God's Plan for Improvement: Running With Perspective

 

Anxious Training and Old Habits that Won't Die

It’s been a rough couple of weeks since I signed up for the marathon in Texas.

 I already mentioned that it didn’t go well. The last two weeks were an off week for me. Not because I didn’t want to run, but I came down with a nasty cold. It was enough to knock me out of even trying to run. I’ve been climbing back ever since. Last Saturday I toughed it out and put in 14 miles. The rest of my team put in 20. I knew I wasn’t going to make it that far, but after not doing any jogging for so long, I was content with the result. The rest of the week reflected a normal pattern of training, 3 days at the gym and 3 days running. Sunday is the Route 66 marathon. No, I’m not signed up. I had a chance to take someone’s bib and run for them. She injured herself a few months ago and is unable to do the race. I’m not ready either.

Thinking Versus Doing

I’ve figured out that I’m one of those runners that prefers to train than race. Because I’m a thinker I’ve thought about it. There is less pressure to train. At least internally, I can relax and enjoy the run without worrying about the pace. Why can’t I do this during a race? It’s not like this counts on some eternal chart. Like, if I don’t improve every time I have to reevaluate my life choice and do something else. But a race is a test. It’s the clearest example of how much you've improved in the time you had to practice. It’s like any other test. It’s designed to measure. I hate tests because of the probability of failure. It might not even be a high probability, but it’s always there or it isn’t a test. If you have a bad race, you fail.

That probably seems like strong language for a recreational sport, but it’s true.

Failing a race doesn’t make you a failure though. People fail tests for a variety of reasons having nothing to do with preparedness. Learning to run marathons efficiently must be a long-term goal. And you might not show improvement right away. A friend of mine made a transition in his training just recently. He’s always been fast. Even on some of our longer distance Saturdays, he slowed down a minute and a half below what he was used to. His endurance improved dramatically. The idea with slowing down is to get your heart rate into a lower setting. This isn’t the place to describe heart rate zones. But let’s say elevated, or exerting a little more energy than a quick walk.

 This is supposed to allow you to have more energy at distance and ultimately get faster.

New Ways Old Attitudes

Your body becomes fat dependent at low heart rates. This means it burns fat at a higher percentage than it burns carbs. Our bodies store fat more than carbs; fat is a better energy source for long distance running. I’ve known this. Fat adaption running constitutes a sort of, marathon training 101. But making yourself run slower is a more difficult than you might imagine. There is a comfort level that develops over the course of your training. It’s never exact, but stays within a certain pace window. My heart rate has been ticking up slowly over the years as well. That’s not good. The higher the rate the shorter the distance you’ll cover. It’s another concern to work out.

Some of the most efficient runners I know are over the age of 50. They’re eager to help with advice too. It’s as helpful a community as there is. But you have to stick with it, even when you feel like a failure.

There is a verse that keeps cycling through my head. It’s more about life in general, but comes up a lot with jogging. “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made know to God; and the peace of God which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:6-7)

The first part hits me straight on. Nothing should cause anxiousness in our lives. I think we have a tendency to label issues in life as either “important” or “not important”. We spend more time on the important stuff like family, career, charity and tend to worry more about them. But Paul is clear that nothing should cause us anxiety. By making our requests known we hand off the worrying parts to God and he returns peace instead.

Conclusion

Most people wouldn’t put recreational running into the “important” category. For long term health and fitness it’s certainly necessary, but doesn’t rise to the level of family or career. Whatever place it occupies in your life, it’s never something to be anxious over. It’s a soothing balm of a verse that helps me relax about the trajectory of my training, racing and testing. Perspective is a wonderful thing. It’s even enough to make me breathe a little easer and slow down a bit. I might be able to get my heart rate down a few points. No promises on that though.

In running and spiritual growth, we should put aside old ways of thinking and let God reveal new paths. His peace allows us run with perspective and develop into people that reflect His nature.

Trump's Big Victory and Charlie Kirk Chases Votes

 

Turning Point and Trump 2.0: New Popular Republican Party

Trump won the national argument last night.

In a landslide that’s still being counted, he won early and sealed the deal. It’s been a brilliant campaign. He did a lot of rallies last time as well as this time, but he managed a few genius public demonstrations this time. He stopped by the infamous bodega in New York that was robbed by a crook. By doing so he brought attention to the crime in the city under the corrupt leaders. He wouldn’t have been in New York but for the nonsensical trial for supposed campaign finance misuse. He worked a shift at McDonalds to bring attention to Kamala’s lie about working there when she was younger.

Old Guard

His campaign rented a garbage truck after Biden called his supporters garbage. That one the campaign pulled off in less than a day. The GOP of Mitt Romney would never do this. They weren’t running as a representative of the people and their interests. We didn’t have an alternative really. Ron Paul was sharp but hardly popular. He was too wonky on policy for the average voter. Trump did the one thing no one else did, he listened. Ann Coulter told him to run on immigration because everywhere she went, people talked about it. It was important to Americans but not politicians.

Whenever they talked illegal immigration it was about work visas. Americans were concerned about crime. We never got an effective border wall because the business class didn’t want it. Trump at least started building the wall. Coulter got squeezed out of the White House and never forgave Trump for it. He never adopted her ideas, which were responsible for his election. He did lean on Mexico to keep a lot of the border crossers on their side. He bulked up the border with ATF agents as well.

Illegal Immigration

I thought about this last night while watching the returns. I chose to watch Charlie Kirk’s Rumble channel. Charlie is responsible for a lot of the get-out-the-vote efforts this cycle. His Turning Point Action group got serious after last year’s steal. They educated locals in key states, Michigan, Wisconsin and Arizona. This election is about how Turning Point turned out the youth vote. They wrested control of the RNC from the old guard once Trump wrapped up the primary elections. They made Laura Trump co-chair of the RNC and started spending wisely.

A big complaint from MAGA republicans is the lack of help they get from the RNC. The old guard (McConnell, Ryan) hate the MAGA movement and refuse to spend money on their races in key states. Money makes a huge difference in close elections. The Washington establishment was letting MAGA world know how they felt about their movement. Turning Point was the lynchpin for moving the Republican party away from its corporate roots and toward a popular movement. They helped Trump organize his ideas from the first term into something more seamless. Along the way they got Elon Musk and RFK Jr to endorse and become full members of team Trump.

Trump needed TPUSA for the ground game. He is clearly the star and popular enough to lead in the polls. But voting is about getting your supporters out to actually mark their ballots for you. This year was no different, except the margin of victory was so much clearer. The Democrats didn’t get their people out.

Wonky Time

I tuned in early last night. I like to hear the analysis. I geek out on elections too. The TPUSA guys are serious data nerds and it’s fun to hear them handicap the race. They talk ballot dumps and county ethnicity breakdowns. They get excited, like toddlers at the zoo, when a swing state like North Carolina flips. They talk over each other constantly, pour over every new tranche of reports from the state and compare each to the last election. Some of the guys tell stories about the past year on the campaign trail. They lost their YouTube feed at one point. One of them referenced a website as a joke and YouTube cut them. I wasn’t sure why this was exactly. Was it a copywrite thing?

Charlie was on edge and extra careful after that.

Right around the time the group called Iowa for Trump, it looked like a fantastic night for DJT. Pennsylvania was still counting but running out of votes for Kamala. Even the New York Times projected Trump would win PA. Then Wisconsin started looking good and Michigan too. Even without  the western states, there wasn’t much of a path for Kamala at this point. Trump had North Carolina and Georgia in the bank. All he needed was Pennsylvania to get the magical 270 electoral votes and secure it. I went to bed content with a Trump victory. His margin was too big to try a middle of the night dump of votes.

New Day

I’m optimistic for this new administration. This is Trump 2.0. Nearly killed twice, he’s under no illusions how important this is. He is a survivor of some of the worst lawfare I’ve ever seen. It’s strengthened his resolve. He has a better idea of who to trust and who not to trust. He hired some real losers last time. His coalition looks strong and atypical. Normally you’d see a list of regular senators and statesmen from previous administrations in the cabinet. We’ll see some of that. But we’ll also see business and tech people. General Flynn will be heavily involved in cleaning out the justice department I hope.

This country needs serious people to start to fix the mess. It’s not just economic either. The Biden and Obama administrations treated the federal government like their own private army. Raiding offices and arresting their opponents; dragging citizens through circus courts and tossing them in jail. There are millions of illegal aliens in the country they need to be escorted back to their country. Something tells me Trump 2.0 is going to be a more serious and effective administration than the last time around.

Conclusion

I checked on some choice video clips from the Turning Point crew this morning. They stayed up all night to analyze the returns. At one point Jack Posobeic, basically, told Charlie to take a bow. It was clear that all the hard work paid off. He teared up for a bit, but being the humble guy he is, wouldn’t take credit.

Trump won the national argument last night, and we can thank Charlie Kirk for his part in it.

The Republican party looks different today. Thank God.

The Old Man: Book Review

Thomas Perry's The Old Man: Why We Love Spy Thrillers

I just finished reading Thomas Perry’s “The Old Man”. The only comparison I have for this book is the TV show on Hulu. It’s why I decided to read this book in the first place. I’m glad I did. Now I’m familiar with this author who I didn’t know anything about before. The Old Man doesn’t exactly go by one name. This holds true in the show as well. It’s kind of his M.O. to use fake identities until he gets burned, then start on another. First he is Dan Chase, then Peter Caldwell, followed by Hank Dixon and eventually takes on the identity of a Canadian citizen named Alan Spencer.

All identities have backstories and passports. This is a guy who knows how to evade notice. It’s the character that draws us into the story. He is 60 years old and owns 2 large dogs. Perry never gets around to describing their breed, except to say some think they’re a cross between a Labrador and a poodle. He calls them “80 pound beasts” at one point. We’re to assume they’re well trained to listen for danger and protect their master. Dan Chase is an accomplished man who pays attention to detail. He’s trained his dogs well. Described in the first chapter of the book, thieves break into the home of Mr. Chase. The dogs pounce and subdue the intruder while Dan kills him. From here the story really begins.

We find out that Mr. Chase is a man on the run because of an incident in Libya almost 30 years ago. I wont spoil it, but it’s the thread that the whole story hangs on. In the long tradition of bad ass covert case officers, this one is mostly different because of the age of the spy. He’s 60 and in shape. The TV show makes you think the plot is convoluted. It’s not. It’s quite simple and follows a linear timeline. About the only flashback is at the beginning to set up the plot. Otherwise, we follow the Old Man through Chicago, California, Toronto and then Libya.

His love interest is a 40-year-old divorced mother from Chicago who follows him into the identity swapping, covert world of running from the US government. He rented a room from her using the name Peter Caldwell and she fell for him. She has a little backstory of her own that makes hiding from the law a comfortable fit.

I checked on the author’s website to see if he had a series devoted to the character. Sadly it’s a one off. I wonder if he will write another one with the success of the TV show. I’ll try not to go into detail about the show because it’s not even remotely the same. Another character that carried over from the book to the show was this military contractor named “Julian”. He’s a black farmer from Jonesborough, Arkansas who gets the assignment to go after the Old Man. He’s irritated with the scope of the investigation and becomes disillusioned with the whole process. He’s a likeable symbol of a man fighting an internal battle on the morality of what he does. If this Old Man character doesn’t get another book, I’d start a new series with Julian.

Julian is in the TV show but doesn’t have the same story. I bought the book to understand the show better. Don’t do that. It won’t help. The TV show has a lot of layers that have only been hinted at. I thought a fuller reading of the book would answer my questions, but no. Especially since Thomas Perry only wrote one book, these are two different stories. The writers of the show cut and pasted the main character and two others, gave them different histories and located them in different parts of the country. This isn’t a problem. Books often get made into movies with little or no connection to the original novel.

 Characters drive stories and when you’ve got a likable character, you tell more stories. Spy novels with international intrigue never get old. We keep reading them, authors keep writing them. From Mitch Rapp to Jason Bourne, it's the danger and violence we love.

I like that Dan Chase (The Old Man) is over 55. Is that because I’m getting older myself and associate with the type? Never you mind that!

I’ve thought about what it is that makes the character so compelling. To me it’s the unassuming nature of a guy with gray hair and a pleasant demeanor. No one expects him to defend those in his orbit with such raw, cold violence. In one instance, the Old Man and his girlfriend hitch a ride with 2 young men who only stopped because they saw the woman. It’s clear almost immediately that the men have bad intentions toward her and don’t think the Old Man can do anything about it. He tries to diffuse the situation by telling them he’s uncomfortable and their threats are inappropriate. He beats them up quickly, and roughly, when they keep commenting on his age and lack of sexual prowess. You can feel the false bravado of the young men right until Chase smacks the driver with a pistol.

He’s a man who’d rather walk away and change identity than get into a scrape. But when he’s confronted with it, he leaps into action. His age suggests he’s more patient with people and gives them a break when other, younger agents, might not. It’s an important part of the story which I’ll only hint at. The Old Man needs someone in the US government to believe he is the good guy.

It's a story about putting the past right and trying to overcome mistakes. It’s a universally appealing sentiment. Who doesn’t want to fix something from the past that’s created an untenable situation in the present? If not an untenable situation, a lot of us would want to make a different decision or take another path. We never get to. But with a lot of money and two 80 pound beasts, you just might.

 

 

Justice Run 2024

 

The Justice Run 2024: The Short Version

I spent the weekend in Fort Worth. I signed up for the Justice Run for the 3^rd Year in a row. Officially it’s a run along the Trinity River Corridor. Unofficially, it’s a fund raiser for victims of sex trafficking in its 4^th year. The run gets bigger every year and the cause becomes more essential, as the number of kids trafficked increases exponentially. I'm happy to join the fight.

My marathon turned into a half marathon quickly.

The race is always on Saturday and this year was no different. I took off work on Friday and drove to my brother’s home outside of Fort Worth. My mom came along as well. My brother took me to the church on Friday afternoon so I could pick up my race packet. They included tank tops this year, which worked out well because of the heat. Mine was too big. Fortunately, I’d prepared and brought one from home to wear instead. The temperature at the start was in the low 60’s. A little warm for a marathon, but at least it wasn’t delayed because of rain. Last year was wet and sloppy and we started later to allow the water to absorb into the ground. About the only nice part of running through a wet park, is the lack of pedestrians getting in the way.

This time the park was packed. That meant strollers and bicyclists.

I knew the temperatures were going to climb once the sun came out. The two previous days I made an effort to drink a lot of water for hydration. I don’t think it’s the heat that did me in though. Whatever it was, I burned out around the 11 mile mark and coasted in at the half way point. Sometimes preparation is a waste of time. I’ve always thought the most important thing about preparing for a marathon is getting the miles in. The diet and energy stuff is a close second, but it’s anyone’s guess how you’ll feel in the moment.

It turns out this day wasn’t my day. I didn’t have enough in the tank. My pistons weren't firing. My thermostat was in danger zone. My metaphors are wearing thin. For whatever reason I couldn’t finish. It’s more accurate to say I didn’t want to finish after feeling spent so early. My lack of energy after the first lap was an indication that the last half was going to involve mostly walking. That’s why I called it. The thought of walking 13 miles with an occasional short jog was too painful to consider.

I did manage to meet a wonderful woman who ran with me for the first 8 miles or so. We talked about everything from travel to politics. She caught up to me a mile or so in and we ran side by side and chatted. We kept a similar pace. Any faster and I wouldn’t have had the breath to talk for very long. She attends Mercy Culture, the church that sponsors the run, and filled in some details about the leadership. Normally I’m in my own world when I’m jogging. Thankfully, her conversation made the early part of the run enjoyable.

The route was roughly the same as last year. The organizers moved the event further down the river by a few hundred yards. It allowed them to set up on a flat, dry parking lot with a spot for vendors inside a warehouse. Apparently, it’s the location they’ve tried to get for the last 3 years. This year they made it a reality. They’re getting better at organizing the run as well. I heard one person complain that he had to find a vendor with water bottles once he’d finished the race. Normally you’re handed a water once you cross the finish line. But there was plenty of water all around, you just needed to go get it. For a small race I don’t think that’s the worst criticism.

The mission of the Justice Run is to raise money for victims of sex trafficking. Mercy Culture Church is trying to build residences to house women and children who’ve been rescued from the trade. Apparently, the neighborhood community (nearby) opposes having the residences built there. But the land belongs to the church; it’s a question of zoning. Does the current zoning law cover the church or not? The building is on hold until the political stuff is sorted out. Sex trafficking is one of those ugly, under the radar type of crimes that take place in astonishing numbers. It’s a ministry whose time has come. I’m proud to support them.

As for the rest of the day, my brother grilled steaks for the family. It’s a tradition now in its 3^rd year. I run, he cooks. Ostensibly a celebration of a grueling marathon, this year we had to amend it slightly. No one wanted to miss the steaks because I didn’t finish the race. We joked about cutting mine in half.

 Whatever happened in the race, any excuse to be with family and grill out is OK with me.

National Sovereignty and Trade Policy: New Directions

 

Is Free Trade Dead? National Sovereignty and Trump Economics

How important is a country’s trade deficit? Are countries just large markets made up of consumers, or are do they have interests' outside of economics?

I had a teacher who liked to talk about how deficits in trade were meaningless. “Does Walmart buy goods from you? No? so you have a trade deficit with Walmart.”

Big Deals

This was how trade deficits were explained to me in my economics class. They’d started calling it Global Economics by the time I was in grad school. “Macro Economics” had gone the way of the gold standard. His point was that some countries buy and some sell, we all specialize in a mature market based economy. Trade deficits aren't a big deal.

My question to him should have been “Aren’t a big deal to whom?” If you sell whisky or cars or beef, it’s a very big deal when you can’t sell into a foreign market. Especially if other industries, like retail, are able to buy shipping container loads of electronics and shoes.

With a country like China we buy more than we sell. Partly because they keep their currency artificially low and partly because our goods are significantly more expensive.

My professor was focused on America’s balance sheet. Since China isn’t the only country we trade with, we make it up by selling to others. Most of our trade is with Canada and Mexico. Both are significantly larger trading partners because of their proximity. Let’s not forget the rest of South America, Europe and Asia. But we do have a massive trade imbalance. Oil is the culprit. We buy a lot instead of producing it here, a mistake for sure. But that’s an article for another day.

Ricardo’s Influence on Trade

The existing framework for international trade is based on the David Ricardo model. If your knowledge of trade theory is a little rusty, here is a quick summary. Countries should trade what they’re good at in exchange for what they aren’t good at. This is all theoretical so bear with me.

Countries with an abundance of grapes will become adept at making wine. Countries with tech industries will become adept at making microchips and smart phones. These countries will trade with each other and focus on what they do best. Both will have a comparative advantage; wine countries shouldn’t try to make microchips and tech countries shouldn’t grow grapes.

 It’s a dramatic oversimplification but it gives us a starting point. The model falls apart when you introduce quotas, tariffs or subsidies. The free traders have tried to get everyone on level field of play by introducing global rules in their game. But it’s like agreeing to play football with multiple sets of rules. Countries can’t agree to exactly the same game because their internal politics are vastly different. And they all have special industries to protect. For some it’s agriculture and for others it’s manufacturing. Add to that, the unions with their own demands.

Tariffs Make a Comeback

But the basic structure of free trade involves removing barriers like tariffs to increase the overall amount of trade. But what if countries ignore the rules or subvert the process?

There isn’t a great mechanism for settling disputes but there is one. The WTO (World Trade Organization) has courts to hear cases between nations. But it takes years and is often unsatisfactory for both countries.

 I don’t hear politicians talking optimistically about free trade anymore. It’s no secret that manufacturing in particular, has taken a beating. Partly this is the fault of the unions. They negotiated sweet deals in past with the auto makers. You can’t blame them for getting the best deal possible, but the legacy costs hurt the auto manufacturers. They also started moving their manufacturing overseas to save on labor. Also, the rest of the world started selling great cars in the U.S. putting further pressure on our industries.

 A lot of the complaints that President Trump has about trade is the lack of transparency in foreign markets, particular China. His thinking goes like this, ‘we open our markets, why can’t you?’ Trump and Peter Navarro (trade advisor) made sure to put a hefty tariff on China for their unfair trade practices like technology transfers (Intellectual Property theft) from US companies. Those tariffs are still in place.

National Sovereignty Economics

It's hard to make an economic case for tariffs. It’s just a tax on foreign goods. The consumer pays it anyway. But Trump isn’t just punishing foreigners, he’s trying to keep industries at home and maybe bring a few back that have left. He’s concerned more for American jobs than cheap consumer goods. The downside is that countries will retaliate with tariffs of their own on our products and services.

But is it really as damaging as we’re told? Liberal economists make it seem like the tit for tat on tariffs will necessarily lead to war. It feels to me like there is a similar historical parallel with the Soviet Union and President Reagan. He bankrupted the Soviets by spending heavily on defense and forcing them to keep pace. Moscow couldn’t afford it. It didn't lead to war.

 What if we invest in our own industries, produce our own oil, grow our own crops and promote American companies abroad?

 China won’t easily find another consumer driven economy to replace what they’ve lost with the Americans. They can’t afford to keep up.

There are probably a hundred things wrong with that example, but Trump thinks in terms of national sovereignty first and economics second. He believes that a strong America is the best thing for the world. For all the criticism he gets about being a bully on the international stage, he does want fair trade. That’s how I read it at least. I’d rather have someone who puts America first. A lot of our leaders are completely owned by international interests. Their trade policies are not significantly different. Ross Perot, who ran for president in 1992, was a critic of the NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement). But he finished a distant 3^rd. The free trade skeptics haven’t had a standard bearer until Trump. Whether you like his tariffs or hate them, Americans need to start having the debate again.

Conclusion

Walmart has certainly benefited from lower trade barriers in the last 30 years. That’s a good thing. Most of us have a trade deficit with Walmart. Individuals can run those deficits forever, but countries need to balance their accounts at some point. Countries are more than just markets, they’re sovereign nations with cultures and religions and notions of progress. We have (or had) a thriving middle class and an upwardly mobile citizenry.

 Does America have the capacity to defend itself if attacked?

That takes a lot of industry to convert to tanks and ships and weapons. This isn’t a big deal until you’re suddenly forced into a war footing.

China has been America’s Walmart for too long. What we don’t get from China we get from other countries. That’s called leverage. They have leverage on us. If you can’t make enough to supply the domestic market, you’re in trouble. Trade can be a liberalizing force between nations, but when it’s uneven it can be dangerous. It’s time to put American industries first again.

Does Anyone Buy Books at Stores Anymore?

 

Shopping for Books and Reminiscing About the Old Way

Looking for books used to be fun, but there’s hardly any reason to go to the bookstore anymore. Of course I read digital copies too. They can be bought quickly and downloaded to a phone in seconds. But I like to hold the book, see the ink on the page and scribble notes in the margins. Our eyes get too much screen time as it is. I’m making an effort to buy more physical books again.

A New Era

I went looking for a copy of A Moveable Feast the other day. Hoping for a discount paperback, I shuffled into Barnes and Noble. It’s been a long time since I’ve purchased anything there. Used to be they had a section for $5 dollar books in a bin. Most were just hardcover copies of whichever Danielle Steele novel was popular years before, a lot James Patterson too. I could always find classics for cheap and in hardcover. Not that I need a hardcover, but it’s nice if you can find it. The bins are gone though. Instead we get racks of calendars, pens, penlights, bookmarks, phone chargers and other reading adjacent knickknacks. Often it's tchotchkes with no relation to the printed word (see above pic). I’m sure the margins are better on booklights than cheap paperbacks. 

I didn’t see any of those lap cushions with the flat wooden top for couch reading but I’m sure they were around.

B&N has a music side too. I realize this isn’t new. I’ve poked my head in a few times in the last few years, but I didn’t imagine they got rid of so much of what made it great. Instead of a messy, bustling place full of families it’s become a minimalist version of itself. Neat shelves with sharp white font letters on dark green backgrounds advertise the genres while large posters of the classics (Ulysses, Homer, The Grapes of Wrath) populate the walls. You can still hear the café blender whirring on occasion. They’ve taken out half the tables so the sound of wooden chairs being slid into place isn’t as frequent either.

A Former Life

The grit is starting to set in the way it does with old stores. The floor tile has gone from white to off-white and the carpets are threadbare in well-tread spots.  

 They haven’t overhauled the way Radio Shack did years ago. Radio Shack saw that consumer electronics were going the way of waterbeds and cassette tapes, there was less interest every day. They tried to stop the bleeding by reimagining their mall stores. They managed a funny Super Bowl ad in 2014 about their 80’s image. In the end it wasn’t enough. Borders, my favorite, went bankrupt in 2010 as well. There wasn’t anything special about Borders but I like the location here in Tulsa. I spent time doing homework a few nights per week in the café.

There was always a group of D&D (Dungeons and Dragons) gamers occupying a corner of the same café. I wanted to complain about the noise but how could I? It’s not let any of us were paying customers. I never bought anything but tea either. Borders never sold much as far as I could tell. I’m starting to see the problem.

Although closer geographically, it always felt like a ‘us too’ version of Barnes & Noble. They decided on Seattle’s Best coffee instead of the superior Starbucks. No one picks Seattle’s Best over Starbucks unless you can’t get Starbucks.

Once digital readers hit the market in 2007, Borders said enough. I’m not sure it was this reason alone but it was clear by this point they couldn’t compete with yet another slap in the face from Amazon. First they offered books for a fraction of the price, then they digitized the experience. Although Books A Million (BAM!) never had one either and they’re still around. Amazon’s Kindle captured the market and only B&N created their own line of e-readers. I have one lying around somewhere. It wasn’t the fancy color one that loaded the page correctly every time either. The black letters were hard to see on the hazy yellow backdrop. The buttons weren’t responsive either. I’d finish a page and hit the button to turn, nothing would happen. I tried again, nothing. Then I mashed it hard and it jumped 20 pages ahead. This happened frequently and I eventually gave up on it, tossing it in the drawer next to my Borders café punch card.

An Unexpected Turn

It's no secret what happened to the book sellers across the country. It’s the same thing that happened to Radio Shack, Circuit City and Toys R Us. Amazon took them out to the pasture like an old mare with a broken leg and put a bullet in them. Online shopping is what we wanted and it’s what we got. Besides, even B&N has an online option. It’s probably where all their $5 books are if they still even exist. It feels like Barnes & Noble is on in the twilight of its operation. I don’t pretend to know what their financials are, but I can’t imagine they’re selling enough in the stores to stay viable. Maybe they’re killing it online, enough to save the stores. If so, it doesn’t make sense to keep the stores afloat. You’d think a handful of warehouses would work better.  

If you grew up in the 90’s you assumed the mega book stores would grind the small sellers into the ground and ruin their business. Nothing typifies this better than "You’ve Got Mail" with Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan. That movie pulled a clever trick on us. It pretended to side with the ‘mom & pop’ seller (Ryan) while actually softening the corporate view (Hanks). But the business dynamics turned out to be something different. Big stores did put small ones out, but also the internet and ecommerce happened. It opened the door for big stores to be dragged out to the pasture in the same way the mom & pops were.

 I’m partial to Barnes & Noble. I worked there one Christmas season for extra money. They bought a large space at the local mall and punched out a wall for access inside and out. We seemed to be marking down older titles constantly and filling every empty space with book displays. The busyness eventually waned when January came around, but it never needed a music section or a Pokémon rack.

Conclusion

But times change and companies do what they must. I’m reminded of a quote from a character in Hemingway’s bull fighting classic The Sun Also Rises.

“How’d you go bankrupt?”

“Two ways, gradually, then suddenly”

I imagine the “slowly” part of bankruptcy is what you see coming, fewer customers and similar competitors. The “suddenly” part is what you don’t see, eCommerce and e-readers. I hope people keep going to book stores but I wouldn’t blame them if they didn’t. Will we miss them when they’re gone?

I did eventually find that copy of A Moveable Feast in paperback. At nearly $20 bucks I thought better of it and walked away. I’m sure Amazon has a copy for less.

 

  

Fall Class on 1 Corinthians: Reflecting on Culture

 

Critical Thinking and Biblical Studies: Paul and the Corinthians

I’ve been reading 1 Corinthians for the last two weeks.

 I’ll continue to be in that book for ten more weeks. Every fall we have a chance to enroll in classes that cover books of the Bible. We read selected portions and answer questions. Usually it’s just one or two chapters. I’m familiar with 1 Corinthians, but not about the culture in that community in Greece. The deep dive into cultural attitudes of the people is probably the biggest thing I’m learning. It’s the historical part of the bible that doesn’t always come through in the reading. History and culture animates so much of the Scriptures that we often miss the full context of a verse.

Historical Foundations

I find history to be endlessly fascinating. Not everything needs a two hour documentary or a 700 page book, but context is critical. I watch documentaries to learn about some unknown part of the country, industry or person. Those sports docs always suck me in. ESPN did one called The Last Dance, highlighting Michael Jordan and the Bulls. Ostensible about the final championship season, it recapped the Jordan years since the Bulls drafted him from North Carolina in 1984. There was a lot of new footage of the team on road trips and during practice. Everyone loved it too. I’m sure it was one of their highest rated documentaries of the year. 

I’ve watched a lot of boring shows too.

I started one about the travel cruise industry and turned it off after 20 minutes. Despite the logistical miracle of running a cruise line, it was less exciting than watching the crew eat lunch together. This is a reference to a Gene Siskel metric about films. If you’d rather watch a documentary of the same actors in the movie having lunch, it’s too boring. There was a way make it fun, but they missed. Get a charismatic host next time and have them walk excitedly from room to room and drop nuggets of information. Instead, they used a narrator who sounded like he was reading a recipe for wheat bread. Not all history shows are created equal. I can see some people thinking the Bible is boring too. But with the right teacher, curriculum and context, it wouldn't be.

Cultural Foundations

I’m not the type you have to convince to read, but a lot of Christians are. My hope for those who don’t like to read, is that the culture of Greece during the Roman empire will spark curiosity. Anything that puts the letter of Paul into a helpful construct, makes us understand the scriptures a little more. It also shows us how these issues people dealt with (pride, sexual promiscuity, greed) are still present today. The world isn’t as different as we imagine. Human nature is sinful in any age. That’s important, or we might think our issues are those of a ‘sophisticated’ society.

Sophistication is where the theory of human evolution shows up in modern life. It posits the idea that we evolve to higher states of consciousness the same way we escape our primitive bodies. First we swam then we crawled. Now we walk upright, discard our silly ideas about a spirit world and seek utopia. The world is as corrupt as it was in the time of Christ. History helps us put our life and times into a larger context.

The opposite problem is that we see the scriptures only through the lens of the time in which they were written.

Philosophical Foundations

It goes, Paul’s warnings to the Corinthians were for those people at that time. We shouldn’t read too much into the relationship between their sins and ours. Sure, we can read his words and get a better sense of his instructions and scolding. But we have different ideas today about women in society and slavery. It's not a parallel reading.  

But leaning too heavily on history can contextualize the meaning away. The way to read the Bible is both in its time, and existing as a guide for today. The word of God existed in the past and present, it carries the same impact into the future.

America needs to bring back the importance of the Bible as a common book. What I mean by “common” is connected at all levels of society. Cultures need values that work across all levels. The Bible used to serve that purpose. Even non-religious people (in Anglo societies) realized the underpinning of the Bible on law, medicine and philosophy. George Bernard Shaw, socialist playwright, and G.K Chesterton argued different sides on much of the philosophy of their day. Both were raised in a British society where the Bible formed the basis of cultural learning. Shaw had to undercut belief in God in an established Christian society. He was a radical among the common classes.

Today, Chesterton would be the one arguing against the established humanism of the day. The schools are steeped in postmodern thought and churn out students with that worldview. This means science, medicine and law have been remade into something closer to the views of Shaw than Chesterton. This is in part, because we don’t study the Bible anymore. We’ve let the post modernists tell us that it can’t be rightly understood because of author bias. Once you’ve broken down the importance of scripture for social cohesion, it gets relegated to churches and parochial schools only. Then, in debates on ethics or education or scientific theory it gets treated like astrology, mysticism.

Conclusion

I think the world is ready for another renaissance. We need a new age of enlightenment, one that’s focused on the Light of the World. The twentieth century and the twenty first, have seen enough selfish philosophies to turn us inward for the rest of time. It’s time for critical thinking again. The apostle has something to say about it: “Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you seems to be wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, ‘He catches the wise in their own craftiness’ and again, ‘The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are futile’.” I Corinthians 3:18(NKJV)