The Actuality of Factuality

     Everything we read is written from a biased perspective, including this blog. The only way to write without bias is to leave your brain behind. Although that may explain my writing style, the perspective of the author cannot be completely eradicated, even when the information is gathered and composed by AI. But sometimes I long for a little honesty. All but the local articles in our newspaper are cut and pasted from the AP (Always Partisan) news service. I understand why this is necessary, small newspapers like ours cannot afford to send staff to cover national, much less international, events. Today I was trying to find out whether an earthquake, or an avalanche, caused the flash flood which has killed so many in Nepal. It was reported both ways. From what I can tell, the seismic activity recorded before the flood was caused by the massive chunk of glacier, mud, and rock that broke off high in the Himalayas. That would certainly ratchet up the Richter scale, even without an earthquake. As I told my husband, who leans toward the earthquake explanation, it doesn't require a tsunami to make waves when a fat person cannonballs into a swimming pool. 

    The Pour Over, which I recommend as a Christian perspective news source, says the reason for the slide is unknown. The AP (Advocating Progressives) not only says it was caused by global warming, but human caused global warming. As if, under the tons of rock, mud, and debris, they found a note assigning blame. Inserting "human caused", which cannot possibly be proven, compromises the factuality of whatever truth may have unintentionally remained in the rest of the article. One would think even a semi-competent editor would have noticed one of his writer's pants were on fire. And it is not as if the AP (Actively Prejudiced) never admits causes are unknown. For instance, if a Muslim looking man, with a Muslim sounding name, whose internet accounts reveal interest in terrorist causes, suddenly decides to kill random strangers, the AP might report that the reason for the violence is unknown. Perhaps they believe that makes up for endorsing assumptions like the one in the article about the flood. 

   I am not a fan of right biased news either. In a spiritual context, seeking spokesmen to tell us what we want to hear is called having itching ears. It is the opposite of listening to sound doctrine. As the political persuasion most likely to believe in objective truth, the right goal of the Right should be to report it. Truth can speak for itself and even benevolent bias muffles it. In actuality, there is little factuality from either side of the political spectrum, and that is the honest truth.

 

     

 

      

 

Reading and Writing

    I believe it is possible to read but never write (creatively, or in my case, recreationally), but I don't believe it is possible to write but never read. In order for a brain to spit something out (which explains my writing) it is necessary to first put something in. That is why my recent writer's block did not concern me, that happens fairly often. But I was very concerned that I was not reading. I downloaded books on Kindle as usual, read a few pages, found they did not hold my interest, and stopped reading. It is not like me to not finish a book, even when it is a bargain price through Book Bub. Time is precious, reading is a luxury, and I simply did not want to waste it on books I don't enjoy. I also did not want to waste time looking for a better book online.

   Finally Book Bub offered a sequel to "Anguished English", a humorous compilation of misspelled, mis-spoken, and misused phrases. "Bride of Anguished English" got me reading again and made me laugh, but I wondered how I would do with a novel. In this week's Book Bub there was one of Kathy Reich's Bone sequels. She is a very engaging author and even though it was more than I usually pay for a download, $2.99, I bought it. Reichs uses a lot of cliff hanger chapter endings which cause some author endorsements to describe her books as "unputdownable." However, I feel a professional writer, should be "authory" enough to use a genuine word, if only to discourage us amateur hacks from using made up words like authory. 

    So I am reading again and have begun blogging again. There is a vast difference between what my brain is taking in and what it is spitting out, but reading and writing go, if not hand in hand, at least hand in head. Awkward, but still somehow, getting somewhere. I'll settle for that.

 

Double Blessing

   We always thank God for the food before we eat a meal, but sometimes the dessert makes you want to double down and thank Him all over again. Tonight's dessert was coconut cream pie. Since I was making crust for quiche last week, I also made a pie shell. Reed requested coconut cream as the filling. Coconut was one of the things we got to add back into the menu after coconut "intolerant" (by choice) Tracy left home. Reed and I happen to like it.

    I thought about making a dessert Britten's family would enjoy since I knew they would probably be with us for dinner that evening. They had kindly offered to help Reed with the windows and sheeting for the west side of our ongoing home siding project, but they're not really pie people, so I made coconut cream anyway. It's not as if I didn't have other desserts. To (mis)quote Marie Antoinette--Let them eat cookies.    

   Thankfully tonight was the third, and final, appearance of the pie. When the kids lived at home, I had to make a 10 inch pie if I wanted any to survive past dinner. Now, with just two of us, finishing off a 9 inch pie comes with a serving of relief, as if we finally finished some sort of food marathon. My next project is making something out of the leftover egg whites. That is one of the wonders of the way God made eggs, the yolks can thicken a filling, the whites fluff and lighten another dessert. Isn't that just like the Lord to make even something as simple as eggs a double blessing?

     

 

Right Place, Right Time

    There are times it is obvious that the Lord crafts circumstances to puts us in the right place at the right time. That happened to me last week at Smith's grocery store. I prefer to do my shopping mid morning when it is less crowded, but for one reason or another, wound up not arriving at Smith's until after 11. I had barely begun shopping when I noticed a friend who had attended our church for a time. She and her husband live 30 miles from Kalispell, but their local church was having problems at the time, so they drove in to attend Central Bible. Gloria broke her shoulder skiing and had several unsuccessful surgeries to repair it during the time they attended our church, and I heard after they left that she had also broken her back. But what I noticed at the store, one gimp to another, was her limp. 

    So that day I became one of those annoying people who stop for a long grocery-cart, heart-to-heart in an inconvenient corner of a busy store. Gloria had been in town for a second opinion on an upcoming surgery for her torn Achilles tendon. The doctor she consulted was actually the partner of the one who did my ankle surgery in May. Between our shoulders and our feet we had a lot to talk about, but the reason for which the Lord put us together was that she would need a knee scooter for 5 weeks following surgery. However, not having had my morning coffee before heading out, I was telling her where to get one instead of offering her the one sitting idle in our guest room until she flat out asked if she could borrow it. Of course she was welcome to it, and I felt ridiculous for not having offered it myself. She will pick it up when she comes for her pre-op appointments at the end of the month.

     I am thankful God was able to use clueless (caffeine-less) Connie once again. I have had a couple other times recently when I got to the grocery store later than I wanted, but just in time for a basket full of newly discounted items to be put out, and finding good bargains excites me even more than scoring one of those coveted little grocery carts to shop with. I am trying to remember that God has a plan even in the small details of life. And if I would bother to pray about such things, I could relax and trust His timing instead of stewing because my schedule is disrupted. As in Jesus' earthly ministry, sometimes the Lord leads us into a crowd for one person, someone we can help just by letting Him put us in the right place, at the right time.