Perspectives of a Wanderer

For me, it depends on what I am doing but it basically comes down to two genres of music; Classical and Country. Yes, sometimes I do listen to other genres, but that is very few and very far between.

Yes, I know it sounds like a weird mix, but it is what I like.  I never got into the “rock” genre other the “southern rock” which can, in some cases, get close to country.

As I said before, it depends on what I am doing.  95% of the time, however, it is classical music. The only real time I listen to country is when I am driving for an extended period of time and do not want to fall asleep.  Classical music tends to relax me.

When I am relaxing, I listen exclusively to classical music with preference for the Renaissance, Baroque, and Classical periods.  There are some from the Romantic Period composers (i.e Wagner, Dvorak, Bruch, and Tchaikovsky) but they are few and far between.

There is one time where I will listen to a specific genre and that is when I am praying.  At that time, I like listening to Baroque music.  It is both relaxing and, unlike Renaissance Music which does has many sacred works, is mostly instrumental music and very little vocal in composition.  When I pray, vocals in music distracts me from my prayers.  When is strictly instrumental music, I can concentrate.

As for the other genres of music, I do not listen to them since much of it these days gravitates towards the immoral and obscene.

I have always wondered how much we are to be in this world but at the same time be apart of this world.   These days, this question seems to be more important than ever due to the socio-economic plagues like Liberalism, Socialism, Relativism, Materialism, and Global Capitalism infecting society as a whole.

Yes, we are to be lights to this world as stated by Our Lord:

“You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hid. Nor do men light a lamp and put it under a bushel, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house.  Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. (Mt. 5: 14-16 RSV)

but, at the same time, He said:

“No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. (Mt. 6: 24 RSV)

This begs the question, how far to be in this world, but set ourselves apart for the glory or Our Lord.  We have to selective about our participation in today society due to the almost constant threats of Near Occasions of Sin while always being a shining example of how we are to live.

This balance, although difficult, must be determined for each and one of us.  For some, it means being more in this world than others.

As for me, I am gravitating more towards removing myself more and more from this world to serve Our Lord more.  What this will entail, I am not quite sure yet.  I am being more selective of what I do and where I go.  This will increase in the next year or so until I fully determine the path I am to take.

Now that something that has been taking up a sizable chunk of my time has been resolved, I am trying to figure out which of the many projects I have been thinking of doing to actually do.  Some of these include:

1. Graduate School (thinking of getting advanced degrees in a number of disciples including Catholic Theology, History, and Economics)
2. Create a practical blueprint for the development of a self-sufficient Distributist community/society based on Catholic Moral and Social teachings
3. Research and document the progression of Catholic dogmatic and doctrinal teachings (concentrating on Catholic Moral and Social teachings) since the Council of Trent

I picked these three since they could be interrelated.  A graduate degree in Catholic Theology would help me with the other two while a degree in Economics would help me with the blueprint in number two.  My ultimate goal in all three of these endeavors, however, will probably go into teaching and/or writing.

In addition to the above, I would like to get back into web development that I have dabbled in before.  I could also this to document the above projects on-line.

Like I said, these are just a couple of the projects I am thinking of, it is just they are at the top of my list right not.  That may change.  Who knows?

Some who know me know I was a prolific poster over at Catholic Answers Forums.  In recent months, however, my activity, although still substantial, has dropped off considerably.  There were many reasons for this but it was a general dissatisfaction with the forums and the direction it was taking.

Today was the last straw.  I did not like something was going and I made it publically known.  Due to that, I received an infraction.  At that point, I had made up my mind to “retire” from the forums completely and stated so on a thread that I frequent.

However, before I could send the “retirement” notification (I was going to do it tonight), I got notified that I had been banned for posting my intention to “retire”.

To tell you the truth, I am glad.  I was spending too much time over there following too many threads.  I have many other projects that I could better spend my time on.

Will I miss Catholic Answers Forums, maybe, but I doubt it.  In fact, I may consider it a badge of honor.

Today is the Feast of Out Lady of the Rosary.  For those who do not know:

Feast of Out Lady of the Rosary is an annual feast to commemorate the victory of Lepanto. The victory was attributed to Our Lady, as a rosary procession was offered on that day in St. Peter’s Square in Rome for the success of the mission of the Holy League to hold back Muslim forces from overrunning Western Europe.  First instituted in 1571 Pope Pius V as “Our Lady of Victory”, the name was changed to “Feast of the Holy Rosary” in 1573 by Pope then to “Our Lady of the Rosary” in 1969 by Pope Paul VI.

The event that this feast celebrates shows how powerful the power of prayer is.

This seems to have been lost in the modern day.  With all the affronts to life and liberty that is happening due to the plagues of Liberalism, Socialism, Materialism, Relativism, and Global Capitalism, we must consider prayer as part of the battle against those plagues.  For without prayer, the battle will be lost.

We currently live in a society and so integrated that I am wondering if we could actually go back to a true local society that could survive without outside resources.  The main reason that makes me skeptical about a truly local society is “Energy”.

When I talk about energy, I am not just talking about Electricity.  I am also talking about fuels to run vehicles and machinery, and to heat homes and businesses.  Yes, some, if not much, of this can be produced locally, but could it be enough to adequately and reliably serve the needs of any sizable population.

If there were a sufficient amount of natural resources like coal, oil, and/or natural gas, I guess the needed infrastructure could be created to utilize those resources.  But not all areas have those resources in any appreciable quantities.

That means that alternative resources have to be found.  Yes, wind and solar can be used, but they can be unreliable at best. If there were a way to store the produced electricity for any appreciable amount of time then maybe they could be a more viable option.

Biofuels are an option for fuels, however, at the present time, utilizes resources that are best left for their intended uses.  Saying that, there are a myriad of technologies being developed that will allow biofuels to be created from waste material, weed trees, and even algae that will produce better yields and varieties than what is currently produced from feedstock like corn and soybeans.  However, theses are either years away or are proprietary at the present time.  This means we would have to wait or rely on others for the technologies.

Now one can say that do we really need these types of energies to survive?  The answer is no, but are people willing to go back that far in time (even though it is really only about a century since much of this has been available to the populace).  In most cases, I would say it would be a resounding NO.

In conclusion, if the natural resources were available, then I would say that, yes, there is a greater possibility of creating a truly local society.  If there were not, I would say it would be hard, but not impossible, for those who are willing to go without.

There are other reasons that it would be hard to “go local”, but those are easier to overcome and subjects for future entries.

One of the things I like to do is go to the bookstore to see if there are any interesting books I can add to my to-buy list (sometime I will check the book’s price on-line to see if it is cheaper.  If it is not or is a specific book I am looking for, I will buy it right then and there).

Right now, I am looking for ideas to aid in the development of a Distributist society.  One of the themes that run through both Distributism and the Catholic Land movements is that self-sufficiency. In Distributism, it is the ability of the person or family to earn a living that is not based solely on the state or working for a corporation.  In the Catholic Land movement, it is providing the basic needs of the family from the land as much as possible.

This got me to thinking that most of us do not even have even the basic skills, or even the knowledge, to provide even the most basic of needs from the land.  This gets me back to the topic of bookstores.  One of the genres of books I have been looking at is how to raise various crops and animals.  However, it has not stopped there.  I have also found books on how to produce almost everything one needs to survive off the land.  This include almost everything including how to generate you own energy and fuels.

Where I am going with this is simple, since Distributism and the Catholic Land movement put a premium on self-sufficiency, I am wondering how far should one go in this self-sufficiency.  The answer is all the way, but not in the sense that you may thing.  Yes, we should individually become self-sufficient as much as possible, but   community self-sufficiency should be more of the ultimate goal.  That is, the community must have the ability to be self-sustainable as much as possible without any outside help.

I believe that a community that is based on Distributist principles can, and must, develop all the skills possible to as self-contained as possible.  This skill-set must include everything from food production, to energy generation (heck, I even saw one book that showed how to make your own methane) , to health care, to education.

However, this does, and must not, mean that the community be separate from the world.  Far from it.  We must continue within the world to be an example on how to live.  Our Lord said:

“You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hid.  Nor do men light a lamp and put it under a bushel, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.” (Mt. 5: 14-16)

We must be that light not only to our community, but also to the world that is sorely needing of that light.

Everyone has probably things like Enterprise Development Zones, Redevelopment Zones, and the likes to revitalize urban centers.  It is about time we consider creating what I would like to call Distributist Community Regions.  What makes a Distributist Community Regions different?

First, these types of zones are limited in scope.  They are, for the most part, either business or residential in nature.  They seldom look at the complete picture.  Even when they do look at both, it is not as a community, but only parts in an incomplete picture.  There is a no sense of true and complete community being developed. A Distributist Community Region would be a complete community that could sustain itself with very little, or no outside, help if the situation would arise.

The second is area affected.  I chose the term “Region” instead of zone because it denotes a larger area.  Usually, a zone is limited to a neighborhood, maybe two, at most.  A region denotes a much larger area and would include not only the residential and business areas, but also the surrounding agricultural area.  This expanded area also adds to the independence and sustainability of the community.

Finally, and probably most important is the region must adhere to Distributist principles which has its basis Catholic Moral and Social teachings.  That is, we must get back to a time where the God and family was the basic societal-economic unit.  With a family, one first learns social interaction and God provides the moral foundation for everyday life.  This has to be the basis for any type of community.  The “zones” mentioned about purposely leave out both.

I have purposely not provided any type of detail or blueprint here.  Just a basic vision I have.  Maybe, with the help of others, we can bring this vision to reality.

Yes and No.

I am no theologian or canon lawyer, but common sense says that something needs to be done.  There is too much divisiveness today and that cannot be allowed to continue.  I am also one of those who believe that change must come from within the Church and not from pressure from outside groups.

What the Holy See needs to do is to look at the documents of the Second Vatican Council and everything that has happened since the council.  This needs to be done in a number of steps:

First, they need to look very carefully at the documents (both the conciliar and post conciliar documents) and, if necessary:

1. Rewrite portions (maybe even whole documents) to eliminate any ambiguities.  This is especially true of the post conciliar documents.
2. Scrap any sections and/or whole documents that went beyond the original intent of the council.

The second, and probably more important is to look at all the events since the council and reverse many of the trends that were instituted in the “spirit of Vatican II”.  The “spirit of Vatican II” is probably the most destructive thing to come after the council since it has only served to divide the Church into factions that threaten the foundations of the Church.   Some of the things to look at:

1. The Ordinary Form of the Mass and either scrap it completely or modify it to bring it more in line with Extra-Ordinary Form of the Mass.  This essentially eliminates the need for the terms Ordinary and Extra-Ordinary.
2. Eliminating many of the indults like communion in the hand.
3. Many of the liturgical and lay movements to see if they are compatible with the true teachings of the Church.  In my opinion, many of them will fall short.
4. The Reinstitution of  many of the disciplines on clergy, religions, and laity that were in place before the council.

Finally, and this will probably take a council to accomplish (and please do not let it be called the Third Vatican Council), look at everything from the Council of Trent and on and create a common set of documents to direct the Church in the third millennium.  Too much has happened since the council and much needs to be reviewed. These documents should include codification of dogmas, doctrine, disciples, and catechism that would not only include the rich history of the Church, but also eliminate any ambiguity that has arisen due to the Relativistic and Secular society that has come to be dominant since the Protestant Revolt.  Only by setting everything in stone can dissent be combated.

In conclusion, we do not have to scrap the Second Vatican Council; we need to scrap the ambiguities and the “spirit” that came from it.

Yesterday, a friend of mine posted a YouTube clip on Facebook about the effects of a EMP (Electro-Magnetic Pulse) from an explosion of an atomic bomb high in the atmosphere would have on everyday life.   Essentially, anything run by a computer in a vast area (i.e. over 1000 of km in radius) would be rendered permanently inoperable and would have to be replaced.  This would affect everything from communications to energy transmission to transportation.  Essentially the area affected would grind to a halt for close to a year.  In the most dire predictions, over 90% of the area’s population would die.

This got me to ponder, are we too dependent on modern technology.  In my opinion, the answer is most definitely.  Many of us would be completely lost without the modern conveniences.

The scary thing is that is a very recent phenomenon.  It was not too long ago, only a couple of decades, that computers had little or no presence in every day life.   Go back a decade or two further and computers are non-existent.   Yet, energy was generated, cars operated, manufacturing occurred, banks were open, and stores were stocked.  We have come to a point where we are so dependant on computers, most, if not all of this, will cease to exist.

This gets me to the point I am trying to make.  We need to look at everything in our lives and see where we can, if possible, find alternatives to our current way of life.  If available and viable, we need to reverse the technological trend in products (i.e. cars), production (i.e. robotics), and even retail (i.e. computers for cash registers).

Even in our everyday life.  We need to be ready, or even replace, with alternatives that rely on electricity and computers.  We do not need “smart homes”.  We can get by with manually turning lights on and off.  Have, where possible, alternative for heating, cooking, and lighting and use them.  In addition, have the ability to generate electricity via solar and wind, even it is for minimal usage, that do not rely on computers to regulate the flow (I know this is possible but not how to do this).  We must learn how to grow, process, and store our own food.  Heck, with the right ingredients, we can make our own soap.

I would also go as far as to say, it might be advantageous to set up whole communities that are as far off the grid as possible as available sanctuaries in case of such a catastrophic event would occur.

What I am saying is that, we need to evaluate and wean ourselves out of the technology age as much as possible in order to be able to survive.  Even if it does not happen, the simplification of one’s life will be an improvement over what we have now.  And this is coming from one who is in a computer related career.