Book Review: Full Upright And Locked Position

Posted on April 26, 2024 by nathanalbright

Full Upright And Locked Position: Not-So-Comfortable Truths About Air Travel Today, by Mark Gerchick

As a not terribly frequent but also deeply interested air traveler, I have long had an interest in the experience of flying, since the days when as a child I would fly between Tampa and Pittsburgh (at that time on a route run by the now-defunct US Air) between my mother’s and father’s homes. Over the course of my flying, I have seen the transition from flying in tight spaces where one could nonetheless get a meal included, and be treated as a human being, to the experience of being in a cattle car where I have witnessed the embarrassment people suffer to save a few dollars on their flying experience, including trying to move clothes from one bag to another to avoid onerous excess baggage fees. One of my earliest plays takes place on a plane and ends at an airport where family members can meet at the gate, an experience that has not been allowed to happen since the September 11 attacks. I am, in short, probably precisely the sort of person that the author of this book is trying to reach. He comes at it from the point of view of a (somewhat frustrated) air travel insider, who does not quite rise above his obvious pro-Obama and pro-regulation biases, but in fairness American airlines in general appear to be a particularly stupid and unreflective lot, and I have had my own fair share of negative things to say about my experiences flying in recent years in American carriers, having a better time with foreign carriers who either manage to provide a way better flying experience or, in the case of European cutthroat airlines, at least the possibility of fares that no US carrier these days would dream of offering.

Although the author has a pervasive tone of sarcasm and even hostility towards the people who run airlines in the United States–and it should be noted that this book is directed at an American audience, as the author has comparatively little to say about the experience of flying in Europe, Africa, or Asia, except to and from the United States–it is clear that the author has some wisdom to impart to the reader. Perhaps the most pertinent of that advice is that travelers cannot really rely on the US Government to make flying better. Given that it took more than ten years to pass a regulation that forced airlines to let passengers off planes that had been stranded on the tarmac for more than three hours–hardly a strict requirement–dealing with the more mundane horrors of airline travel, including the absolutely ineffective but also intrusive security processes, the hostility that people in airlines feel towards the restive and sullen passengers treated like cows being moved about from place, and the general lack of humanity that people are treated with all while companies seek to ensure their profitability through selling the flying experience bit by bit as dishonestly and opaquely as possible, is something that the government is not equipped by temperament or ability to solve. We’re on our own, sadly.

This book’s contents are a bit less than 300 pages in length. The book begins with a foreword, after which the author talks about the disconnects in how we fly now as opposed to how we used to fly, or perhaps even how we could or should fly (1). This is followed by a discussion of the hassles of contemporary travel (2) for most people, as well as the margin in terms of profitability as well as the amount of people working in aviation between a well-oiled machine and total chaos and disaster (3). The author talks about the pointy end of problems in the air, namely the side directed at travelers (4), as well as the way that companies seek to profit through fares, fees, and other games to increase revenues (5). The author then discusses some sobering and unpleasant aspects about health while flying (6), as well as the difficulty of getting regulations approved and enforced even when they appear to be no-brainers (7). The author talks about the understandable desire that people have to escape from the problems of air travel (8), three unimaginable events that changed everything in air travel (9), as well as some forecasting on how things are likely to go (10). The book then ends with acknowledgements and a bibliography.

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Album Review: Little Bit Of Sky

Posted on April 25, 2024 by nathanalbright

Little Bit Of Sky, by Semisonic

Somehow in 2023 Semisonic released an album that I never heard of, and so as soon as I found out it existed I had to go and listen to it, given that I am a fan of their entire body of work. Given that their previous EP had been a moderate success, even if the band hadn’t released an album since All About Chemistry, how does the album work out? Is it the sort of album that is worth giving a listen to, even if only the die-hards are even looking for music from them at this point? Let’s find out. Here is a track-by-track review:

Little Bit Of Sky – This generally mid-tempo acoustic number is vintage Semisonic, with its message of hope and regret, with Dan Wilson’s believable expression that he only needs a little bit to get by.

The Rope – This song has a familiar balance between the hope and longing for intimacy and the refusal to want to keep someone tied down, with what seems like an autobiographical tale of Wilson’s own experiences as a musician and songwriter. This is the sort of power pop that honestly deserves to be a hit single on Alternative radio.

Grow Your Own – This song is a gentle pop-rock ode to rock & roll music, about the yearning to create one’s own music as well as enjoying to listen to it and viewing it as something that remains alive and not something that is dead and gone, but something that has to be cultivated by those who love it, full of autobiographical details of how Dan Wilson got into music himself.

Don’t Fade Away – This gentle and sweet song, full of interesting percussion details and other effects, is a call to continue to enjoy life and not let it fade away. It’s a familiar sentiment, to be sure, but pleasantly expressed here.

All The Time – This somewhat surprisingly dark love song combines gorgeous music with somewhat heartbreaking lyrics about loving someone who is sometimes cruel and unkind that one just wants to be with and enjoy all the time. It’s a gorgeous song of devotion to a less than perfect person.

Keep Me In Motion – This song is a mid-tempo song that expresses the sentiment that someone needs to stay in motion to survive, a fitting sentiment for a retrospective look at life and the knowledge that one needs to keep going and keep moving forward, even if one is a middle-aged performer like the members of this underrated band.

If You Say So – This song, fitting the mood of looking back, shows John Munson singing about the difficulty and boredom of life, calling back to their song “Wishing Well” and pointing out that the life they lived as rock stars had happened, if someone else said so and remembered it, since it seems so long ago to the singer/songwriter.

Out Of The Dirt – This somewhat driving song expresses the grind of life, seeking to find a way back home and toughing one’s way through each day as it comes. With the song’s driving guitar solo and percussion, this is definitely a standout rocker track here.

It Wasn’t Like We Hoped It Would Be – This is yet another power pop song that expresses the sense of disappointment with the freedom that the band enjoyed after its brief moment of fame, and that dissatisfaction helps to create a picture of gently humorous regret, full of distorted guitars and plaintive lyrics.

So Amazed – This lovely song is a ode to love and expresses the narrator’s enjoyment of his relationship and his pleasure in her love, even if things are not always perfect. The amazement expresses the enjoyment of doing nothing with someone one loves, a sentiment I can personally appreciate a great deal.

Only Empathy – This song, another relationship song, expresses the singer’s understanding of his partner and the lack of knowledge he has about how she deals with her struggles, and that he only has empathy to give to her. Sometimes, often even, that is enough, and it’s a touching sign of devotion.

Beautiful Sky (f/Jim James) – The album ends with a gentle song expresses the hope that even with the troubles of life, the sky and life are beautiful, and perhaps it would be good if that was enough. It’s a simple and somewhat basic song, but it’s a lovely sentiment and a sign of acceptance of what life has to offer.

As far as an album goes, Semisonic made this one knowing (probably accurately) that the only people who would care about it are the longtime fans. There’s just about no shot of anything on this album hitting any charts, but the listeners who have stuck with the band through thick and thin will find here a roughly even balance between songs about love dealing with relationships with imperfect people that are filled with enjoyment and devotion, songs about the music business and the retrospective look at the past and how things worked out differently than anyone would have hoped or planned, and songs that deal with the need to accept life as it is and deal with it on its own terms. This is the sort of album that is made by middle-aged people who have come to terms with where they are, with who they are, and with what they have done, and who are in a place in life where despite the problems of this world that exist, they are personally content. It is admirably done, and is a worthwhile part of an excellent, if mostly obscure, body of work from one of my own personal favorite bands.

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Book Review: Forever Free

Posted on April 25, 2024 by nathanalbright

Forever Free: The Story Of Emancipation And Reconstruction, by Eric Foner and Joshua Brown

What is it that makes this book so superior, in general, to Foner’s other works on the subject of Reconstruction? It is obvious, for example, in those few occasions in this book where the author talks about the contemporary implications of the Reconstruction that his political worldview is as little to be trusted here as it is in general when the author seeks to draw lessons from the past to be applied in the present. It is as obvious here, when the author talks about the functioning of Reconstruction governments in the South, that the author has no idea of what justice was owed to the people of the defeated South, and not just those who sought to rule over them without their consent. Yet this book does not focus on the author’s weaknesses, his blinkered and biased political perspective, his lack of understanding for Southern whites, his inability to see that what industrial workers and blacks wanted from governments was, quite honestly, not the job of government (especially national or state governments) to provide, but was rather the purview of local non-governmental private generosity rather than wasteful taxation, but rather on the author’s strengths.

It is important to do justice to these strengths. This book offers a sympathetic understanding of the black subjects of Reconstruction, from their own words, their own photographs, their own stories. The author demonstrates the hope that Reconstruction offered them–a hope that ultimately (and predictably) turned out to be a vain hope, but a hope nonetheless. When the author puts aside his partisan thinking and just writes about blacks and their longing for freedom, their desire to live as much as possible under their own control, to own land, to form political communities where their voices can be heard and where they can vote and participate freely without suffering violence for so doing, there is a genuine sense of fellow feeling that one has with them and an understanding that what they want is not so unreasonable if one looks at it on the level of people and small communities. It is to be lamented that so often fighting involves political rancor at coercion and social change forced from above, rather than the celebration of the freedom of people to live and to form families and communities and live in accordance with the law in pursuit of happiness and in the enjoyment of one’s capabilities. It would be good if there was more of this and less desire to concentrate power in the evil and corrupt hands of the political allies of the author.

This book, in terms of its contents, runs about 250 pages in length or so. The book begins with a foreword and a note on seeing race and rights in the book’s visual essays (which are generally excellent), as well as a prologue. The author then provides a chapter on slavery as the peculiar institution as it ended in the United States in the Civil War (1), along with an accompanying visual essay on the true likenesses of blacks (V1). This is followed by a discussion of blacks as being made forever free by the Emancipation Proclamation and following 13th Amendment (2), and a visual essay about the visions of war seen in paintings and photographs (V2). A chapter on the meanings of freedom (3) is accompanied by a video essay on altered relations between people as a result of freedom (V3). The next chapter, the crisis of presidential reconstruction (4), does not have an accompanying visual essay, but the one after that, on blacks raising the tocsin of freedom despite the personal harm they often suffered for so doing (5) and their desire to avoid race war, is accompanied by a chapter about the KKK and related forces on the offensive (V4). The author’s discussion of the facts of reconstruction–always a tricky matter (6)–is accompanied by a visual essay on countersigns (V5). A chapter on the abandonment of Reconstruction (7) is accompanied by a lamentable and predictable essay on the visualization of Jim Crow (V6). With this, the book ends with a political ode to the unfinished “revolution” of Reconstruction that was and has been quite properly rolled back in many aspects. The book ends with a bibliography for further reading, another bibliography for the visual essays, illustration credits, acknowledgements, and an index.

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Book Review: The Second Founding

Posted on April 24, 2024 by nathanalbright

The Second Founding: How The Civil War And Reconstruction Remade The Constitution, by Eric Foner

This book is a classic example of why someone cannot trust the reputation of contemporary historians when they seek to write history with an eye towards politics in the present-day. Indeed, the author, perhaps unintentionally, points out why the Reconstruction was such a problem. In seeking justice for blacks, the radical Republicans that the author idolizes (and wishes to emulate in contemporary society) forgot to do justice to southern whites, and once those southern whites were able to regain their appropriate involvement (and even control) of the politics of their political communities, the results were predictable if lamentable with regards to the justice of blacks. For some reason in the United States, it has never seemed possible–never even been attempted–to provide justice for blacks in a way that has not committed injustice against whites. That this book consistently trumpets for uplift for blacks and shows a high degree of hostility for southern whites as well as northern populations that sought to reconstruct southern society in a way that did not force themselves to deal with the same degree of substantial cultural change (and a substantial degree of blindness about the relationship between the elites and the black problem).

Indeed, this book is troublesome on multiple levels. For one, the author himself eschews responsible constitutionalism, seeking the sort of progressive constitutionalism that uses amendments to argue for whatever is the “current thing” among his leftist coterie of idealistic Dudley Think-rights. Thus the author praises the corruption and expansion of the fourteenth amendment into all kinds of areas where it does not belong and unintentionally provides plenty of reasons why these amendments should be pared back in future Supreme Court judgments–or perhaps even future constitutional amendments. Similarly, the author shows the danger that comes when the American republic becomes unbalanced and when those who think themselves to be moral superiors armed with righteousness seek to run roughshod over the rest of the country and seek to concentrate power in their own hands and that of their cronies. The author seems to have little concern for the importance of the consent of the governed in providing for the boundaries of political action, but seeks for government to be animated by a partisan and utopian zeal for justice that cannot but create massive violence and turmoil within society. The author is right, though, that many of the problems of contemporary society spring from the injustices and evils of the reconstruction period, evils which are felt most tightly by those who suffered them on all sides.

This book, altogether, is between 150 and 200 pages of content. The book begins with a list of illustrations and the (generally short) text of the three reconstruction Amendments (the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to the Constitution). This is followed by a preface. The introduction to the book discusses the origins of the so-called Second Founding in the moment when the majority of southern whites were, by and large, temporarily disenfranchised after the Civil War. The author then writes a chapter about each of the three Reconstruction Amendments. His chapter on the 13th Amendment discusses the thorny question of the nature of freedom, the relevance of the exception to the Amendment’s prohibition on slavery to prison labor, and the curious fact that this Amendment has largely been felt to be a past deed without relevance in contemporary jurisprudence. The contentious discussion of the 14th Amendment discusses the thorny issue of equality and what it means, and what the job of the federal government is to try to ensure it, contrary to the consent of people involved themselves. The chapter on the 15th Amendment discusses the right to vote and the way that people may be deprived of a right to vote without the need to do so in a racist fashion, because of genuine differences in the qualifications of people to engage in the political community, and also deals with the question of feminism and black suffrage and how there were tensions in the late 19th century version of intersectionality, though the author does not phrase it so. The author then discusses issues of supposed justice and jurisprudence in how judges have seen the amendments throughout history. An epilogue, with an eye towards the author’s view of justice, is then followed by acknowledgments, notes, and an index to close this book.

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Book Review: The Address Book

Posted on April 23, 2024 by nathanalbright

The Address Book: What Street Addresses Reveal About Identity, Race, Wealth, and Power, by Deirdre Mask

The author of this book appears to be torn between wishing to celebrate the way that street addresses can help people–assuming that those street addresses are not ones that are automatic signs of a bad neighborhood, leading to entrenched poverty–as well as recognizing the way that they were developed (as is common) as a means of projecting state power and making people less private and less anonymous. It ought not to puzzle us that this is so; very often in life that which benefits us benefits others as well, and things that serve to connect us to others also allow others to keep track of us. We should not be surprised, for example, that the same GPS that allows us to find out where we are, where the nearest restaurants or gas stations or other businesses are at, and how to get from where we are to where we want to be also allow our loved ones, companies, and governments to keep track of where we are at the same time. Whether or not addresses are a benefit to others or a problem depends on the balance between convenience and connection to others around us, including potentially life-saving emergency services, and being easier to track, identify, monitor, and tax. The truth is probably somewhere in the middle.

Within the larger tension of the work, the book also examines a great deal of complexity in the way that street addresses have always proved to be complicated. The way that ancient Romans are said to have navigated their way through the city–and described addresses to others–similar to the people of West Virginia is striking. The vanity address system of New York, where for a fee you can claim any address, no matter whether or not you should, allows for showmanship when it comes to real estate marketing but also has negative consequences when the fire trucks and ambulances come for you and do not realize that you cannot be reached from the street whose address you claim. Similarly, the author notes continuing complications over the naming of roads, whether they are named after Confederate generals or Martin Luther King, and what that often communicates to other people. The author finds, for example, that some addresses make property worth more and some make it worth less, a striking way in which people are judged by their name. She even has anecdotal evidence about this, in looking at addresses she was uncomfortable in living in because of their name. While William Shakespeare may have said that a rose by any other name would still smell as sweet, the name of something does have an effect on how people view it, which makes identity, even when it comes to one’s street address, something that will likely always be contentious and troublesome when different people have different ways they want to be understood and seen by others.

In terms of its contents, this book is a bit more than 250 pages. It begins, sensibly, with an introduction that discusses why street addresses matter. This is followed by two chapters on the relationship between street addresses and development issues, with a discussion of how street addresses may help transform Kolkata’s slums (1) and how street addresses in Haiti could have helped stop an epidemic that was the result of cholera spreading from a UN base full of unclean Nepalis (2). The next five chapters then turn to examine the origins of street addresses as well as different ways to mark place, which include chapters about how the ancient Romans navigated (3), the source of street names in the English world from London (4), how street numbers from Vienna can teach us about power within societies (5), why Americans love numbered streets from a look at the street names of Philadelphia (6), and how Japanese and Koreans, perhaps by virtue of their different type of language, view areas in blocks and not in lines (7). Two chapters allow the author to discuss the politics of street addresses, including Iran’s tendency to name roads after foreign and not only domestic revolutionaries (8), and Berlin’s street names and how they relate to the difficult process of coming to terms with the past (9), or vergangenheitsbewaltgung, as the Germans put it. At this point the author discusses racial matters of addresses, including American’s tendency to fight over Confederate street names (10), the problem of Martin Luther King Jr. streets (11), and the touchy issue of street names in post-apartheid South Africa (12). The author then turns her attention to questions of class and status with a look at how much Manhattan street names are worth (13), and how street addresses are a deep problem for the homeless (14). The author asks in her conclusion whether street addresses are doomed before closing the book with acknowledgements, notes, and an index.

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Book Review: The Call Of The Primes

Posted on April 22, 2024 by nathanalbright

The Call Of The Primes: Surprising Patterns, Peculiar Puzzles, And Other Marvels Of Mathematics, by Owen O’Shea

This book happens to sit in an unhappy place as far as books about mathematics go. On the one hand, this book is written with an obvious love of mathematics and a desire to share that love with others. The author delights in patterns and puzzles, as he says. And if that was all there is, this would be an easy book to appreciate and to recommend to others. But, as might be expected, that is not all there is to it. Despite the author’s love of puzzles, the book is not only written in love for mathematical puzzles but also seeks to debunk the thinking of others, specifically those who have found in the golden ratio a great deal of insights, which makes the author’s writing about phi a lot more lifeless and less enjoyable than his other works, because instead of finding patterns he seeks to debunk the patterns that others have found in them. This is bad enough, but given the author’s desire to debunk what the author thinks to have been made up, the author runs into problems of hypocrisy given that he makes up a correspondent with a suitably romantic Chinese background who gets the last word in every chapter as a means of trying to one-up the author and present in epistolatory form what was missed in a more developed fashion in the chapters. It would have been better to integrate material more organically than to have a fake Chinese amateur math expert present his comments and additions to the work as if it was someone else other than the author trying to squeeze more material in.

This hints at a broader aspect of this book that leaves it in a sort of uncanny valley as far as I am concerned as a reader. This is a book that appears to be written to lay readers of mathematics, those outside of formal mathematics study. The author himself comes from a recreational mathematics background and works for Ireland’s department of defense in an unspecified position (perhaps cryptography or something related to signals intelligence, one may hope). Yet this book is not written for the reader who has a basic knowledge in mathematics, but someone who is pretty proficient with regards to numbers, just an amateur and not a professional. Indeed, the author’s ideal audience, paradoxically enough, is the precise same audience as the imaginary character he writes about, someone who has studied in mathematics or engineering or a related field where knowledge and skill with numbers is important, but not someone who is a professional in the field, as the author nowhere wishes to uphold to professional norms of conduct (which would preclude the use of imaginary interlocutors as the author uses in, or other forms of subterfuge in one’s presentation). It is unclear just how many people would appreciate this book, having read it, as they would likely find the book above their level of mathematics while also below their level of character and morals, which is a dangerous place for a book to find itself.

In terms of its contents, this book is about 300 pages long and it is divided into sixteen chapters. The book begins with an acknowledgement and introduction. After that the author discusses the Lo Shu and other magic squares–which perhaps puts the book in a bad spot to begin by hinting at areas of divination (1). This is followed by the author’s discussion of prime numbers (2), as well as Pythagorean triples (3). This is followed by a discussion of deceptive puzzles in probability theory like the Monte Hall problem (4). Two chapters on sequences follow, namely the Fibonacci sequence (5) and then the lesser-known Lucas sequence (6). A dissatisfying chapter on Phi (7) comes before two chapters that explore notable square roots, namely i (8) and the square root of 2 (9), both of which had serious effects in the history of mathematics. This is followed by chapters on the square (10) and triangular (11) numbers. Finally, after all this while, the author gets around to talking in detail about pi (12) and e (13), two of the best known transcendental numbers. By this point the book is almost over, though, and the author then continues on to write about Pascal’s triangle (14), before ending the main materials of the book with chapters on some strange and remarkable coincidences to the author (15) as well as some beautiful mathematics equations (16). The book then ends with notes, a select bibliography, and an index.

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How Should We Think And Feel About The Passover Lamb?

Posted on April 21, 2024 by nathanalbright

[Note: The following is the prepared text for a sermonette given to the Portland, Oregon congregation of the United Church of God on Sabbath, April 20, 2024.]

Good afternoon; I hope you are having a happy Sabbath as we approach the period of the Passover and the Days of Unleavened Bread. Instead of beginning with a story, I would like to begin with a passage of the Bible that relates to this particular time we happen to be in and also is one that I have puzzled over since I was a small child, for reasons you will perhaps soon understand. Let us open the message today by turning to Exodus 12:1-5. Here, at the beginning of the Passover law, we read a passage about how the children of Israel were to prepare for the Passover. Exodus 12:1-5 reads: “Now the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying, “This month shall be your beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year to you.  Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying: ‘On the tenth of this month every man shall take for himself a lamb, according to the house of his father, a lamb for a household.  And if the household is too small for the lamb, let him and his neighbor next to his house take it according to the number of the persons; according to each man’s need you shall make your count for the lamb.  Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats. “

As a child, I wondered what this meant. When someone took a sheep or goat from the flock to sacrifice for the Passover, how did they keep it for the three to four days before the Passover sacrifice? I imagined as a child a family bringing the lamb in the house, with the children of the household playing with the lamb or baby goat and petting it and treating it as a beloved pet, perhaps naming it. I imagined the parents feeling uncomfortable with explaining to the children that the animal was not a pet, but would soon be put to death, and households having to address the tension between having an animal set aside that was cute and innocent, without blemish, obviously something we would feel protective towards, yet at the same time doomed to die for our behalf. I wondered if God was trying to set up a situation where people would feel the tension between seeing the lamb or baby goat as a means to an end and in feeling some sort of emotional connection with a cute and innocent animal, if this awkwardness and tension was part of a larger plan to get people to think about themselves and the reason why a lamb would have to die for them. All of the questions I had about this aspect of the Passover amounted to a larger question: how was ancient Israel supposed to think and feel about the Passover lamb?

As it happens, the Bible does not give a lot of detail about how ancient Israel was supposed to think and feel about the Passover lamb, and at least according to all of the indications we have, whatever thinking and feeling people did about it was not the sort that led them to reflect on their own role in the sacrifice of the lamb. By the time of Jesus Christ, when the sacrifice of the lambs was not done in individual homes and families but was done by the ten thousands for believers at the temple, it seems that any sort of emotional connection that people would have had with a Passover lamb or baby goat separated from its flock as a special sacrifice had long been lost. Perhaps the change happened–whenever it happened we do not know–without any sense of regret, or any sense of loss in the meaning of the day. The Bible, though, does give us a great deal of information on a related question, and that is, what did Jesus Christ think and feel about being the Passover lamb?

It is no mystery at all to determine what Jesus Christ thought about being the Passover lamb. He stated his thoughts about his self-sacrifice plainly and obviously to his disciples (and to us). We can find a reference of this, shortly before His crucifixion, in John 10:11-18. John 10:11-18, part of Jesus’ parable of the good shepherd, is only one of several places where Jesus shows an absolute commitment to his role of laying down his life for His people along with the knowledge that he would take his life up again. John 10:11-18 reads: ““I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep.  But a hireling, he who is not the shepherd, one who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees; and the wolf catches the sheep and scatters them.  The hireling flees because he is a hireling and does not care about the sheep.  I am the good shepherd; and I know My sheep, and am known by My own.  As the Father knows Me, even so I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep.  And other sheep I have which are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and they will hear My voice; and there will be one flock and one shepherd. Therefore My Father loves Me, because I lay down My life that I may take it again.  No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This command I have received from My Father.””

Here we see a fervent knowledge on the part of Jesus Christ that he had come to earth with the role of dying and laying down his life for others and serving as the Passover lamb while also being aware that he was laying down his life for the other sheep in God’s flock, including we ourselves. This certainly complicates matters. Were the ancient Israelites aware, when they were sacrificing sheep and goats, that they were viewed by God in the same way by God, as part of a flock as well? Jesus knew, unlike those who were unfamiliar with the purpose of the Passover lamb when it was separated from the rest of the flock a few days before the Passover, that he had come to this earth to sacrifice himself. He knew that like the Passover lamb, He was doomed to die in a little while, but He knew why and in His mind He embraced that purpose and was committed to see it through to the end. Did this foreknowledge of His coming sacrifice color His own relationships with others? Knowing that he had but a short time to live, and that when He was resurrected He would then return to where He had come from, did this discourage at all His close relationships with others? It does not appear so, from scripture, even though His friendships with others must have been colored by this knowledge that He had a short time, shorter than most, to live on this earth before He would lay down His life and take it up again and return to the kingdom of heaven to await the time when He would return to bring earth under His rule and that of our Father.

We do know, though, that Jesus was not without deep and intense feeling about what it meant to lay down His life, though, and He felt deep agony about it. We see this, for example, in Luke 22:39-46. Here, while Jesus was praying, He fully vocalized his feelings about the suffering He was about to go through. Luke 22:39-46 reads: “Coming out, He went to the Mount of Olives, as He was accustomed, and His disciples also followed Him.  When He came to the place, He said to them, “Pray that you may not enter into temptation.” And He was withdrawn from them about a stone’s throw, and He knelt down and prayed, saying, “Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me; nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done.”  Then an angel appeared to Him from heaven, strengthening Him.  And being in agony, He prayed more earnestly. Then His sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground. When He rose up from prayer, and had come to His disciples, He found them sleeping from sorrow.  Then He said to them, “Why do you sleep? Rise and pray, lest you enter into temptation.””

Here we see that although Jesus Christ had fully intellectually committed to laying down His life for His people and taking it back again, that His feelings about actually going through with the horrifying death of crucifixion after the horrors of scourging were not so positive. Without sinning in any way, He still prayed to Our Father three times asking, if it was the will of the Father, that the suffering that was imminent could pass to someone else. There was no one else, though, that the cup could pass to. No one else was worthy to be the Passover lamb. No one else could sacrifice themselves for the sins of humanity. No one else could give their lives for all others as He could. And so Jesus Christ, in agony as He was, had to bear the burden He had come on this earth to bear, regardless of His feelings. And He accepted that and was given additional strength to bear that terrible burden for our sakes and that of our brothers and sisters in the faith throughout all time.

For my final scripture today, let us turn to see what the author of Hebrews has to say about this sacrifice of Jesus Christ. In the midst of a long explanation of the symbolism of Jesus’ sacrifice as the Passover lamb for us, the author of Hebrews has this to say in Hebrews 9:11-15. Hebrews 9:11-15 reads as follows: “But Christ came as High Priest of the good things to come, with the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, that is, not of this creation.  Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption.  For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?  And for this reason He is the Mediator of the new covenant, by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions under the first covenant, that those who are called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.”

When we reflect on the sacrifice of Jesus Christ for us, on His role as the Passover lamb, it is important for us to reflect not only on the act itself, but also on its purpose. We were sanctified not for our own purposes, but for the purpose of God, who wished to cleanse us from our sins so that we would be fit to enter into eternal life and, while we live, to serve the living God who made us and who reigns over us. We were not called to lay down our lives for others, as Jesus Christ was, but were called to live for Him. Nevertheless, we too, like the children of Israel long ago, are brought face to face to deal with a Passover lamb who died for us who was separated from His flock to die so that we may live. We do not know how much the people of ancient Israel ever thought or felt about this sacrifice or ever reflected on it, but we are called to reflect upon it and to live our lives differently as a result of knowing that Jesus Christ came to die for us so that we may live. How do we think and feel about the Passover lamb?

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Book Review: Confession–The Sacrament Of Penance And Reconciliation

Posted on April 21, 2024 by nathanalbright

Confession–The Sacrament Of Penance And Reconciliation, by Chuck Elms

[Note: This book was provided free of charge by Reedsy Discovery in exchange for an honest review.]

It should be noted and freely admitted at the outset that I come to this book with somewhat of an outsider perspective, given that this work is written from a sincere lay Catholic perspective on the sacrament of Penance and its often neglected place within the world of practicing Catholicism. As someone who is definitely not a Roman Catholic, in many ways the specific internal nature of this book is not relevant to me as a reader–though it would be relevant to a potential reader who, like the author, takes the practice of Roman Catholicism seriously. On a larger scale, though, this book deals with an issue that is highly relevant to everyone, especially in an age like our own that is deeply concerned with questions of justice, and that is the nature of reconciliation, and how it is that reconciliation can be fostered in a world that is both often content and deeply frustrated with what appear to be sham apologies and the mere outward demands of apology and forgiveness. In order for a restoration of good relations between people who are estranged, those who have done wrong need to acknowledge their wrong and to make amends. The absence of this is at fault for a great deal of the estrangement that we find within society, as deep a problem as the failure to forgive and the maintenance of bitterness on the part of those who have been wronged–both of which are faults that this book deals with as they both spring from hearts that have been corrupted by sin.

Despite this book’s short length, it manages to speak eloquently both on the need for confession and repentance and reconciliation, as well as the costs of doing so under the Catholic economy as well as the rarity of confession being sought by those who practice to be Catholics. One might suspect that where confession is not regarded as a religious duty that it might even be less common a practice, which would be alarming given the degree of neglect of confession among Catholics. Although a great deal of this book is supported by the author’s copious references to Second Edition of the Catechism of the Catholic Church (abbreviated as CCC throughout the work), a few references are made as well to the New American Bible, and it is pleasing to see the author reference not only Catholic authorities but also the Bible as an authority. It is unclear how wide of an audience the author intends for his work. His work is clearly the fruit of labor and study from someone who takes his faith deeply and seriously, and who though not a scholar is equipped to deal rigorously with texts and authorities as he finds them. The subject matter of sin, confession, and reconciliation is one that has a relevance far beyond the confines of the Catholic church, but those readers who accept the authority of the Roman Catholic Church will likely find the author’s argument most persuasive, and hope for more works along these lines from the same perspective of a serious lay believer.

In terms of its contents, this work is less than 50 pages long regarding its text. The book–more like a pamphlet–begins with a short preface introducing the author and his perspective. This is followed by a short introduction and then his discussion of believers as members of a family, along with an introduction to the sacrament of confession and the need for reconciliation, which is simply and poignantly discussed. This flows quite naturally into a brief discussion of the nature of sin and law, where the author seeks to differentiate between venial and capital sins as well as Old Testament and New Testament law. Most of the rest of the work then discusses the sacrament of confession: its introduction by Jesus Christ (though some could point to its existence earlier, at least as early as the psalms of David, see Psalms 51 and 32 most particularly), a brief history of the sacrifice of penance and reconciliation, what the sacrament does, the need for reconciliation with God and the church, and a brief but organized discussion of the rite of penance and its various steps. The author then turns to briefly discuss interior conversion and repentance, of which penance is merely the outward manifestation, as well as the importance of making amends–satisfaction, and sometimes even reparation for the sins committed. The author then closes with a discussion of the gift of confession and its related forms, before the work closes with some brief information about the author.

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Book Review: Mathematics Minus Fear

Posted on April 20, 2024 by nathanalbright

Mathematics Minus Fear: How to Make Math Fun And Beneficial To Your Everyday Life, by Lawrence Potter

It is well known and well-understood that people tend to struggle mightily with mathematics and that a great many people fear and hate math to such a degree that it may harm their lives by leading them to be unlikely to take opportunities that require them to know mathematics. Given that shortcomings in STEM often spring from the difficulty that mathematics provides to people, it would make sense that this book is part of a substantial but fairly obscure genre of works that are designed to encourage casual self-study driven mathematical education on the part of people who do not use mathematics as part of their jobs nor have acquired a high degree of skill in math from their education. Indeed, this book appears to be particularly aimed at those whose experiences with mathematics education in school might even be viewed–with perhaps some only mild exaggeration–as traumatic in nature. I am not precisely the ideal target of this book, as I have no particular fear of mathematics nor am I hostile to the way that math was taught, as I had a fair (if not spectacular) degree of native interest and talent in the subject that was not educated out of me, and my own studies and professional career, and at least a few of my personal interests have involved mathematics to one degree or another. Nonetheless, I read this book and enjoyed it as a friend of mathematics who wishes it to be better understood and less feared by others, since it is not so scary as many people assume.

The central conceit of this book that frames its contents is an extended story that almost seems like a parable involving a somewhat sadistic math teacher and several students, of which the author focuses on two, the somewhat restive and rebellious Charlie (who might be a stand-in for the author), and the eager-to-please Bernadette, who is not natively skilled in mathematics but whose social graces please the severe math teacher whose teaching efforts frustrate Charlie and bore most of the students in his class to no end. The author’s intent in this book is to teach mathematics so that both the Charlies and Bernadettes may understand it, but he is focused most of all on the effort to keep Charlie from tuning out to education altogether. There is something deeply poignant in his description of Charlie’s problems in public school, where his energy and sense of play are viewed as rebellious and troublesome by teachers and other authorities, rather than appreciated and focused in productive directions. One gets the sense that there are many millions of boys in classrooms like Charlie who are either punished or medicated into submission and who are deeply turned off with the material of schooling because of their frustration with the system of schooling. It is precisely this fate that the author, wisely, wishes to encourage readers to avoid.

In terms of its contents, this book is about 250 pages in length and has a multitude of small chapters that are perfect for bite-sized reading. After introducing the book by discussing why the author wrote it and his goals in making mathematics less painful to readers, the author spends eleven short chapters talking about numbers in one’s head and figures on paper (I), which include basic counting, arithmetic, and checking one’s answers. This is followed by a discussion of different types of number, the relationship between fractions, decimals, ratios, and percentages which the author handles well also, managing to combine a discussion of how to fairly divide pizzas with a look at the power of compound interest. The next part of the book discusses the fear of the unknown that leads many people to abandon mathematics when it comes time to learn algebra, by looking at how one deals with unknowns through false assumptions, doing the same operations to both sides, and the logic of simultaneous equations, that all seek to provide the saving of Charlie. The fourth part of the book then discusses probability and statistics, looking at the relevance of this branch of mathematics to games of chance as well as weather forecasts and life insurance. The book ends with three appendices that deal with dividing fractions, putting sudoku to bed through a disciplined method, and providing examples to the puzzles and exercises throughout the book, after which there is a discussion on puzzle sources and a bibliography.

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Implausible Deniability

Posted on April 19, 2024 by nathanalbright

From time to time it is important to remember that denial is not only a river that runs through Egypt, but a river that potentially runs through every human heart and mind. Such is the case, it would appear, with the seemingly inevitable retaliatory air strike that Israel made against Iran after Iran threw more than 300 missiles and drones ineffectually at Israel a few days ago. By all accounts, and there are too many accounts for the modest response, it seems so far, Israel’s response was very limited and targeted in such a way that it appears to have sent a message to Iran that what was done was very modest but more could be done if it was necessary. The point appears to have been made. Three drones that caused no particular damage near military bases in Isfahan appears to be a very modest strike, but the fact that the strike could be made and get through Iran’s air defenses should have a salutary effect on Iran’s bellicose response.

So far, it seems, Iran’s response has been to deny that an airstrike happened at all. This seems counterintuitive given the fact that news organizations in the United States and around the world will be reporting this strike and its potential meanings for hours. I may, indeed, be reading about it tomorrow evening as part of my pastor’s usual Sabbath bulletin message, and hear one or two more commentaries on it from others who are so inclined within my circle of prophecy buffs. It would seem, at the surface, that the amount of ink (including my own) that is being spent on it is far disproportionate to the actual value (nearly nothing) of the attack when understood in purely military terms. Nothing about war, though, is purely military. There are always human elements involved, and here the human element appears to be some rather deep psychological waters.

In this light, it is telling that neither Israel nor Iran is going out of their way to admit to the air strikes. Israel is not bragging about what it has done–or what it could have done but chose not to do–and Iran, as we have noted, is implausibly denying that anything happened at all. Perhaps, though, this is for the best. If Israel bragged that it could have done something far worse but chose something mild but also symbolic, it might look weak for promising to retaliate but not really doing much at all. On the other hand, if Iran admitted that Israel indeed made an airstrike upon their country, and was able to target a vulnerable and relevant military target, even without causing any damage to it, then Iran’s government might feel honor-bound to retaliate in turn, which might escalate matters still further between the two countries. As it is, Israel made a subtle point and Iran is accepting that point, for what it is worth, and the best case scenario is that both nations understand the other and neither feel it necessary to engage in any more military strikes against the other and can return to their shadow war without the threat of escalation.

That is the best case scenario. Certainly, other, less desirable outcomes are possible. I will let other pens dwell on such misery. As for me, as concerning as the existence of an airstrike against Iran was, what was done appears, at least so far, to have been very mild and containing a huge amount of symbolic and metaphorical language that appears to have been understood on the Iranian side. As strange as it may seem, this sort of delicate and complicated communication gives hope that the people in charge of both Israel and Iran are intelligent enough to understand what the other is trying to communicate and also leaving enough room so that neither of the two nations (nor anyone else) needs to escalate matters further. The point has been made, and understood. Business can now return, we hope, to something less violent and less dangerous, at least in this front. That is, at least, still a hope that we can hold to, at the present moment. It seems dangerous, though, to depend on such subtle communication when the stakes of war are so high. What happens when one is attempting to communicate the subtlety of what could be done but was not done to someone who does not understand, does not want to understand, and feels themselves compelled to massively retaliate to every minor slight or wound? May we not be unfortunate enough to find out.

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