Further thoughts on the Olympics

Some reflections on last night's games:

1) I realized that the post-routine hug in womens (girls???) gymnastics is roughly analogous to the between-free-throws high five in the NBA: obligatory and utterly meaningless.

2) I think that, in this Olympics, the more remarkable occurrence is when a world record doesn't get broken in swimming.

3) Despite having a relatively small sample size (American women who competed in the floor routine last night), I feel confident in asserting that, as a society, we need to do a better job of teaching our young ladies boundaries.

That's all for now.

Go World (brought to you by Visa)

The Olympics are upon us again, and I really enjoy getting to watch relatively obscure sports on TV. I mean, when was the last time you saw a decent water polo match on TV? And how many people were relieved that the sport is actually much more horse-friendly than it initially sounds? I'm guessing quite a few. And womens saber! What percentage of Americans woke up Saturday morning knowing that this was an Olympic event? 2%? .0002%? Good times.

Yet as I've observed the various events unfolding over the past couple of days a fundamental paradox of the American experience was brought right to the surface (and it has nothing to do with Coke's numerous attempts to make me feel like a philanthropist for using its product). Here it is: America is unequivocally the greatest superpower in the world, and has been for some time now. Nevertheless, Americans are always drawn to root for the underdog. How else do you explain the legion of supporters that the Cubs have managed to gather for themselves over their past century of losing? This is America. We like to confront third world dictators with shock and awe campaigns, while still fancying ourselves to be the scrappy little band of ruffians who somehow managed to upend the British Empire in 1781. Is the guy from Azerbaijan who never even saw a swimming pool until he was 16 really on the same level as Michael Phelps? Of course not, but we like to pretend that he is so that we don't have to cheer for him instead. So I guess I have to say "go USA - and go everyone else too."

Two things that are awesome

1: It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. It's kind of like Arrested Development without any of the redeeming/innocent characters. I'm trying to get all caught up by the season 4 debut on 9/18. I have to say that I like my chances.

2: Hulu, through which I've been watching a whole mess of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. There's a lot of other stuff in there as well, some old and some new, and all of it absolutely free. Sweet. Check it out ... right here (thanks, Darcy, for helping me embed my first video):

Triple book review

When I read for fun I don’t usually read in the conventional way. By which I mean that I don’t start a book, read it, finish it, and start a new book. I usually have 3-6 books in a rotation that I am actively reading, devoting time to each according to the level of interest that it sparks in me at any given time. By coincidence I’ve finished three books within the last week or so and thought I’d share some thoughts on them. They are: 1) The Human Stain by Philip Roth, 2) Making All Things New by Henri Nouwen, and 3) Jesus by Marcus Borg. I enjoyed each of them a great deal, and for very different reasons.

The Human Stain is the first book by Philip Roth I’ve read, and it's one of the better novels I've stumbled upon in recent years. When Kurt Vonnegut and Joseph Heller died I realized that I needed to find some American authors I could get into who still have a book or two left in them, so I started reading Cormac McCarthy and now I’ve given Philip Roth a shot as well. The first thing I noticed about the book is that certain portions feel a little dated since he extensively references the then-current Clinton-Lewinsky scandal (the book was published in 2000). Once the narrative kicks in, however, I found it rich and compelling. His ability to transition between his vivid characters and his skilled use of irony and symbolism have me interested in more. I think I’ll try American Pastoral (apparently his magnum opus) and The Plot Against America, a more recent offering, next.

An aside: Roth's extended discussions of Clinton’s moral failings did make me realize that the America of my youth was, in fact, a more innocent America. Oh, for the days when a philandering president was front page news for weeks and months on end. Now we take for granted that we have Senators who solicit anonymous homosexual sex in public restrooms, Governors who frequent call girls, and Congressmen who try to lure highschool-aged aides into sexual relationships. It’s almost like we’re becoming England or something. It also made me long for the days when we had a president whose greatest fault was a predilection toward infidelity. Sigh. But enough of that.

I’ll be the first to admit that Henri Nouwen doesn’t do for me what he apparently does for some people. I typically find him to be worthwhile, affirming, and insightful, but I don’t think I’ve ever found him utterly profound and life-altering. That being said, Making All Things New is the fourth book I’ve read by him, and it’s probably my favorite. It’s a remarkably small book, but it’s not minor in scope or ambition. He attempts to demonstrate the importance of spirituality to the modern world and describes ways to develop one’s spiritual side in that context. The first chapter is the best description of the “modern condition” by a Christian author that I’ve ever found. I appreciated the second chapter a little less. It was a relatively minor point, but in the introduction Nouwen implies that the Kingdom of God should best be interpreted spiritually – which is not a bad tactic if one happens to find oneself writing on spirituality. The only problem is that the overspiritualization of Jesus’ teachings is the single greatest heresy of the American Evangelical movement. If you ask me. Unfortunately no one ever does. The third chapter rebounded nicely, though. And then the book was over. I think a committed and undistracted reader (not usually the way I choose to do things) could crank it out in about an hour.

Finally, Jesus (by Marcus Borg) distills a career’s worth of Jesus knowledge into about 300 pages. The book started a little slowly with Borg laying a few chapters of groundwork that I've heard from him elsewhere (mainly in his half of Two Visions of Jesus) but the second half of the book was compelling and insightful. His book doesn't quite have the ambition of God and Empire by John Dominic Crossan, but ultimately he succeeds admirably in summarizing his position in the historical Jesus debate and then goes on to advocate a bit for the emergent church movement. I find his perspective to be rather persuasive (while maintiaining a few doubts about some secondary points) and quite helpful in thinking about the Bible and how to apply it to our contemporary context. In short, his book helped me to appreciate Jesus a little more.

U-S-A

I'm not usually one to passively sit back on my figurative haunches and post links, but I just feel like people need to see this.

Leave it to Slate to compile the major players in all the Bush-era scandals and display them in a handy user-friendly chart. They've got everything in there, from the destroyed CIA interrogation tapes, to the Department of Justice firings, to the coercive interrogation techniques of extra-legally detained suspects, to the extra-legally wiretapped domestic telecommunications. So many scandals, and so many people involved in so many of them...

baseball thoughts

Just saw the best pitching performance of my live baseball watching career. Hiroki Kuroda (very likely available in a fantasy league near you) unleashed an absolute gem against the Braves - check this out: 9 innings pitched, 0 earned runs, 1 hit, 0 walks, 6 K's. He took a perfect game into the 8th inning, but, alas, I had to settle for a complete game shutout instead. Dodgers victory, 3-0.

Another plus: gametime was 2:03 so I made it home by 10:00. Darcy was happy about that.

Mixed emotions about the big CC trade (big both literally and figuratively). I've followed him since the Indians drafted him out of high school at age 17 so I kind of feel like I watched him grow up. And out (ok, no more fat jokes, but take a good look at him - seriously, do it). So it's sad to see him traded to Milwaukee. On the other hand, it's not like the Indians are doing anything this season (37-51 and 14 games behind the Sox before the break) so we might as well move him before he becomes a free agent and we get nothing. Sounds like we got some decent prospects, but I'm not going to pretend that I've heard of any of them before today. I guess there's always next year. Such is life for the fans of small market teams.

Greg Boyd on Mennonites

I'm a few days late here, but check out Greg Boyd's message to Mennonites here.

He's a thoughtful, well-spoken, interesting guy. Some thoughts of my own:

1) If, as Greg suggests, the Anabaptists (and particularly we Mennonites) get so very many things right in faith and practice, why doesn't he join us? That would certainly make a splash since we're a fairly small pool as denominations go.

2) Favorite line: Greg on Anabaptism, "It's the only [Christian] tradition that isn't soaked in blood and the only tradition that looks remotely like Jesus." Well said.

3) If I ever find myself living in Minneapolis or St Paul I'll be very tempted to join Greg's church. And this despite my personal distaste for both mega-churches and nondenominationalism.