. But then I got an email saying that the class (English, for the record) was cancelled. This is the third time this semester it’s been cancelled already! Anyhow, I took it as a blessing, so I worked on homework for the next class, my Early Church and Acts class, which is at 6:00.

Before that, aroudn 5:00, I went over with my mom and sister to wish my grandma a happy birthday. We socialized a bit (I didn’t), then I had to drive off to class. Class was good - I’m on the ball with the homework in that class tonight (last week I wasn’t)!

After class I drove home and noticed a few sprinkles on my windshield. I thought I just drove through a sprinkler, but it kept falling, so I thought it was just misting maybe. By the time I got home it was definitely sprinkling, because it fell on my as I was getting out of the car! And it got pretty strong, at least for a September cloudburst. It was somewhat bizarre…

It turns out to be a thunder storm, since there has been a lot of lightning with it! Right now, as I’m writing this, it’s not raining, but there is every once in a while a little flash of lightning, which freaks me out - I’m sitting here typing on my computer, which is connected to the electrical and cable lines!

I’m reminded of a time not so long ago that I thought it would be a nice little joke that God could make it rain in the middle of summer, at the end of a hot day or something. This was kind of like that, but I know it’s really not that unusual for this tiem of year. It’s fun anyhow - it started sprinkling just when I got out of class, then raining when I got home.

And for the end of the day - I got an email from Joe asking if I had the keys to the cart. Sure enough, they were in my pocket. So I drove back to Biola and ended up having to get Campus Safety open up the IT Helpdesk for me so I could return the keys. That was my second most embarassing moment involving the cart…

“Iron sharpens iron,
and one person sharpens the wits of another.”
Proverbs 27:17

I didn’t post yesterday because I was too tired, so this entry is for Sunday.

A couple days ago I mentioned that I wanted to talk about Matt Williams and his sermon at chapel, which I think is the best chapel I’ve been to yet. There’s not a lot to say - he has a basic style that makes him so much different than anything I’ve heard before. He presented a different perspective, and at the same time it seems to be more down to earth and so simplistic that no one can miss it.

First, I came into chapel and it was silent in the gym (where we have chapel), because up on the screen (which we use to project lyrics for worship songs) it said something along the lines of “Please by silent when you enter. Use this time to prepare your hearts.”

So what did I think of it? I thought that a well-loved professor had passed away. Now that I thought about it, I don’t remember anyone dying in my short time there so far (just a year), but there are lots of older faculty, so it is expected. So I was prepared for a nice memorial service and maybe a message relating this to our lives.

But as I was thinking, I thought again about the idea that death really shouldn’t be taken seriously. Life here on earth if not the goal - we shouldn’t linger here. It is only depressing for those we leave behind, especially if they heavily depended on us. But in the end, death is the goal - and it is a good thing. (this view sounds sort of warped from a non-religious or non-Christian perspective I know!)

Matt Williams came up to the microphone after a while and started reading a passage from Philippians I think? As he was reading, he started walking to another part of the gym. I’ve only seem like one other speaker do that before. But then he appeared to keep walking past the bleachers, and out the door. It was kind of funny, I thought he was just going to read until he got outside so maybe he could do something from there? It turns out that he was going up the staircase to get up to the new balcony, where there are tons of new seats. He ended up starting the message from there, and the point of it was that we were to have a new perspective on life (get it?) because of Christ.

He walked back down to the normal speaking spot at the lecturn, and then explained that the purpose of the “moment of silence” in the beginning was to gauge our progress. The idea is that some people just used the time to look around at everyone else (i.e. guys looking at girls), some used the time to talk quietly, some were very deep in prayer. Whatever we were doing gives us a good look at our progress in spiritual maturity.

Matt Williams ended the message, asking the band to come up and sing. Before that, we prayed for a bit, then the music started, and people stood up little by little, as they finished praying. I ended up finishing praying, but I stayed seated - and I could see someone across on the opposite side of the gym who was alone and deep in prayer, even to the end of the last song (no, they weren’t sleeping!).

What an effective service, I think! I was going on about how much I admire Matt Williams just from his lectures in class during Fall semester last year, but this just confirms it - he really has a gift to humble himself while at the same time making an effective statement and call to action. Great stuff!

“Like a dog that returns to its vomit
is a fool who reverts to his folly.
Do you see persons wise in their own eyes?
There is more hope for fools than for them.”
Proverbs 26:11-12

Woke up late; went to lunch and came back around 3:00; went to Saturday church; went to the Library until it closed at 10:00; came back home and played Battlefield 2 too long. Oh well…

“Like vinegar on a wound
is one who sings sons to a heavy heart.
Like a moth in clothing or a worm in wood,
sorry gnaws at the human heart.”
Proverbs 25:20

Well, it’ sthe end of a crazy week, now into the next crazy week! Actually, this next week shouldn’t be so bad. I’ll find out though. I’m going to visit the library during the weekend to get caught up on homework.

Ack, why do I always put off these entries until I’m barely coherent? For the record, I only have one contact lense in.. the other one fell out. Or I rubbed it out, actually. Lovely.

Also, I might want to talk about Matt Williams’s sermon in chapel today. I’ll save that for another day, but I just want to say that I think it was the best chapel I’ve been to yet… it was great!

“Do not fret because of the evildoers.
Do not envy the wicked;
for the evil have no future;
the lamp of the wicked will go out.”
Proverbs 24:19-20

Ok, so I finished Descartes’ Meditations but I was also supposed to read responses to his Meditations, which I didn’t have time for. So that’s the only thing I have left uncompleted. Also, I forgot to go over to get my picture taken for the IT Help Desk, so I’m doing that tomorrow.

The week is almost over, thank goodness…

“Do not wear yourself out to get rich;
be wise enough to desist.”
Proverbs 23:4

Ok, I guess things are only half-impossible. I got my philosophy seminar done and turned in, then my Acts reading for the CRACK O’ DAWN breakfast meeting with my crazy group. Now I just have to find some way to finish Descartes’s Meditations, and I’m thinking this isn’t going to happen.

And then Thursday is over before I know it, and another week gone down the memory hole! Yipeee. Haha.

“The rich and the poor have this in common:
the Lord is the maker of them all.”
Proverbs 22:2

“Those who are generous are blessed,
for they share their bread with the poor.”
Proverbs 22:9

“The words of the wise:
Incline your ear and hear my words,
and apply your mind to my teaching;
for it will be pleasant if you keep them within you,
if all of them are ready on your lips.
So that your trust may be in the Lord,
I have made them known to you today - yes, to you.”
Proverbs 22:17-19