May 10, 2021

It's my brothers' birthday today! Nate is working out of the Fort Collins house today, and we're going to walk and probably get lunch together. I'm trying to clean the house as much as I can before I leave so that there's less for mom to do when she gets back. Look at me! Becoming helpful in my early middle age. 

I read "Integral Nothings" by Robert Reed in the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. He had a nice description in the part of his story about the smartest person in the world: "Yes, the strong mind learns easily and joyfully. Novelty is a sweetness, and by stringing together delicious new ideas, great truths can be unveiled." The passage goes on to explain how this can also be a weakness. The mind falling for the sweetness and pleasure in a certain wrong idea. But I've been thinking about people who do well in certain fields, at their jobs, at their studies. I think of that undergrad we had in the lab who had a first author publication already before she graduated. She woke up early for club lacrosse practice. She was in the lab as much as possible, camped out in the conference room studying when she wasn't doing bench work. She never seemed to get tired or grumpy. I think she was thrilled to be doing what she was doing. She got into grad school at MIT. 

I went to church yesterday with my family. It's what my mom wanted for Mother's Day. The pastor was strong along some lines that I appreciated. He of course alluded to heterosexuality being the only one that's okay and men being the head of the household and all that. Also he talked about how the Bible is breathed by God so we know exactly who He is and what He thinks about everything. But it is a religion, I told myself. A good helping of humility is probably too much to expect. The sermon was also way too long. He must feel that he's losing people, up there. He's looking out to the crowd and making eye contact. His teaching style was what Mitch would call "Sage on Stage" to a very literal degree. I was wondering why sermons don't tend to use advances made in education in order to boost engagement and retention. Maybe having the audience participate more -- write down answers on pieces of paper or doing one of those word map polls on their phones -- would threaten the inherent hierarchy that's important to the church.