Knowledge and memory

Thought a lot lately about how I am able to recall knowledge, understanding that once stored, it really should be always there. But it is not. Somehow it relates to memory, ability to recall. Now, if I were a psychology major, I'd probably know more about this but I am not. So, this is just Chuck talking, ChuckOThoughts, that is. (Actually, I did take a little psychology classroom, but I don't remember much about it.)

Why is it that I cannot remember certain things that I know I once knew? Like names. Saw a fellow at breakfast (two in fact) who came up to me and I could not remember the name. One of them I worked with for at least four years at the local paper; the other I mixed with quite a bit but that was a few years ago. Yet... there are things I learned a long time ago, that I would classify as just knowledge, that I can still recall.

As a kid I learned, put to memory, the books of the Bible - all 66 of them (that is the protestant Bible, some call it. I can still repeat all the books from Genesis to Revelation. Imagine that. Fifty years ago, as a Navy air traffic controller trainee, I put to memory a saying to identify light beacons for pilots along a planned route or flight. There were ten, and then they would start over - When Undertaking Very Hard Routes Keep Directions By Good Methods. So, why can I remember all such as that and I cannot remember like a person's name? I don't know.

Certainly there are a lot of other things I remember, too, and frequently or perhaps infrequently apply. These are too numerous to mention. Knowing which direction to turn a nut off a bolt comes in handy occasionally. No need to go on. Surely I convey what I am trying to list.

I learned to ride a bike and swim as a children. Even though I have not done either for decades I have no doubt but what I could swim today and ride a bike. Not sure why that is, when I can't remember other things. Further, usually if I drive to some location before unknown, I can just about do it again anytime.

Perhaps being able to recall or do has to do with how I applied it - somehow, but I cannot explain it. That bothers me lately. Perhaps it should not. But it is just a thing I thought I would express thought about - ChuckOThoughts, that is all.

Preachers' finds

Preachers, because of what they do, are probably more into the Bible than most folks, with the understanding that some who never preached know a lot more about the Bible than those who preach as a vocation or avocation. That said, those who are into the Word find NEW things sometimes or realize more the possible importance of what is said. That is my point in this blog, which I call preachers' finds.

Reading Acts 7 about Steven, the one who was stoned for his believe in and proclamation about Jesus, I find the following interesting, leading up to his stoning: "But being full of the Holy Spirit, he (Steven) gazed intently into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God; and he said, 'Behold, I see the heavens opened up and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God" (Verses 55 and 56). Note: the writer reports what Steven saw and records Steven's statement about what he saw.

I pose the question, where is God? Lots of speculation on that, for sure. Based on that question, perhaps, sometimes I stand at night and gaze into the sky and wonder, where is God, where is heaven? Which star is he located on? Which? With what Steven said, maybe God is beyond all that we see and know that exists! Could that be? Could God, and the Son, be beyond all that exist so many light years from earth? Could it be that what is recorded about Steven and what he said go beyond everything we know?

One thing I have believed is that God as our creator made us with time and measurements, all for our benefit. But he created us and those with limits! We count time by years and increments thereof. We count mass by weight and size. All of it, the counting of it, has thus far gone beyond the limits of what we can see, know or understand. Even the greatest telescopes devised by man have not reached the end. Isn't that amazing? Well, maybe not. I believe there will come a time for us when time, weights and measures will be no more, and we will know as we are known.

I believe (this is my find) it is possible that God is on the other side of our sky, beyond what scientists are trying to determine as the point of the "big bang." I believe that Steven in his statement saw it and was giving us and those who would stone him a glimpse of it. Certainly, I cannot say for sure that his words convey what my mind is picturing; I have not been there. But at the moment, it is the best preachers' find that I have, and I wanted to share it with you.

One day, I believe I, and we, will have the answer to where God is. Certainly, in my view, Steven was telling the truth about what he saw. The stones had not yet been thrown that would make him hallucinate,

Measuring the application of charity

Reading Mere Christianity (C.S. Lewis) a second time through. First read was over 10 years ago. Figured I had forgotten too much, or maybe I am now more prepared to understand what he said about Christianity. One of many standouts is his discussion of charity, the act of helping others.

Lewis says we are to exhibit charity to those we don't even like. Humm. Guess he is right on that. Jesus said we were to love those who do not love us (paraphrased). Lewis admits how hard it is, but his point is that we can do better in the application, and the more we do so, the easier it is. We don't have to like the person to whom we give our charity, Lewis says. That is a problem, fo sho.

How does one come about liking people though. The writer offers good examples. Writing during and immediately after WW II, Lewis said the Germans did not like the Jews. They hated the Jews. And the more they persecuted the Jews, the more they hated them. In other words, it is like compounding (his word). The more you do it the more you do it. Lewis contends we can change hate to like (perhaps even love). That part is up to us. The converse to the Germans to the Jews is the more one likes a person the easier it is to like them.

A preacher friend of mine told me today of a recent time he was confronted by his neighbor because my friend allowed his dog to do his thing on the neighbor's trash can. When the confrontation started my friend was pretty neutral in like or dislike of his neighbor. They had had no relationship. But, said he, as we talked about Lewis' comments on like and dislike, the more his neighbor talked about his dog peeing on his trash can, the more he disliked her. (He still does not care much for his neighbor. He finds others reasons outside the dog incident to dislike his neighbor now. Well, that is what we are talking about! The more we dislike the more we dislike.

Based on the above, my view (and applicable to me and my friend) is that when we find ourselves disliking someone, we need to shift our thinking. Stop our dislike and convert it to like.

I found myself disliking a person recently. The more I disliked the more I found reason to dislike more. I decided, even before reading Lewis, that I must change my thinking. Already I feel better toward this person. Now maybe I can think in terms of charity.

That it the thought: measuring the application of charity.

Just change the filter!

As an old air conditioning man, I know the importance of having a clean filter for the air to go through on the way to the cooling coil. That was one of the first things I learned in my training. So, why would I not do that? Why would I not make sure I had a clean filter on my A/C unit? Filters don't cost much. They are no trouble to replace. So, why?

Last night I decided on the way to bed to check the filter on my upstairs unit. After removing one screw on the outside panel, I was ready to pull the filter for a look see. I did. It was so dirty! If you cannot see through it, it is dirty. Believe me. Hard to imagine any air getting through it to the cooling coil. Probably explains why it was taking so long to cool down the bedroom. I changed the filter. Just happened to have a spare, clean one on the ready, right inside the air handler door. I am lucky. This error on my part could have led to big time problems. Let me explain - for my own benefit.

I have already said what a filter is for. But let's go further. An A/C system is designed to operate most efficiently with a proper amount of cold refrigerant circulating inside the cooling coil tubing with a proper amount of outside ambient air flowing over the coil at a predetermined flow rate. Change the air flow, and the system is out of kilter. Too little air and the refrigerant does not evaporate to a gas and it goes back to the compressor, where it is liable to blow valves, leading to a compressor failure. Does that make sense?

The other thing is if the unit is not operating efficiently, the electric bill soars, and that cost money. Real dollars.

Not only that, but with low air flow because of a dirty filter the temperature of the refrigerant drops so low that it causes the coil to freeze up to a block of ice, rendering any air flow impossible. BTW, refrigerant temperature in the coil is usually about 35 deg. F., just to give you an idea of what I am talking about.

The thermostat set point, say 75 to 78 deg. is a good point, keeping the coil temp just right, and, with a clean filter, the proper amount of cool air going into the living space at about 60 to 65 degrees. That all keeps the house cool.

The filter is a prime component for all to work right. Sure, there are other things that can go wrong, but the filter is probably the number one reason for high electric bills and failed equipment. Imagine that. (I ought to know.)

My advice to all who might read this is this: keep the filter clean. Change it at least monthly. Don't do what I did.

This is just a maintenance reminder, a really important one.

Diminishing returns

The idea of diminishing returns means to me that at a point in the increase of some work or production one hits a point where anything done more might indeed cause a loss -- in revenue, for example, or profits, another. I would liken it to you can only take a straight line so far before it has to bend and return from the direction from which it came. Well, those are my descriptions. They may not be true but they are mine. So much for definitions. Hope you get a feel for what I am talking about.

I was glad to hear that the Obama administration seemed recently in agreement with off-shore drilling. Wow! I long thought we ought to do that. Cost of gasoline coming from off our shores was getting too huge; anything to reduce that cost and decrease our country's reliance on others worked for me, I thought. Well, the other side, the protectors, raged about the idea. They had been raging for a long time, and here it was again. I thought, we are going to win this one over the protectors. Surely, all their hype about offshore pollution could not be right. We are smarter than allowing that - I thought.

Well, turns out, they were probably right and I was probably wrong. Imagine that. Last week a rig out in the gulf exploded, apparently killing 11, and driving the rest - close to 100 - to a need of being rescued at sea. The thing, the rig on a floating platform, then burned up and fell into the ocean. Humm. But what about the oil in the pipe coming from down under? They are not sure about that, yet. Smart? Maybe not.

Then I read today they had been drilling 30,000 ft into the earth's crust to get that precious stuff (black gold), and that from 5,000 feet below the floating platform that exploded! Turns out the rig was halted a couple years ago because of potential problems, and another company bough it and started the drill again. Included in the story was how critical things get the deeper one goes. This brings me to my point, my topic - diminishing returns.

Maybe we ought not be trying so hard so deep in the off-shore. Maybe we ought to be working more toward another sustainable energy use. Maybe, indeed, we are about the point of diminishing returns on oil exploration. Maybe we ought not be going off-shore to find what it takes to fuel our machines. Maybe.

It seems odd that when folks who wanted permission finally got it something so telling occurred. A big explosion speaks louder than words? Perhaps an indication of diminishing returns.

Yet, this is not the total answer. People have hit diminishing returns before and took corrective action to process and continued on. What would we have done had we quit with Apollo 13? Huh?

Our littleness

The volcano up in Iceland reminds me: how little we are compared to the greater part of it all. Twenty-four thousand miles around this planet, with billions and billions of people around the globe, and one "little" volcano disrupts the global economy because of a disruption of air travel - just one. Does that tell me something? You bet it does.

Thinking back to 9-11 (does anybody remember that?) and how the tumbling of two New York towers almost brought the whole global to a stood still. And there was Rita and, oh, yes, Katrina! And Wall Street. The housing bubble bust! And on it goes. Each one demonstrating how little we (all of us) really are.

Back to Iceland. To me, a God follower, a Christian, it almost seemed like God coughing, saying, "Won't you folks listen?" Yes, I do believe that God put it all together. Certainly, that might lead us (me) to wonder why He did not do a better job? Could he not have made it so the earth did not belch from time to time? Sure He could have, I think, but I don't know what He was working with when he did it. Could have been that His "formula" required a corrective belch from time to time? Maybe so. I did hear recently with regard to an earthquake (Oh, I forgot that one!!!), how the movement caused some realignment is some expected constants we work with.

Anyway, if you think about it, you get my drift. We, each, are so minute that we don't even register in the larger view of things. Yet, we think we do! In our own little realm we are huge, but only in that. We think we do until we wind up camping out in the airport passenger boarding room because we can't get a flight out for days on days! Who woulda thought that jet engines could clog up with ash turned glass while flying so high and just shut down? We thought jets were so unfailable? "Faster than a......" (Remember Superman?) somehow has lost all significance.

Yep. Pretty small, we are. But, knowing that, we should think more about the bigger things, especially the "Big Guy" who put it all into motion. Especially, knowing, as I do and hope you do, that He cares for little old me, no matter how small a speck I am on the face of eternity.

What to accept?

I begin this write by reviewing my actions this morning. A strong interest in things biblical, I read a lot. Some of it does not fit my understanding - my "belief." Some of it - most, perhaps - does. I have been reading What's So Great about Christianity (btw, that is a statement and not a question) by Dinesh D'Souza, a book I have had in my library since October 2009. D'Souza writes, to me, a different sort of understanding/acceptance of Christianity. This morning, I decided I did not agree enough with his presentation and decided to put the book in the trash. Imagine that! (I will give you a clue later, why.)

My next act, shortly afterward, was to purchase online a book, a Bible commentary, written by authors with whom I thought I could agree more. A lot of them are from the "church of my belief." Some are not. But, the background offered about the book, a 700 page one, gave me the impression I might agree with all of it. Now, would I? Probably not. Still, I think I should read it, so I bought it.

BTW, isn't it that all books are commentaries? I think so, either on what the writer writes or what he writes about what someone else wrote. whether it is called a commentary or not does not matter, methinks.

Having bought the book, and now awaiting its arrival, The Transforming Word, I began to think, "Now, I have spent close to $80.00 to buy a book that I might not agree with. Would I put it in the trash, as well?" This led me to remove the first book from the trash can for it to go back in my library. Surely, everything in my library is not what I agreed with, I thought.

So, I say this to say, within certain limits it is ok not to agree with everything one reads. It is not ok to reject within limits even the consideration of what folks write that might not agree with how I see it. Now, I know that is perhaps shaky ground if one wants to stay the same. It is not shaky ground if one wants to at least consider what others say and either accept it or reject it based on logical and informed understandings. I fear we do ourselves harm not to at least know what others say or propose. By knowing we can at least argue our point better. Right? I think so.

My first response to throw the book in the trash was way off the mark. What I can do, and will for the benefit of anyone later who might look at the books in my library, is make a note in the front of the book summarizing my observations on the writing. I do that a lot. Seems a good thing to do.

This is my thought on readings, acceptance and non-acceptance of what is out there. I think I have taken the correct approach. Who knows, I might even go back and finish D'Souza's book - someday. So you'll know, I still cannot accept that I came from a fish to be a Christian. Does that matter, as long as one is a Christian? Not sure that it does. (shhhh!)

Things are getting worse

I am sure things are getting worse. I thought when all the talk of failure in everything money wise was talked about that surely appropriate guards would be put in place to keep it from happening. Well, I think things are worse now than they were at the beginning. Advertisements I see and hear on the television and radio tell me that the scam artists got out of the pen, that the gate has been opened wider.

This has a lot to do with health care costs. Just the other day I saw an advertisement that affects Medicare in a very negative way. Don't remember the product, but the advertisement went something like this: It used to be that Medicare only paid for four (of these) per month. Now, they pay for 200! Wow. The adv was to the effect, just call us, we can send you 200 a month, and Medicare will pay for it. Imagine that!

I watched just yesterday C-SPAN, which was covering a Senate committee looking into Medicare fraud, and I did not hear a thing about the situation of Medicare paying for 200 when they used to pay for just four. Yet, I wanted to scream through the television set, Hey, you guys! Watch a little TV and you will know why our costs are going through the roof.

There are so many of these kinds of advertisements. If not health care, something else. There is one advertising that the IRS has decided to be lenient with collections, and now they will take ten cents on the dollar. Just call us, we will fix it for you, the adv says. I can't imagine that, and I doubt seriously that the IRS is going to take less that what is rightfully owed. The poor people who owe and going to wind up paying huge sums for someone to say, but, but, it is not you, but, but, we can fix your problem in some way, which is not to say the the IRS is going to take ten cents on the dollar.

And, there are still the car dealers who advertise, no credit, bad credit, no problem! The cable new I watch that talks about all kinds of problems in our government has advertisements that follow, much like I have mentioned above at every news break. Imagine that.

This commentary just touches the helm of the garment if that much. It is much worse. I know it is.

So, have we gotten so big that nothing can stop the stealer's of our money? Maybe so. I do know that we must do something, but what?