About Me - Part Two

In my last post, I recounted my memories of verifiable history, and thus most certainly are true.  That is what I consider knowledge.  It takes no faith to accept such things.  That is where faith and "science" diverge.  As I mentioned in the last paragraph of that post that my brother and I both went to Seminary. Though I can blame my circumstances and/or myself for my life track after getting a Theological education, the fact is that track is a matter of faith.  I found that I had let my mind (or "feelings") interpret what was not of faith.

During my days in grad school (aka seminary) I met my wife, a "graduate assistant" working toward a degree in medical missions.  Her being a registered nurse turned out to be the bedrock upon which our family was built.  My Masters of Divinity degree was not enough for me to "get a job" in the ministry.  In truth, that process is an act of faith.  After three years as a candidate, preaching at various churches but not ministering as an intern (the best way to get experience!), I "got the message" and sought regular "secular" employment.

While I was seeking a church in which to serve, I worked as a Nursing Assistant at the Nursing Home where my wife worked. She was the lead nurse on second shift and I was on third shift.  Shift change was accomplished by my bundling the three children together and putting them in the back seat of the station wagon and driving to the nursing home.  My wife would come out and I would go into work.  She would pick me up in the morning.  It was a wild three years in which I was granted permission to have Sundays off to go preaching at area churches.  Sometimes, though, I had to work AND preach after zero sleep!

By the time our fourth child was born, I was working temporary jobs looking for work. We finally decided that my best course of action was to get another degree.  This time, it would be in accounting -- based on the fact that I was an Ace math student in High School.  I made it my "full time job" for a full year, getting an Associate of Science degree in accounting at a local Technical College.  Even with the College's help, I was not able to turn that degree into a job.  It turned out that I could not afford to go ahead to a Bachelor's degree, so I sought other work.

I had worked as a security guard while in grad school, so I took another look at the field.  That led to my "career" in the field -- eleven years with one company and nine with another. The first job had started out with third shift and moved through second shift to some first shift work -- and back again.  As assignments moved to part time, I worked part-time as a pizza delivery driver. Drivers actually worked in the kitchen between deliveries, so I learned a bit about the restaurant business that way.  My second son has ended up in the service industry so I have a bond of sorts with him on that. My third son followed my interest in math and now works in a financial services company.  It was during this period that we bought a house.

Based on a painted brick at the crawl space space, the house was built in 1962, making it 55 years old.  It has a large oak tree in the back yard with what appear to be "daughter" trees growing in the fence to the lot next door.  The lot has two entrances, with the corner lot being taken up with another house.  We once had a mailbox to our "neighbors" across the back street.  Oddly, that mailbox was "fire bombed" one night.  I say that because I saw the wooden box burning one morning as I left the house!  Our neighborhood is "mixed" with a historical mansion restored to its 19th century dimensions diagonally across from us.  It had been a plantation home when the rest of the area was the plantation!  Meanwhile, down the street are trailer parks.

My wife's work moved from pediatrics while in school to hospice nursing at the preset time.  She has worked in two hospital systems, a doctors office and finally in hospice care -- in home care of up to fifteen patients.  She puts a lot of miles on her vehicle.  She has served in the church as a Sunday school teacher for most of the last 35 years (currently on hiatus, maybe "retired"?).  Whereas my service was a deacon is lackluster (currently not active), her service has been extraordinary.

We have traveled through much of the eastern United States, from the edge of Texas to Missouri to Massachusetts. We hope to see the rest of New England together this coming fall. She grew up there, though I don't think she has been to Maine.  Our recent journeys have been to the "high points" of the entire Southeast (Dixie) from Louisiana to Virginia, the "boarder states" of Missouri, Kentucky and Maryland, and the northern states from Illinois to Pennsylvania.  We slid took a side trip into Texas just to say we've seen the state.

We can say we are "world travelers," since we have both been to Canada (Alaskan cruise for our 25th anniversary courtesy of my brother) and Peru (together once, I've been several times).  Additionally, my wife has been to England and Wales.  Both Peru and Wales were missions trips. Back before my passport expired, my brother and I took a road trip with our mother to Alaska.  On that trip we took the entire Can-Am Highway (gravel and dirt and in perpetual repair due to the extremes in weather!).  I can add Denali (formerly "Mount McKinley") to my "high points" visited, though not climbed!

On our anniversary trip (concurrently my parents' fiftieth) to Alaska, we visited Mount Saint Helens, and saw Mount Rainier from the highway going to and from Seattle.  I suppose, since we cannot, at our age, climb the snow capped mountains, we can probably add Washington to our list of high points that we have visited.  However, hopefully we can take a special trip in our retirement to visit the West coast, Alaska and Hawaii!  That is a dream trip, but one can hope.

After I lost my last job, I searched for a few years without any full time work found, so, when I turned 62, I took "early retirement." The social security check is a bit more than our house payment, so the account that held my employment (and unemployment) checks which paid "housing expenses" doesn't do much else.  I have learned that a self-published book does not sell very well.  Friends and acquaintances don't seem to want to spend even $5 on an eBook copy of a $10 paperback version.  And forget selling the hardcover at $20. By the way, those prices are "bargain basement" and may be my problem there.  Margin matters, and profit motive cannot make a beginning writer a living.

Well, there are a lot of other memories, but those of these two posts just are the high points of my life.  I can write about the specifics in later posts here and at my other blog (https://upstatethoughts.blogspot.com/).  Alternately, any readers can leave a message and I can provide more information.  I hope you have enjoyed this overview of 'What I know' about my own life.

Why? Progressing towards Wisdom

As mentioned in my last post, the "why" of any particular thing is not as clear as the "how." But alas, the questioning of existence is what philosophy is built upon.  A "scientist" can find the "how" and get to know the facts, but a philosopher can search for a lifetime and die in his ignorance.

Sometimes, though, scientists can make logical assumptions and come up with the most probable reason for a phenomenon.  It has been assumed that people have taste receptors for "sweetness" for the collection of sugars to get the energy their body needs to operate.  Likewise, it is assumed we have "salty" taste buds to detect the sodium needed for a proper electrolyte balance in our blood.  "Bitter" and "sour" tastes can be assumed to tell our ancient ancestors whether food was ripened or rotten.  These are not things we can "know" with certainty, but they do make sense to most of us.

The old "survival of the fittest" dogma perpetuates the assumptions upon which much of modern science is based.  This can be applied to plants that are usually "bitter" to the taste.  They contain chemicals that are fatal to insects--and often to larger lifeforms.  Any attempt to eat the leaves or fruit is unpleasant to those foraging for food.  If the warning from the taste is ignored, the offender might even die, assuring that other of the species sought for food will not be so assaulted.

Cause and affect often works out in such a way that the reason becomes apparent retrospectively.  This is where "knowledge" leads to wisdom.  The more we know, the better we are able to discern the reason things happen.  Once we discern the correlations, we can avoid mistakes that may alter our lives so as to provide a better quality of life.  Among scientists, experimentation is based on making assumptions and then testing cause and effect to verify them.

We may never know the ultimate reason behind the way things are, but the more we try to find out, the more discerning we can become.  As we become smarter, it is hoped that we can become wiser.  However, there are no guarantees.

So What Do I Know?

I don't know as much as I wish I did.

Probability can only get you close to Reason.

I can never know enough; and I doubt anyone can.

A New Blog?

I sit in my office -- well, in a corner of the dining room -- and wonder how much of what passes as "knowledge" is even verifiable.  It is not that I'm a skeptic, for I relish my faith in the unseen reality all around me, but I also have writer's block

One of the primary rules for writing is "write about what you know."  And so, I lay aside my other long neglected blogs to start a fresh one.  From this point on, I will write about what I know, not what I think.

Well, at least in this blog.

In the coming months I will start with the most obvious things and branch out.  First, since I am what some call a "Math Guy," I will begin with the "purest" of the sciences: Math!

So, I hope this gets someone's attention.  If not, it will break that writer's block to bits!