Homeless Pigeons

I was walking past La Mirada Park's destruction zone yesterday, and I noticed in the parking lot there were a pair of Band-tailed Pigeons atop a light pole. I've never seen that before.

Today as I passed the park, they were sitting on the traffic signals by the fire station. I've never seen that before, either.

What's the source of their relocation?

They're refugees. They're not alone, either. I saw dozens of bluebirds today, also. The trees they nested in are all gone, leaving a bare and scarred collection of hills. Rather, the trees are all there, they've just been moved into a big pile. I think I caught a hint of sulfur and rotting, too. Saruman?

No. Just the orcs in La Mirada's city council.

Why Getting Married Is Just Plain Better Than Shacking Up

Tomorrow some good friends, Jeffrey and Wendy, are getting married. Weddings have always made me happy, but I think I like them even more after getting married myself. I remember the weeks leading up to the big day. It's exciting; it's fun. Sometimes it's hard; it seems like it'll never actually happen. But it's romantic. You're waiting together. You're counting down the evenings until you can say goodnight without saying good-bye. And the feast is so much better because of the fast that's been leading up to it.

I just can't get excited about some weddings, though. I recently heard about a girl whom I haven't seen since high school. Apparently, she's been living with her boyfriend for a while and they just got engaged. I really can't get very excited about that, for a couple of reasons. First, there's the morality issue, but I want to put that aside. There's something else: it's just not as romantic. They're really missing out! Their engagement period will not--cannot--be the same exciting time of anticipation. Afterall, what exactly is going to change after the wedding? They've already been enjoying the benefits of marriage, without the committment.

But to Jeffrey and Wendy I say: way to go. You've waited a long time, and it's worth the wait. You make me smile. I hope your marriage is full of love and laughter. And I know God will bless you as you continue to seek Him.

Flickr Updated

I put up our pictures from Mammoth onto our Flickr account. Or, at least, I put up as many as I could. Check out the Mammoth set.

We had a lot of fun on our trip. We got to see a lot of family. Bill, Becca, Grandma and Grandpa Rowley were all staying at the cabin with us. Also, we made a couple of trips over to Willow Springs to see Grandma Brown. It was good times.

Helpful

This article does a good job of casting light on the debate raging regarding homosexual marriage: it's not always about hate. It is about preserving something valued.

Richard Thompson Ford is the author of Hate and Marriage, published in Slate Magazine.

Happenings

Two weeks ago, Libby and I put up a hummingbird feeder in our backyard. It was a gracious gift from my parents, and we definitely appreciate it very much. Libby and I put it on the window by our dining room table, so that we can watch them while we eat. It took them about 24 hours to find it, but it seems that it's become a regular fixture in their life.

This weekend, things have gotten really shooken up in hummingbird land, though. A pair of Allen's hummingbirds (apparently migrating South for the winter - I've read they begin to do so slowly during the early summer)have set up a territory that includes the feeder, automatically excluding our more persistant companions of two weeks - three companionable Anna's hummingbirds.

It's fascinating because the Anna's don't have a dominant male. They were all cooperating pretty well, taking turns at the fountain (not that they ever drank simultaneously). The Allens' won't have anybody even in our backyard. They've taken up residence on the avocado tree and chase the others if they even come into our backyard at all. It's almost sad because there's more than enough for all of them.

We've also put up a thistle sack feeder to attract goldfinches, but no luck so far.

Oh, and we've got a little house sparrow chirping just outside our backdoor. It's only got a fuzzy covering of dark brown feathers and is basically a very ugly little tyke. I took a couple of pictures, and I may post them here.

It's nice to have a backyard.

If we lived in North Carolina...

...maybe we'd buy this house. And then we'd have to have a bunch of kids to fill it up; it's huge!

Happy Birthday!

Today is Libby's birthday!

Many happy returns!

Idyllwild

Last weekend Eric came out from Illinois, so a group of guys and I went up to Idyllwild for a couple of days. It was an interesting trip, involving unfortunate (and unwarranted) conflicts with law enforcment, a good hike, and some good time talking and laughing around a fire. Oh, and thank God that high elevation lowers the temperature!

I've posted some of the pictures I took on my Flickr account. You can check it out here.

Nostalgic Aches

The world's natural beauty is very powerfully effective, I believe, on a soul receptive to its influence. Such a receptiveness is generally a habitual turn towards beauty somehow achieved in childhod - not that it could not come later in life. I believe that my upbringing has been such as to produce within my own soul a certain aptitude towards the receipt of certain manners of worldly splendor perhaps surpassing other men's. In my case, the education has all been familial, and through the repitious enjoyment of the same sets of alpine beauty again and again under the guidance and from within the sphere of my family, I have come to love the Sierra Nevada with a love I think rightly in accord with its merits. It is there I am most truly at home - though I cannot express exactly in what sense I feel so strongly that I am home. It is not the sense that I feel at home with my wife, in our house. The feeling is different, and I am not sure how. I believe the Romantics are tapping into this feeling (the Lake District of England being for them my Sierras). Therefore I refer the reader to the words of William Wordsworth, who expresses so much more excellently than me, this very feeling in the opening of his Prelude.

OH there is blessing in this gentle breeze,
A visitant that while it fans my cheek
Doth seem half-conscious of the joy it brings
From the green fields, and from yon azure sky.
Whate'er its mission, the soft breeze can come
To none more grateful than to me; escaped
From the vast city, where I long had pined
A discontented sojourner: now free,
Free as a bird to settle where I will.
What dwelling shall receive me? in what vale 10
Shall be my harbour? underneath what grove
Shall I take up my home? and what clear stream
Shall with its murmur lull me into rest?
The earth is all before me.

In all of my senses of enjoyment encompassed by the Sierras, this feeling of release now is coming to predominate. But, as a child, it was of course, never the most powerful influence. I think the pleasure is the sweeter, thereby, for the splendor of the beauty of the world is the more sweetly and unknowingly enjoyed by a child because of his relative freedom of situation.

As with anything loved which is separated from us by space or time, any small reminder may bring crashing into one's mind a thousand pleasant memories and thoughts - pleasant and joyous in themselves - but pained by the coloring of nostalgia that necessarily arises (as bile at a distasteful scene) when the fact of its distance impresses itself powerfully and fully upon us. Such has been my lot today, when I found a stranger's Flickr account, completely by chance, on the internet. There are many beautiful photographs in the link I am putting below filled with pictures of places that I have been, or would visit, portrayed in all of their most spectacular glory. Therefore, I recommend them to you all.

A Stranger's Flickr Account

I spent two nights at Pioneer Basin on a backpack trip, once. Mono Lake I have seen innumerable times, and it is special because of how close it is to where I proposed, as well. I've never been over Pine Creek Pass, but the lakes he shows are typical of the kind of lake ornamenting the craggy back country of the High Sierra.

I also recommend to you this other Wordsworth poem - Daffodils. It comments on the restorative power of memory as an intercessor between us and the object of our love.

The Daffodils
By William Wordsworth

I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o’er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:
I gazed–and gazed–but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.

I think he may overstate memory's power, personally, but he has immortalized forever a powerful truth - one that we may all use to our advantage.

Superman Movies

Are you interested in Superman?

Try Jesus.

Last Wednesday evening, Libby and I went and saw the new Superman movie. That Friday, urged to super speed by an impending power outage, we ducked into the Biola library and picked up Superman: The Movie and Superman II for our weekend enjoyment.

I liked Superman Returns and Superman II the best of the three. Superman I's plot didn't feel cohesive or compelling. It also seemed to bite off far too much for one movie. Not only does Kal-El forewarn Krypton of its coming peril, and sentence some of its citizens to eternal torment, Superman comes to earth and grows up in Smallville, he has to save California from falling off the face of the earth and fall in love with/ inspire love in Lois Lane. That would be an accomplishment for any superhero, even the mightiest, and it turns out Superman has to make the world spin backwards to do it (that makes time go backwards?).

I'm still not sure whether or not I like Superman II or Superman Returns best of the three that we viewed this weekend. Superman II was pretty exciting, and the characterization was pretty great. Superman Returns uses computer graphics to have Superman do some pretty breathtakingly awesome things. There are some goose-bump raising "Oh man!" moments in that movie, for certain. Oh yeah, I also liked the plot.

Ok, now back to my main point - how Jesus is better than Superman. Superman Returns gains interest from its compelling questioning. Superman leaves Metropolis (and earth) for five years to see his home planet of Krypton. I'm not sure how he got there, but he came back in a pointy meteorite/ Kryptonian space ship, same as before. In the meantime, Lois Lane writes a Pulitzer Prize winning piece entitled "Why the World Doesn't Need Superman." This is how she deals with the loss of the love of her life. Superman has to answer that question for all of us - why do we need a savior? Why can't we just take care of ourselves?

Throughout the movie (and the previous movies) Superman is parralleled explicitly to Jesus. He begins his ministry at the age of 30 in the first movie. His father sends him to earth to be a light in the darkness (Brando's voice is recycled in the new flick). Though Luthor's evil envelops him, the darkness does not overwhelm him. Superman Returns features Superman falling away from a meteorite - his arms spread in a cruciform pattern.

So, the question of "Why do we need a savior?" is tied into the very question that Christians are having to answer for the world all the time.

Singer, the director of the new movie, seems to answer it this way: we are all weak, and we need the help of others to overcome our own inadequacies. Where one is weak, another may be strong, and this will hold the whole system together in an ever progressing goodness. Superman himself needs help during the movie from mere mortals.

This is all a load of huey - because whatever flaw humanity has, we all seem to have our share in it (though unequal). Jesus does not. Therefore, our relationship to Jesus must be wholly and completely one sided. Whatever we bring to him he does not need, though it does not follow it would not please him.

Therefore, Jesus is more super than Superman - even though his physical body was as weak as ours.

Update

Well, life has been pretty busy for us in Rowley world.

This weekend we moved! We now share a house with Adam and Jessica Snell and their two children: Brigid and Sam. They have a blog if you're interested: adamjess.blogspot.com.

Generally those I've told of this plan thus far have expressed amazment. Here's why we would make this kind of move.

1) Apt. 92, Summerwood, was too small to live in for very long. We were there for 7 months together, and I lived there for about 10 months in all. It was slowly being crammed more and more full of things. We were always planning on moving this summer, as it was when it would stress Libby the least.

2) We preferred to live close enough to Biola to not need a car. I am now walking to work, saving on gas, insurance, and maintenance for a second vehicle - ours broke down in March and we are not replacing it, yet.

3) The house is very well suited for two families. It is split in the middle by the kitchen. The bedrooms are on opposite sides of the house. There is privacy if you want it!

4) We've thought living in a house would be nice. We like the yard and the neighborhood. We go for walks at night, now. It's amazing. House rent is too much, however, unless we share (this being Southern California).

5) Honestly, Libby and I are antisocial enough to feel that this kind of move would be a positive experience. It is going to force us into a situation where we must love our neighbors, daily. It's been a consistent prayer that we do so well, and I pray God also gives us such grace in the loving that we grow much closer to him because of it.

There are a few of the positive reasons that we reviewed before moving into the house. We are loving it so far! It's such a delight to sit out in the cool backyard as the (two) stars twinkle above and talk. It reminds us of when we were dating, and I lived in a house. We loved going for walks, reading and talking in the backyard. It's great to be able to do that, again!

The house is still full of boxes, however. We're working our way through those, slowly, and getting settled.

So far, I've seen lots of birds in the backyard, too!

Northern Mockingbird
House Sparrow
House Finch
Lesser Goldfinch (flyover)
Great-Tailed Grackle (flyover)
Accipiter species (?)
American Crow
Allen's Hummingbird
Anna's Hummingbird

That's in three short days. I expect to see band-tailed pigeons, Western Bluebirds (we saw some in the yard across the street when we visited the house), Black Pheobes, and Mourning Doves, at least. There may be orioles occasionally, too. There's a park really nearby that has lots of birds in it. Although that park is going to be turned into a water park this year. There won't be quite so many birds, then.

This Is My Father's World

"This is my Father's world,
O let me ne'er forget
that though the wrong seems oft so strong,
God is the ruler yet.
This is my Father's world:
the battle is not done,
Jesus, who died, shall be satisfied,
and earth and heaven be one."

And the Church is my Father's as well. He is not caught off-guard by recent decisions. He remains the Ruler of all. May He have mercy.

These two sites are good for keeping updated on the situation.

The End of Marriage?

Here's an article from the Weekly Standard regarding the coming polygamist controversy that will soon enter our courts (right after the gay marriage controversy is resolved).

I highly recommend it:

Polygamy Versus Democracy

Mrs. Rowley: 5th Grade Teacher

Thanks for your prayers: the job search is ended, and it wasn't even that painful. It actually all happened really quickly. My application for Calvary Christian School in Santa Ana went out in the mail on Monday, they reviewed it on Tuesday, interviewed me on Wednesday, and had me come teach a lesson on Thursday (today) so that they could observe me. And then they offered me the job! So, come September, I'll be teaching 5th grade!

*whew*

I Guess I Should Say Something

It's been an awful long time since I've posted on here. That's because I've been so busy student teaching. But not anymore! You can pray that I get a teaching job for the fall.

That's all.

Strauss Explained

My University experience was largely dominated by a program that was founded by an academic whose vocational pedigree is descended from Leo Strauss. The founder of the Torrey Honors Institute was taught by someone who was taught by Strauss. Strauss is not a mandated reading, however, in any of our standard curriculum. He is only used as a secondary source in highly specialized Plato classes. I never took one of those classes (the beauty of the medieval synthesis drawing me into other areas of study), so I have never read a book by Strauss.

Nevertheless, the description by this article - The Demonization of Strauss from the New York Sun - strikes me as likely correct. This is because my honor's program's main goal was to teach us to read and think critically: the methods described in this article as Strauss's methods were methods that I learned in that program. In short, the shoe fits.

Therefore, though I am generally skeptical when someone throws out the term "anti-semitic" within an intellectual debate, I feel that this article provides some warrant to that accusation. The accusations directed in Strauss' (and his descendant's) direction really do seem blindly hateful.

New Sidebar Link

I added a birding section and a link to Rare Birds.com over on the side bar. Rare birds is pretty neat, it integrates a whole bunch (all?) of the Rare Bird listings on the internet with Google maps. And then it organizes it on the home page in a few creative ways. It lists most common rare birds, and new rare species. I keep track of the new species just in case something really cool pops up somewhere.

Common rare birds: that's funny.

It also has a feature users can use to post their own sightings, and to pin point that sighting exactly on the map. That's neat, but it's not edited at any level (that I can tell) and so the only Southern California posting someone's made is of the quite common Townsend's warbler. Nonetheless, there's a lot of potential there.

Interesting

Did you know that the most popular de-bunking site for the Da Vinci Code is run by Sony Pictures? Read about their marketing here. I'm not sure what to make of it.

Craig Detweiler, a professor at Biola, is quoted in it. He has been published on the website, saying something fairly questionable about why Catholics are more offended than Protestants by the book's ideas (woman priesthood).

My opinion would be this: it is unfortunate that the Church is being used as an instrument against its true purpose. The Church exists to glorify God, not to make money for Sony.

I suppose the other side of the argument would be that it is the other way around, Sony is being used to bring glory to God despite itself. Ultimately, however, I think that the world would be better off without Dan Brown's book and (thus by extension) this movie. From what I've heard, the book's quality is beneath recommendation on a literary level, and its historical accuracy is certainly not well researched. What value is left?

My Hero: Josh Allan

Written May 12, 2006.

One of my good friends from high school is Josh Allan. He was in my small accountability group from Church and we spent a lot of the best times of my adolescence together. I will never forget leaving appliances on the lawns of friends and pastors, intense four player Nintendo hockey games at his home, or speeding away from the scene of a particular "crime" late at night.

After September 11, (now so long ago!) Josh went on to join the Navy. He was driven by his conviction to respond against that terrible evil.

This November, Josh was shipped out to the Middle East. He was married on the Tuesday after the day of my own nuptual bliss, and left very soon after. Today he came back after 5 and a half months away to see his wife again. His face registered an incredible tranforming happiness as he embraced her.

I couldn't help but smile myself at this reunion. This was bliss well earned; happiness fully deserved. When a man has put his nation's well being so far beyond his own domestic happiness and health, thus demonstrating such a fullness of character and principle, may his own happiness come in degrees and fulnesses heightened by a proportionate degree!

Josh is a somber reminder to me that there are many young men and women out in the deserts of Arabia fighting for our freedom against an implacable foe. Yet, he is also an inspiration to take up our cross daily, and follow Christ in our own battles against a hidden enemy. Josh, thank you for your sacrifice and love.

Josh is not the only person, however, deserving of thanks. His wife, April, has been without him for the great majority of their marriage. This sacrifice is equally moving. Not only has April given up her husband for our and our nation's sake, she demonstrated a further selfless spirit in organizing a large gathering to greet Josh as he came home for this short leave. Though undoubtedly desparate of time alone with her husband, she thought only of his happiness and honor in planning his home coming. She succeeded completely. So, thanks to you also, April. Your heroism does not go unnoticed.

You both are inspirations to us all. No words that I can write can ever express this fact fully, but how can I not try? It's the least I can do, and nowhere near what you deserve.

Emma

I've downed the last of the Jane Austen novels in our possession. I was fortunate to marry a woman with three of the novels, and I'll wait to finish the next three.

None of the novels is a copy of the others: all three has unique flavors and gifts. Emma, however, strikes me as the most peculiar. This comes from many different considerations: Emma is the most deeply flawed of the female protagonists, and Mr. Knightley is the saintliest of the male. Emma also takes up the largest portion of the spotlight of any of the protagonists. It is undoubtedly a book about her.

Also, the title is the only one of Austen's novels to contain a person's name. And this name is not their formal title, but it is her personal name. I find this to be significant on the social level of the novel. It is introducing the character to us on intimate terms, and carries through on this promise by revealing to us all of her flaws. If I were to ever meet Miss Woodhouse in person, I think that I would not be privileged to speak to her as Emma; taking such a liberty would reduce me to the simpering quality of Mrs. Elton (ugh! Though I think Mrs. Elton has some important lessons for Emma, if she should but listen). How curious that Austen introduces us at this level: what is she saying class? What about the reader and the text?

Another broad thought is that this is a book all about the self-destruction of one woman (at least in regarding certain elements of her domestic happiness) through unrestrained vice, and her salvation through the unconditional - yet entirely reasonable - love of one man. If Mr. Knightley didn't step in and marry Emma, she would have been reduced, by her own decisions, to a fairly lonely life (as she considers near the end of the novel). Is Austen preaching here? What are Emma's flaws, and what is her cure?

There's also, as in all of Austen's novels that I've thus read, consideration of epistemic difficulties. Why is Emma always (practically, anyway) wrong? She's certainly the cleverest wrong person that I've met, but her vision is clouded by her character's flaws. Why can Mr. Knightley perceive so much more clearly? Austen, I think, makes it fairly clear to the reader the actual case of Emma's deceptions long before she herself realizes her errors. This is a source of tension that drives the novel's action. I take this to mean that the questions are important.

Another question that occurred to me is this: what is the difference between Mr. Knightley's condescension to marry Emma and Emma's condescension to be friends with Miss Harriet Smith. One of these is a grave mistake: the other is a source of joy. Is this merely a consideration of class? Or does it take into account the actual accomplished characters of the actors? What sort of moral guidance can we gain from it today?

There: I've prepared the beginning of some discussion. Perhaps someone whose read it will chime in?