A fun summer read...and more on the flu and plague...

I've blogged before about the Flu Epidimic of 1917. Well, I recently finished one of the more enjoyable books I remember. Ken Follet's World Without End. It's long (1100+pages), but is was super fun. I started it before flying to Europe a few weeks ago. I read it on the plane while Michelle slept there and back, and then finished it on the plane to OKC. I highly recommend it (Bort-you'll love it!).

One of the interesting plot devices in the book is the plague. It comes on like a whirlwind killing 1/2 the population of Europe in the 13th Century. Interestingly, they have no theory of germs, or contagion and simply can't understand what it is. Their existing world-view assumes it must be the judgment of God on their sin. It's fascinating to imagine the sense-making that goes on around this time.

I was thinking of this last week when I saw the preview for this new movie. Sounds like the same premise put to modern sensibilities. I can't wait to see it!

Ode to the 534, or The Joys of Public Transit

A recent column by Robert Reich about Public Transit is spot on about the economics of public transit. Having lived in nearly every type of urban/suburban combination in the US (major East coast cities, & nearby suburbs, small isolated college towns in the mid-west & southwest, and LA), and traveled to many countries in Europe and South America, I've got some perspective on the role of public transit.

My perspective is this...

It's nice.

I like it.

We should have more of it.

This summer, one of my goals was to explore the public transit in LA. Since then, I've taken the LA bus system a few times...to meetings in West LA and a conference at USC. I even took it to the Valley one day for shopping. While it is certainly a bit inconvenient having to accomodate my life to a public schedule, it's very nice. A few observations...

• For $3 I can take the bus from the entrance of Pepperdine to a meeting 22 miles away by the airport ($5 round-trip). If I drive that same trip, the IRS estimates the cost at $22 ($.51/mile).
• For a 9am meeting in West LA/Culver City, I need to leave at 8:15 if I'm driving. If I take the bus, I have to leave at 7. That is a bit earlier. But, the entire time on the bus is productive. I can read, make phone calls, even grade papers. Not bad.
• The bus system is horribly complex. The website makes it simple to figure out a single trip, but if you miss a bus, you're screwed. Last week I missed a bus at USC by 5 minutes. The next bus was about 15 minutes later...no big deal. But, 15-minutes was enough to make me miss the bus back to Malibu--which only comes once an hour. So, those five minutes cost me an hour. If the system had been a bit easier to understand, I would have been sure to catch that first bus.
• I prefer rail to bus transit. But both beat driving myself.
  

The messy mix of politics and religion

Last night, my good buddy JA (who like me, is also a bachelor this week), came over and we watched "Jesus Camp" from Netflix. Eeewwww... it was disturbing. For those who haven't seen it, I recommend it - partially. The show did a good job of demonstrating life inside a relatively insular, fundamentalist movement in the mid-west. They showed a children's minister in the suburbs of MO who is (IMHO) indoctrinating children to a very harmful, and unhealthy way of thinking (if it can appropriately be called thinking) about life, the universe, and a toxic brew of literal biblicism and nationalism. I should say, the show creeped me out. And, even though I grew up in a fundamentalist home and tradition, this show presented a world-view completely foreign to me. The biggest weakness of "Jesus Camp" was that it made no differentiation between "evangelicals" and the type of fundamentalist/pentacostals portrayed. I suppose it is my own naivete to expect "outsiders" to understand our own internal differences. But the indoctrination going on in this documentary is just as disturbing to me as a conservative evangelical involved in Children's Ministry as it would be to any secular humanist.

In a related, but very different, vein...Pepperdine's Douglas Kmiec, who you have very likely seen on CNN, or some other evening news show, was recently denied communion in the Catholic Church. The reason? Kmiec, who has been a long-time GOP activist, a ranking member of the Reagan Justice Dept., and the former Dean of the Law School at the Catholic University had the audacity, as a private citizen, to support Barack Obama for President.

Amazingly, in this one instance at least, the Catholic Church has more in common with the fundamentalist pentacostalism of "Jesus Camp" than my admittedly fundamentalist, yet largely apolitical Church of Christ heritage.

History & Politics...

I found a very interesting new podcast this week. It's by historian Bruce Carlson and it looks at current political events through the eyes of history. It's fascinating. It reminds of a favorite saying of Stewart Davenport. Stewart is fond of saying,

if you want to understand how the world works, study economics. But if you want to understand why it works the way it does, study history.

Go ahead...add it to your iTunes/Zune/Homepage. It's worth a listen.

All I want for Christmas...

Tiny lost her other front tooth today!

Follow-up to Joshua Tree...

One final comment on the joys of Joshua Tree. We had SO much fun, that we all hated for it to end. But no one felt as strongly as Tater Tot.

He literally cried for thirty minutes after we left the campsite. Here was the conversation...

TT: Daaaaadddd! Do we HAVE to leave?

MW: Yes, Tater.

TT: Whhhyyyyy?

MW: Because Matt has to go to school and I have to go to work tomorrow.

TT: But I want to stay!

MW: But, Tater...wouldn't you miss your friends?

TT: No.

MW: Wouldn't you miss your friend, Nate?

TT: No.

MW: Wouldn't you miss your friend Anne Towles?

TT: No.

MW: Wouldn't you miss Meghan?

TT: No.

(this line of reasoning went through his entire list of friends with the same result. Then I got desperate...)

MW: Wouldn't you miss Madison?

TT: No.

MW: Wouldn't you miss Mom?

TT: No.

MW: OK, Tater. We'll come back in a few weeks with Mom and Madison and camp here again.

TT: But that won't be any fun!

MW: Why not, Tater?

TT: Because Madison will just cry about the bugs and Mom will just say "Be careful! Be careful!"

Matt and I laughed pretty hard. When I showed Michelle the pictures, she said she had no interest in going because she would not be able to have any fun she'd be TOO worried. :-)

Joshua Tree...

Matt, Marcus and I had a BLAST at the "climbthehilltop.com" men's retreat to Joshua Tree. This will definitely become one of our annual traditions. Too much fun! Here are some pics.