Not So Famous…

For me, this question is academic. The situation described is not one I face, but someone faces it…someone I know…someone I care about. So while I ask this question because I’m genuinely curious, I’m not trying to belittle the very difficult decision that someone else faces…this situation is one that no one wants to be put in. But sometimes God puts people in situations where they don’t want to be, and they have to ask themselves, “What is right?”

Obviously, to answer this question, you have to come up with some standard of what defines “rightness”, for lack of a better term. I will state up front that I am not interested in many definitions of rightness. Ethics change with the person, quite often, and even if you determine that there is an objective standard for ethics, how did you come up with that standard. Even morally right is rather ambiguous. I’m interested in what the Bible says is right. I’m not here to argue that point…I am here, however, to discuss interpretations of the Bible.

Here’s the situation. John and Jane try to get pregnant, and they are successful. However, during subsequent tests, it is ascertained that the baby has no hands or forearms. When the baby is born, they determine that there is a heart condition. Later, they determine that the baby has no sight and no hearing, and most likely there will be some mental retardation. The baby needs a cardiac surgery in order to survive…what do these parents do???

Many people would say the parents should have had an abortion before the birth…this is not an option for these parents. They are Christians, and correctly believe that abortion is evil per the Word of God. I agree with them…so does God…that answer is not an option, and in any case, does not bear any relevance to the question at hand. What do they do from here??

Well, the options are rather limited…I figure at this point, they can either spring for the cardiac surgery, affording the child some sort of future existence, though the quality and/or quantity of that existence could be called into question. Or, they can not have the sugery performed, cutting short the child’s quantity of life.

I could postulate a lot of things, but I don’t have the answers. Not performing the surgery is not the same as having an abortion…is it? Thou shalt not murder, of course, but is a lack of action the same as an evil action? Sins of omission are just as wrong as sins of comission…that, too must be considered. Should have, could have, would have’s abound…what do they do? Do they judge the fact that the child’s quantity of life will be so diminished so as to determine for her that it’s not worth living? I worked at a camp for handicapped people, and let me say that though many people would have said that their parents should have ended their existences, they have a different standard by which they judge their quality of life. I saw some miraculous things at that camp, that year, and I don’t feel that we’re qualified to judge the quality of life of any other being.

That’s the altruist in me…listen to him, for he’s often silent, as my friends will attest. But put yourself in the position of this child. No sight…no hearing. If the nervous condition that has taken her sight and hearing is bad enough, her smell and touch could be affected. She has no way to bond with the world around her…no way to receive love from her parents, possibly. No idea who her parents are, maybe…no idea WHAT parents are. I can’t wrap my puny mind around it.

I said in a recent blog that we are not equipped to deal with that with which we are not to deal…if we’re not in the situation, then God does not give us the wisdom to say how we should cope or react…or decide. I don’t have the answers, and unless you are God, or this couple, I don’t think you do either. Why post this?? It’s on my mind. It’s made me look at my quality of life…it’s made me look at the life I take for granted. Maybe it will do the same for you.

Or maybe…just maybe, you are the couple whom I have described. Maybe you are facing this situation with your little girl. I cannot help you, my loved ones. I cannot offer any insight to your situation. I am lost, with regards to this problem. But Kim and I will be praying for you, and God knows what you are going through. And through Him Who strengthens you, you can do all things. Even this. I can hug you, and my cotton shirt can absorb your tears, for tears are warranted in the tradition of He who cried for the lost of this world.

Heavenly Father…you know of whom I write about in this blog entry. I don’t even know what to ask for on their behalf. Strength to face the day. Diligence to seek out Your Word. Courage to do what they believe You want them to do. All of these things and more. Father put their hearts at peace regarding what they must do. Father prepare the hearts of those who have far more contact than I do with them. Please help them to not break the bent reed, and snuff out the dimly burning candle. Help them to be the comforters that these lovely people need. Lord, please give them wisdom to apply Your Word to their present situation, and give them peace. Father, all of this I ask in Your Holy Name. Amen.

Well, this weekend could not have been more different than last weekend, or the weekend prior to that. Here’s a little recap:

2 weekends ago:
- Found out some distressing news about some friends’ marriages.
- TiVo Computer blew up

Last weekend:
- Got parts in for TiVo Computer…
- …which failed to fix the problem, meaning I blew up some brand new computer parts.
- Ordered a new phone at work, which wouldn’t come in until next week. Not bad, really…only high point for the weekend.
- Kim got VERY sick, and stayed that way all week.
- Had to work Saturday from 9am to 11:30pm, not including drive time, which added 1.5 hours each way.

This week:
- Phone didn’t come in all week. Ineptitude all around.
- My computer keeps freezing both in and out of World of Warcraft. No idea why, really.

This weekend has been rather good so far. Friday, my replacement motherboard finally came in. I determined finally that it was my power supply that was blowing things up. I replaced my power supply with an older one, and when I put the motherboard in, everything worked splendidly!!!

My friend reported that he was having some of the same problems with his computer that I was having with mine freezing. He told me that his hard drive array being mirrored was causing the problem. (Mirroring is another of those things I’ll tell everyone about if you ask me.) :) This weekend I un-mirrored my drives, and am now typing this on a computer that is almost fully set up. I don’t like Windows XP’s happy little Bliss wallpaper, though. Need to find something dark and oppressive. :)

My TiVo computer is now up and running. I have done everything except set up all my recordings again. The really good news about all of this is that I didn’t lose a single show off my hard drive. :) I didn’t get to record shows from the last 2 weeks, but I didn’t lose anything I HAD recorded. YAY!

In other news, Kim is finally getting better. Thank you to everyone who prayed for us. Man, she was areally sick. First, she had a cold. Then, she had a sinus infection, which made her swallow lots of mucus overnight, which made her throw up a lot. Then, she got antibiotics from her dad, which also made her throw up. (Not good.) She started taking a smaller dose, and she’s getting better! It’s good to have her back. :)

Finally, church is tomorrow, and I am looking forward to that! In all, one of the better weekends I’ve had. WOO!

I recently posted that while I was in Davis, I went to the Sudwerk Brewery for a burger and beer. I reported that I tried the DunkelWeizen and was impressed with the beer.

Basically, I was told it was based on the Hefeweizen. A hefeweizen, for those who don’t know, is a beer brewed from wheat instead of barley. It’s very popular around harvest time, for obvious reasons, and the style hails from Germany, hence the name. :) Here’s the kicker…

The german word Dunkel means “dark”, (or so I’ve been told). A wheat beer tends to be rather light. So my question was, “Where does the Dunkel come from in the DunkelWeizen?” I left a comment card with the question written on it along with my e-mail address. I didn’t expect a response, but lo and behold, I got one anyway! Drew Colpitts, the assistant brewmaster at Sudwerk e-mailed me this response about 5 minutes ago:

Chris.
Thanks for the question.
We use regular Malted wheat and a portion of the grain bill is Roasted and Chocolate Barley in the Dunkel Weizen.
The Roasted Barley and Chocolate Barley is how we achieve the dark color.

Cheers

Drew

AHA! This is how they acheive that wonderful balance. I don’t know if I described the beer, but I remember it being rather fruity…or at least, it made me think of light citrus flavors, which is typical of a Hefeweizen. (Try a squeeze of lemon in your next one…you wouldn’t believe what that can add.) The waitress reported it as roasty, and while there were roasty notes in the beer, the color was pretty much the limit when it came to the coffee overtones. Those looking for the punch of a stout will be disappointed in this beer, but those looking for a unique flavor will love it.

In all, I would drink this beer again, definitely. It doesn’t compare to Scotch Ales such as Kilt Lifter or McEwan’s in my book, but it’s definitely a drinkable beer, proving that America does have something to offer when it comes to beers, both pilsner-style and ales!

Well, the world can end in fiery ruin…hell can open the doors to its new ski resort…pigs can open PigAir and fly people to the moon: Kim is playing a video game.

And I don’t mean she plays occasionally…I mean in the last week, I have spent a total of 22 hours on this game, and she has spent 19. 19!!!!

Anyway, the game is World of Warcraft, and it really is a stellar game. Bar none, World of Warcraft (WoW) is the best game I’ve ever set my greedy little eyes on, and it’s well worth every penny of the monthly subscription fees we pay.

Since the Hackmaster group has sort of dissolved for now, I have missed my fantasy gaming. Every member of the group now plays WoW, so I decided I would start up a character and see what I thought. It’s amazing….the developers have spent so much time on this game, it’s unreal. The world is very immersive, the details are legion! Even down to your character’s behavior while drunk (The screen gets blurry, and your screen shows characters 5-10 levels lower than they really are…nothing like courage in a bottle!)…they spent the time to make this game really great!

So yes…I’ve spent 22 hours on this game. It’s something Kim and I can do together, and it’s a lot of fun, so we spend a lot of time doing it.

In other news, we’ve started sitting down at the table for dinners. This is mostly because our TiVo computer is busted (see my rant from this past Saturday. :)), but also based on the fact that we’re both too busy to neglect that time with one another. We both knew it was something that we’d be doing when we had kids, but why not do it now, so it’s a habit when we do have the little bairns? It’s nice to talk about our days and stuff. Too often, conversations between busy, married couples are only the necessities. When was the last time you talked about each others’ dreams? When was the last time you talked about your aspirations and goals? Is it any wonder that when people decide it’s time they really spent some time and effort on their marriages, they find they don’t know one another? Spend some time with your husband/wife. Find out how they have been passing the time. Find out what happened at work and why…etc. Spend less time in front of the TV. :)

To close, I thought I’d include a pic of my character on WoW while drunk. :) This image has not been doctored except to shrink the size. :)

Chris, computer guru, here with a tip for all you aspiring computer geeks: Take up music…or sports…or anything having little to nothing to do with computers, especially anything dealing with troubleshooting the innards of said demonic devices.

Do I really mean this? Not really…I still like computers, and the fact that they pose a challenge to me only adds to my enjoyment. However, I am frustrated. Allow me to elaborate.

I have a computer that timeshifts and records television for me. Essentially, it’s a TiVo box. I don’t recommend such an undertaking to those who don’t want to spend a lot of time performing maintenance on their TiVo computers. There’s a lot that can go wrong, and for most people, purchasing a TiVo-brand box or other plug-n-play DVR would be just fine. However, I enjoy the challenge.

The other day, I was sitting in my living room with a friend when we heard the unmistakable sound of a computer shutting down. The only computer in the living room is the TiVo box. So here’s the conversation that ensued.

Friend: “So, you still have that TiVo computer?”
Me: “Uh…yeah.”
Friend: “How’s that working for you?”
Me: “Erm…I don’t know, actually.”

Kim turned on the TV, and lo and behold…nothing. This freaked me out, and suddenly, we smelled the wonderful smell that strikes fear into the hearts of computer people…ozone. Something blew up in my computer. When I restarted the computer, my fears were borne out, as I got error after error. I couldn’t boot into Safe Mode…nothing. Ok…I can fix this.

I thought about it and thought about it…I determined the motherboard blew up, so I put the processor and RAM on another motherboard (mobo) I had laying around. (How much of a computer geek am I? Most people don’t even know their computer HAS a mobo in it, and I’ve just got a spare one sitting around not being used…yeesh.) Anyway, I tried to run the computer with the new motherboard, and the motherboard wouldn’t even POST! (Power On Self Test…POSTing is the first thing your computer does when it turns on…before Windows loads up.) Anyway, I determined that either my Processor, RAM, or mobo was bad. I slept on it.

The next day, I talked it over with Kim and she agreed that the best thing for me to do was to buy all of the components. This way, I could get some stuff upgraded, and ensure that the part(s) that were bad are gone. I do this. Friday, the stuff came. I was seriously excited, because the new motherboard had some capabilities I was planning on using, etc. etc. I couldn’t wait to get the stuff home to set it all up.

To make a long story boring, I get the stuff home, plug it in, and nothing works. SON OF A…

Basically, I am returning the mobo to get a replacement that works, and to eliminate all variables, I’m going to replace the power supply (which could have caused the whole darn mess) with an older one I have sitting around. (Again, I say…how geeky can you get.)

In all, I could have the darn thing replaced in the next week. I’m tired of messing with it for now, but I’m interested in the additional functionality that this new mobo will get me. Specifically, I’ve got my eye on a set of speakers that will give us surround sound at a VERY reasonable price. The mobo will work with them out of the box. I’m happy…or would be if it were all working.

I’m currently drinking: Nothing, actually. Last night I had another Chrisbeer after the abovementioned activities. :) Today, I’m actually working in Davis on a server we’re trying to rebuild. For lunch, I had a beer called DunkleWeizen from a brewery called Sudwerk. Apparently, this beer is based off the HefeWeizen style of beer, which is a wheat beer. However, in German, “dunkles” means “dark”, and it is. This is interesting, because by their very nature, wheat beers are not dark. They must have roasted the wheat or something to get the darkness. The aroma was very malty…almost like a Scotch Ale…surprising in a beer that is supposedly wheat-brewed. Roasty flavors were very subdued, and the fruitiness I usually associate with a lighter beer was very much present. A very nice beer to have with a meal, which I did. :)

The title is what I feel like screaming to the world at this moment. Not that any one person is causing me a lot of grief….not even that a LOT of people are causing me grief. This is just one of the times in my life where there are a lot of different things going on all at the same time, and all of them drawing me in a different direction.

Everything in my personal life is going great, for the most part. My marriage is good, my job keeps me busy, and my friends and us like to have a lot of fun together when we actually get the chance to see one another. Personally, I’d have to say things have never been better. Kim and I are still communicating well…still learning things about one another that we didn’t know, or hadn’t thought about. She’s now playing a Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game with me and a bunch of us that used to play Hackmaster. It’s called World of Warcraft, and it really is a phenomenal game. It’s the first game I’ve ever seen Kim WANT to play, so it really is a novel experience. :) Everything really is going well with me.

However, recently, I have been…well…I don’t want to say “dragged in” because it sounds like I resent my involvement, and I DO NOT. I don’t want to say “I’ve gotten involved” because then it sounds like I can’t keep my nose out of other people’s business, and that’s not it either. I have become involved in some situations with which I have no experience. I’m not the wisest guy on the face of the planet. I don’t know everything. In fact, I am keenly aware that there is plenty of stuff out there I have no clue about.

In the first situation, a friend of mine is having marriage troubles. This is definitely a new experience. Many of my friends have been married less than 5 years, so marriage troubles with my peers are not something I’ve had to deal with. Furthermore, I don’t know that I can help the person who has come to me. I don’t know that I’m going to have much to offer him other than someone to listen if he needs it. I realize that this is all some people want…something you should understand, gentle reader, is that I am a guy. Guys inherently want to fix things. It makes me very well-suited to my job as an Information Technology professional. Someone comes to me with a problem with their computer, and I figure they want me to fix it….simple. (I have learned in my marriage that this is not the case when Kim comes to me with a problem, but that’s neither here nor there.) So I realize I can’t fix this person’s problems. All I can do is be there for them if they ever want to talk about the problems facing them. I have no advice to offer necessarily, and in any case, I can offer them no reason why they should listen to my non-experienced butt.

My parents had marriage troubles…in fact, after 13 years of marriage, they called it quits and divorced. This pretty much jacked up my life and the life of my sister, but that also is not the point. I had little faith in love after my parents split, and I know how I felt as a child of divorced parents. However, I have no clue how I’d feel if Kim and my marriage became rocky. I count on her for…well…everything, really. I don’t think this is a problem, either, because God instituted marriage knowing that Adam needed an “help meet” for him. God knew that it was “not good that man should be alone.” I would be worthless without Kim. I could continue working, eating, playing video games, but she means everything to me, and I don’t know that I would WANT to continue without her. How, then, can I offer my friend any help? I can’t really. I have to accept that.

Another of my friends is also having marriage problems. Now, this other friend is 10 years older than myself, so he’s not technically a peer. This is a much different system than the first one, though the topics are similar. In this situation, I DO have advice. I DO feel I know what the people involved should do, but my suggestions will not be pleasant to either party, and really, this other person has not ASKED me what I feel they should do, so I have no business interjecting my opinions, however well-founded. Now, I’m really oversimplifying things in this case. It’s not as simple as “You do A, you do B, and everything will work out just fine.” There are complexities that I’m not about to get into here, of course. Each problem that I identify in the situation is actually linked to a deeper, more difficult problem until you get to the core issues. These core issues are so ingrained into the people involved that it will take a LOT of work to get through them, and the crap of it is that at least one of the parties involved does not see that they need to change anything. Very difficult indeed.

In order to come up with good advice, I’ve asked myself, “What would I do in that situation?” The answer? Well, first off, I don’t think I’m ever going to find myself in the situations I’ve not described very well above. :) Really, all problems can be linked to initial screw-ups or core problems. Contrary to the belief of people who do not use their brains, major problems generally do not appear. Now, it’s possible that someone takes a blow to the head and goes completely nuts, but apart from a brick to the cranium, people do not change in the blink of an eye. People’s choices lead to situations where people must again make choices, and so on and so forth. Eventually, people can get themselves into situations where a GOOD choice is not possible. Instead, people end up picking the lesser evil from an array of other evils.

So to avoid these situations, good decisions must be made from the get-go…or at least, analysis of each decision made should lead to an about-face before it becomes to late to do so. This is something that Kim and I are very good at doing. Nipping problems in the bud before they become bigger problems is the obviously preferred method. However, all of that does not help my friends in their situations. What would I do if I found myself in their shoes? I have no clue, really. I don’t believe that it is given to us the capacity to deal with that which we have not been equipped to deal. Sounds like a simple thing to say, really, but it’s really quite profound.

When I was growing up, I had a less-than-stellar childhood. I’m not going to lie here…it could have been worse. Those of you who know me know the problems I had. Plenty of people have it worse than I did, of course. However, plenty of people had it better, and can’t imagine putting their children through the crap I had to deal with. I managed to escape my childhood with my general sanity intact, though some may dispute that. I’ve got my problems even yet, but overall, I survived well. My friends all asked me how the heck I could find it within me to deal with the crap I had to deal with. I don’t know…I just did. They all told me that if they were in my situation, they would crack and blow up or whatever. They all determined that they wouldn’t have been able to make it. Possibly they wouldn’t…I don’t know. I do know that some of my friends have gone through things that I don’t know that I would have been able to handle. What it comes down to is that I believe that God equips each of us to handle the situations in which He, in his infinite wisdom, purposes to put us. Conversely, He does NOT equip us to handle situations we are not to deal with. Pretty simple, really. C.S. Lewis in the Chronicles of Narnia touches upon this with regards to knowledge of others’ futures and situations when Lucy Pevensie asks Aslan what would have happened if thus and such had not happened. Aslan is the allegorical Jesus in his Chronicles, and Aslan’s answer is very much akin to what Jesus might have said if He had been asked this:

“You mean,” said Lucy rather faintly, “that it would have turned out all right-somehow? But how? Please, Aslan! Am I not to know?”

“To know what would have happened, child?” said Aslan. “No. Nobody is ever told that…But anyone can find out what will happen.”

So how would I have dealt with the situations in which my friends find themselves? I will never know this. We can find out what will happen…and to some degree, by using wisdom, we can can influence what will happen. I will pray for my friends, of course, and I ask that you do the same. Also, pray for me. If they ask me what I think they should do in their situations, I need to make sure I have the Lord’s wisdom to give them, and not my own.

Having said all that, I am involved in these situations, so therefore, I can handle these situations. For while I do not believe that God equips people to handle situations they will not be dealing with, I believe that He does equip us to deal with situations with which we will be confronted.

“Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost. As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be world without end. Amen. Amen.”