The Joy of A Cancelled Class

I wish I had something really profound to offer, but I've been giving you a lot of theological stuff lately...so here's a little "fun" economics. Don't plagiarize it:

The Joy of A Cancelled Class
By Lindsey S.
Last quarter one of my classes was cancelled, and a fellow classmate was so excited that she shouted loud enough for the whole hallway of classrooms to hear her. It hadn’t occurred to me before then to ask why students including myself, would be so excited that class was cancelled. I think there are several reasons because students vary in the purpose and goals they perceive for their higher education. First, and most obvious, is that there may be other activities such as work or sleep that are sacrificed to attend class, which adds to the cost of attending class. By not having to attend a class, they can now put their time and energy into activities they will get greater benefit from.
So why wouldn’t they just cut class? Cutting class has added costs not present when class is cancelled. For example, cutting class has the added stigma of guilt associated with missing information and possible assignments. Also, if parents find out that their college student is cutting class, they might punish their child by taking away privileges and funds. For example, they might take away use of their car or give their child less money each month for fun activities such as going out to movies. The information and assignments missed also have an added cost because they will have to be made up. Sometimes this will mean extra work because the student doesn’t have help from the professor or classmates. If the coursework missed is never made up it usually results in a lower grade on a test or in the class overall. When a class is cancelled, coursework is postponed or dropped from the syllabus entirely since the professor is not there to present it to anyone.
Another explanation for why students are happy when they have a class cancellation is that they have a different perception of the goal and purpose of their education. Some students may see a college diploma and the chance to earn more money because of their diploma as the true goal, purpose, and product of their education. They will be happy to have less work to do in order to achieve the same outcome of receiving a diploma and potentially higher income after graduation. I think these students might be more likely than other students to cut class.
However, these students would still prefer a cancellation as opposed to cutting class because they face a greater risk of not doing as well in that class and potentially not attaining the highest possible paying job after graduation if they skip out on attending class. This is due to the fact that cutting class means missing coursework that other classmates in attendance have not missed. These students also face the added costs to cutting class of parental punishment described above. Ultimately, it’s less costly to the student if class is cancelled than if they cut class regardless of what factors contribute to increasing their happiness when a class session is not attended.

P.S. I have to give a shout out to Pete and Mandy for proofing this for me before I turned it in.

Sunday, February 24, 2008

Flippin the Switch via Email

I received this email and it made me think:

BANK ACCOUNT

A 92-year-old, petite, well-poised and proud man, who is fully dressed
each morning by eight o'clock, with his hair fashionably coifed and
shaved perfectly, even though he is legally blind, moved to a nursing
home today. His wife of 70 years recently passed away, making the move
necessary. After many hours of waiting patiently in the l obby of the
nursing home, he smiled sweetly when told his room was ready.

As he maneuvered his walker to the elevator, I provided a visual
description of his tiny room, including the eyelet sheets that had been
hung on his window.

"I love it," he stated with the enthusiasm of an eight-year-old having
just been presented with a new puppy.

"Mr. Jones, you haven't seen the room; just wait."

"That doesn't have anything to do with it," he replied.

"Happiness is something you decide on ahead of time. Whether I like my
room or not doesn't depend on how the furniture is arranged ... it's
how I arrange my mind. I already decided to love it. "It's a decision I
make every morning when I wake up. I have a choice; I can spend the day
in bed recounting the difficulty I have with the parts of my body that
no longer work, or get out of bed and be thankful for the ones that do.


What struck me about this email wasn't the message of changing your perspective. No, what struck me was that this is exactly what our faith can do for us! The Gift of Knowledge is about seeing things from God's perspective...flipping the switch in our view on life. You begin to see how grateful you can and should be for all of the blessings it's so easy to overlook. This is a great email, but I hope we can give credit to who is truly responsible for being able to have the right kind of perspective: God.

Sunday, February 17, 2008

The Beauty of God's Love in Death

Sacramental Theology has a lot to do with experience...experiencing God through experiencing ritual. Scripture is sacramental in the experiential revelation of God. This is kind of a vague and ambiguous way of leading into the real theological thought I wanted to present for your (insert blank here - i.e. enjoyment, sorrow, waste of time, etc).

God's love and the experience of what God's love entails. It can be such a difficult thing to truly understand and have a sense of. Why? You can't quantify God's love. You can't grasp that which is infinite. Yet, to know God's love and to therefore be able to translate it into loving others as God loves them requires at least an indescribable understanding of God's love, if we can't rationally communicate an iota of the magnitude through verbalization (which we can't).

So we have to look towards scripture (which is sacramental) and experience (which mediates God's revelation to us and therefore can be sacramental in the most original sense of the meaning of sacramentum). I'm going to present them in that order because it appeals to logic better, but the reality of my thought process actually worked from experience to scripture.

St. Paul writes in Philipians about being poured out as a libation. Now the NAB notes that this refers to the sacrificial spilling of liquid mentioned countless times in the Old Testament. There's a sacrificial pouring out which St. Paul relates to his own possible impending death, basically. Where does he get that? Well, Jesus in the Last Supper tells His disciples (and us) that the wine, the libation, is His blood and will be shed/poured out for us. So obviously this shows just how profound of an experience the Eucharist and receiving the Eucharist can be in experiencing the pouring out of God's love.

This also indicates that death relates to the pouring out of God's love - the sacrifice. Even if death isn't sacrificial (in the sense of giving your life for someone or something), there is a pouring out of your soul, an emptying of the human body. How beautifully analogous to Christ's own death on the cross and this notion of being poured out as a libation. I think then, that anyone who has been touched by a profoundly close death or especially witnessed someone die has had such a powerfully mediated experience of God's love being poured out.

Thursday, February 14, 2008

A Reflection on Swearing

A reflection on swearing...

First off, I need to get this off my chest: A bitch is a bad thing, not a good thing you want to be calling your friends. If your friends are bitches, they're not very good friends. Anyone can be a bitch - they're self-centered, mean, have no concept of empathy, could care less about anything but themselves or what they want to get out of situations. The harder path in life is to not be a bitch, to try and think of others first, to care about what happens to others, to not respond with the first mean or negative thought that comes to mind, to be forgiving rather than lashing out at people, to be patient and humble.

So you shouldn't call people bitches if they aren't bitches. And if you're not a bitch, you should try to not call anyone bitches, even the ones that act like it because you should try to be forgiving. Thus, we've eliminated the need to use "bitch" pretty much anytime.

Second, the F word is used to a) tell someone off, b) as a vulgar way of indicating sex which is a beautiful, not vulgar thing, or c) as an expletive used in anger. As indicated above, if we're trying to be good, moral, forgiving people, we should try to not tell people off or respond with uncontrolled anger. And, as explained a sentence ago, sex is a beautiful gift, not some object to be used and abused so the F word doesn't apply to it either.

Third, Ass is a donkey. If you're referring to a donkey, just use donkey...it sounds more polite. If you're not referring to a donkey, it really is rude to refer parts of the body with that word and then to refer to people with that word. You sound crass and uneducated when you use that word. You make the butt into a bad thing because you call frustrating/dumb/upsetting people that word which makes it bad - and I don't know about you, but life wouldn't be very comfortable with out a butt - so just don't use it.

Fourth, the S word is another word that's just vulgar. It's unnecessary. Crap isn't much better, but it will suffice if you have to refer to something bad as bodily excrement. Also, you do give a s**t, you're human, all humans poop. Don't use the word like that. You don't care is what you really mean to say. And, don't be lazy, articulate the s**t that you have to do or don't want to do or whatever it is you're referring to when you use the word.

Fifth, Hell is a place you don't want to go and remember, we're trying to be nice, moral, loving, forgiving people....If you believe in Hell, it's not a good place, like seriously...so, we really wouldn't wish anyone to go there. If you don't believe hell is a real place, then you're using an imaginary word. You might as well wish people to go to Azkaban for all they care. In fact, it'd probably be a more meaningful word choice if that were the case.

Lastly, all of the other "bad words" not mentioned are not mentioned because they're just gross. End of story.

"If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not keep a tight rein on his tongue, he deceives himself and his religion is worthless." - James 1:26

"But I tell you that men will have to give account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken. For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned." - Matthew 12:36-37

Sunday, February 10, 2008

Psalm 31

Psalm 31 - NIV

In you, O LORD, I have taken refuge;
let me never be put to shame;
deliver me in your righteousness.

Turn your ear to me,
come quickly to my rescue;
be my rock of refuge,
a strong fortress to save me.

Since you are my rock and my fortress,
for the sake of your name lead and guide me.

Free me from the trap that is set for me,
for you are my refuge.

Into your hands I commit my spirit;
redeem me, O LORD, the God of truth.

I hate those who cling to worthless idols;
I trust in the LORD.

I will be glad and rejoice in your love,
for you saw my affliction
and knew the anguish of my soul.

You have not handed me over to the enemy
but have set my feet in a spacious place.

Be merciful to me, O LORD, for I am in distress;
my eyes grow weak with sorrow,
my soul and my body with grief.

My life is consumed by anguish
and my years by groaning;
my strength fails because of my affliction,
and my bones grow weak.

Because of all my enemies,
I am the utter contempt of my neighbors;
I am a dread to my friends—
those who see me on the street flee from me.

I am forgotten by them as though I were dead;
I have become like broken pottery.

For I hear the slander of many;
there is terror on every side;
they conspire against me
and plot to take my life.

But I trust in you, O LORD;
I say, "You are my God."

My times are in your hands;
deliver me from my enemies
and from those who pursue me.

Let your face shine on your servant;
save me in your unfailing love.

Let me not be put to shame, O LORD,
for I have cried out to you;
but let the wicked be put to shame
and lie silent in the grave.

Let their lying lips be silenced,
for with pride and contempt
they speak arrogantly against the righteous.

How great is your goodness,
which you have stored up for those who fear you,
which you bestow in the sight of men
on those who take refuge in you.

In the shelter of your presence you hide them
from the intrigues of men;
in your dwelling you keep them safe
from accusing tongues.

Praise be to the LORD,
for he showed his wonderful love to me
when I was in a besieged city.

In my alarm I said,
"I am cut off from your sight!"
Yet you heard my cry for mercy
when I called to you for help.

Love the LORD, all his saints!
The LORD preserves the faithful,
but the proud he pays back in full.

Be strong and take heart,
all you who hope in the LORD.

Thursday, February 7, 2008

Anti-Religiosity and Chronocentrism

As I'm reading for my "Genesis Debates: Science vs. Religion" scripture class, I started thinking about back in the day and what other people's perceptions of religion, Church, and faith were like. I mean, we can look back on these amazing people within the Church like Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, Theresa of Avila, Claire of Assisi, and on and on. We can see them and their contributions to our understanding of the mystery of God as a stepping stone to our current understanding, as revolutionary for their time (and still in our time sometimes), or as archaic and misguided philosophies.

As I was thinking of these several different ways people view the Church and the prominent people in her past, I wondered if people, common folk like you and me, had these similar reactions as well? What exactly did people do and think when they heard the ideas and arguments in Summa Theologica? I'm not referring to scholarly reactions or homiletic integration, I'm talking about the illiterate, just living their lives as best as possible kind of people. I kind of think there was a mixed reaction similar to today, however I think what distinguishes now is that we have the ashen-colored glasses of hindsight that contribute to the vehemency with which people hasten to judge past ideas.

Rather than denigrating the Church and criticizing her because of what errors or false assumptions this hindsight can elucidate, we need to appreciate the context within which the ideas were born. We always talk about ethnocentricism and how we judge the rest of the world through our western blinders and we need to be more culturally aware...we need to be more chronos-aware (yeah, I make up words sometimes)...more aware of the true historical setting so we can find an appreciation for how these ideas contributed to the progress of our understanding of God.

I think that will help us move out of this anti-religious apathy and towards an understanding that we need to be responsible for being transmitters of the faith and being a part of the ongoing revelation of God in the world.