tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-201042922024-03-13T18:44:44.034-04:00The Familyhood ChurchA blog about living better, where living better means living in honest connection with people, being able to contribute something to them, and connecting honestly to God. (Updated for 2015)Kevin Knoxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16788817477327510023noreply@blogger.comBlogger644125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20104292.post-9530697707403336082021-02-28T20:45:00.001-05:002021-02-28T20:46:00.171-05:00American Fast<div>So, let's talk about Christian fasting. </div><div><br /></div><div>Last week I had to prep to teach Isaiah 58, which basically says "Ya'll are fasting to get me to hear you. Why don't you quit finger-pointing in ALL-CAPS at each other on Facebook and oppressing your poor? If you start caring for my children out of the good things I've given you, I'll hear your prayers, reward your fasts, and raise you up to glory."</div><div><br /></div><div>I've never really been an advocate for fasting, and I was not sure how this chapter was supposed to make me into one, but I researched. That's one of the cool things about teaching through a lectionary instead of hunting and pecking your way through the Bible. You have to deal with stuff you usually ignore. I researched ... and came away less of a fan of fasting. </div><div><br /></div><div>It was all good until I decided to research Jesus' statement, "this kind only comes out with prayer and fasting" in Matt 17:21. Suprise! Matt 17:21 was not in my Bible. Suddenly, the game was afoot. It had a note telling me it was "included in some versions" and was a parallel of Mark 9:29, so off I went. Yeah. Mark 9:29 only said prayer, not fasting. But the King James said fasting in both places. </div><div><br /></div><div>More digging. </div><div><br /></div><div>It turns out several original Greek texts don't say fasting but several times more originals do say fasting than don't. The mystery deepened. If the majority vote in favor, why have all the modern versions picked the minority? </div><div><br /></div><div>Well, it turns out there's one more key verse in this mystery. 1 Corinthians 7:5 says you can defraud each other only for a time and only to engage in prayer and fasting. Yeah, the modern versions have omitted fasting there, too. This time, though, it's an open and shut case. They can clearly see when someone added the words "and fasting" to Paul's original text. They know the versions without fasting are correct. </div><div><br /></div><div>It seems the early church got all obsessed with the idea of fasting, to the point the Didache actually misquoted Jesus saying you should fast for your enemies when he actually said to pray for them. Big difference. </div><div><br /></div><div>Fasting was a big deal among the Jews, and therefore among the early Christians. Jesus clearly lays down some ground rules for how not to fast. Paul owns that he has fasted often. But, if you're going to look for advice on how to fast in the New Testament, you're going to look long and hard. </div><div><br /></div><div>We want our prayers to be loud before God, for him to hear and heal our land. It would be nice if skipping a handful of meals would make that happen, but the testimony of Isaiah 58 is unambiguous. Fasting without mercy and without self-sacrifice amplifies his anger toward you, not his grace. Mercy and self-sacrifice without fasting amplify his mercy. </div><div><br /></div><div>If America wants mercy from God, it must show mercy to his children.</div><div>+ Begin meaningfully comforting refugees who show up on our borders</div><div>+ Hear people when they cry out against wage slavery</div><div>+ Break the yokes when 500,000 people protest oppression in 500 places and 26 million overall</div><div>+ Make the courts a place where the poor can win</div><div><br /></div>Kevin Knoxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16788817477327510023noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20104292.post-65855388110204899942020-11-01T13:21:00.000-05:002020-11-01T13:21:05.063-05:00A Brokenhearted Ebenezer<p>The Ebenezer stone was precious, even though it was erected in the middle of a mess. </p><p>Samuel (1 Sam 7:10) stands up the Ebenezer stone saying, "Thus far the LORD has helped us." They had just been granted a big deliverance from and victory over the Philistines (after 20 years of failure), and they now have a big chunk of the promised land. They called on the LORD, instead of trying to do it all in their own strength, and he answered. They had "done good", and they had done it by the LORD's mercy. </p><p>The moment deserved to be commemorated. Their thankfulness was utterly appropriate. Their worship was timely. </p><p>And soon they called for God to let them follow a king instead of him. Soon they chased after idols. Soon they followed Saul into pride. Later they let their idolatry offend God so much the North and then the South were carried into captivity. After such glory and promise, their story continued to be filled to the top and overflowing with shame. </p><p>After centuries of loss, after all the pain and shame, they returned from Babylon to Israel. The Ebenezer stone was still standing there. </p><p>What were they to make of that stone 500 years later, after 500 years of shame and failure, 500 years of shattered promise?</p><p>Did that stone now testify against them? Did it mock them? Did it, 500 years later, tell them "no further will God help you, after all you've done"?</p><p>I look back, and my life is filled with forgotten Ebenezers, moments that the LORD delivered me by grace and following moments when I failed all over again. There are many of those places God fought to turn me toward Him, to grow me toward truth, and where he succeeded only to have me find some new way to fail all over again. There are many places I grew toward him and not away, only to fail all over again. </p><p>I have hid my face in shame from those pregnant moments all these years. I could not bear to remember the face plant following each of them. I remember where the LORD took my hand and brought me "thus far" only to watch me stumble again from the path. </p><p>It helps a little to see each Ebenezer as, rather than a boundary, a mile marker. I can hold my progress "thus far" precious as I remember the markers laid down those sad years ago, and remember mile marker flowed after mile marker. If I can remember each Ebenezer, maybe I can believe there's another left to me, somewhere out there, another place to which the LORD will take further. </p><p>Perhaps, God still has a beautiful plan for my life. </p><div><br /></div>Kevin Knoxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16788817477327510023noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20104292.post-42788467293097813982020-10-11T15:07:00.001-04:002020-11-01T13:11:51.527-05:00Me and My House<p>In Joshua 24, Joshua himself tells the people to choose whether they will worship their old gods, or YHWH, who had loved and saved them. As for him and his house, they would serve the LORD. </p><p>The people agree to do the same as Joshua. Joshua responds by saying they think they can, but they cannot. They will fail, because God is a jealous God. </p><p>In Sunday School I learned today something of what Joshua meant when he said those words. </p><p>No god, before that time, had ever been jealous. </p><p>The people of Israel had some history in Babylon, lots of history in Egypt, and a growing history of Canaanite religions in their toolbags. They knew the gods. They were men of the world, and they knew how things worked. What's more, Joshua knew they knew. </p><p>Today, if you want your car fixed, you go to a mechanic. If you want your back fixed, you go to a chiropractor. If you are having allergies, you go to CVS and pick up some Benadryl. In each case, you provide the same things: you describe your need, you lay down some money, you go out and do something with the guidance you receive. </p><p>In Joshua's day, if you wanted a good crop you offered a part of your dinner to the god of crops. If you wanted children you made a larger offering to the fertility god. If you were headed out to battle you offered something huge to the god of war. The gods of storms, of sun, of rivers were the CVS, the Well Fargo Bank, and the 401k's of their time. You went to the appropriate god, laid down something of value to the god, and went out to do the things the god would bless.</p><p>None of those gods was jealous. No more than CVS is mad when you put money in your 401k, or Wells Fargo hates when you visit your mechanic, did Ba'al hate when you offered good things to Astarte. Dealings with the gods were business. The gods had needs and so did the people, so one could scratch their backs and hope they would scratch happily back in the right place. Joshua told the people YHWH was like some giant amazon.com in the sky offering every service, in the midst of the great economy of gods, and if they transacted with any god but YHWH he would destroy them. YHWH was jealous.</p><p>Joshua's words were so foreign the people quickly agreed to them without even noticing they had no idea what he was talking about. The Book of Judges reveals just how short the people fell from understanding what they affirmed. </p><p>I think we find ourselves in the same situation. </p><p>The Holy Spirit has promised to guide us into all truth, but we mingle our ideologies. Confronted with a ballot, we consult the god of capitalism for guidance, the god of socialism, the gods of Wall Street and Pennsylvania Avenue. We hear the multiplied voices of those who decry abortion or gun violence screaming in our ears, and we seek out the right crowd to follow. </p><p>Jesus warns us broad is the way and many are those who travel in it. </p><p>Today, in this environment, I'm not sure yet I understand Jesus or the guidance of his Holy Spirit any better than those enthused Israelites who knew exactly the right words to shout to Joshua. </p><div><br /></div>Kevin Knoxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16788817477327510023noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20104292.post-14406118230763707552020-09-13T14:08:00.002-04:002020-11-01T13:11:35.028-05:00The Righteous Live Together <div>In Romans 1:17, Paul famously says, "the just shall live by faith", but less famously the real question in Martin Luther's mind when he saw that verse was the beginning phrase, "the righteousness of God is revealed". </div><div><br /></div><div>There are 3 righteousnesses in play in this verse. There's the righteousness of the Jews in obeying the law, the righteousness of the Greeks in ignorance of that law, and the righteousness of God in accepting the Gentiles unfairly, without conforming to the holiness of the law. You may not have heard that last one fully, so I'll repeat it. The Jews were worried God would be made unrighteous if he accepted the Gentiles before they conformed themselves to Sabbath, Circumcision, and dietary laws. </div><div><br /></div><div>The Jews worried about making God unrighteous. </div><div><br /></div><div>It is to laugh.</div><div><br /></div><div>But, when we laugh, let's be sure to laugh at ourselves with them. EVERY reference to the Jews can be fully, accurately, and fairly replaced with a reference to Hypocrites, and that's my tribe. I'm a hypocrite of the hypocrites, circumscribed in my theology on the eighth day (and then again and again and again over the years). I remember being raised Pentecostal and arguing God always wanted to heal, so if we were not healed to admit it was not God's fault. I remember when I learned Calvinism arguing God could not save the reprobate without sullying his own holiness. I remember saying if you're not near to God, it's not him that moved. </div><div><br /></div><div>I would argue the Gentiles/Greeks stand in well for all Lawless people in Paul's argument. They are the ones who ignorantly do what comes naturally, which in this American century encompasses a lot of options. I cannot talk much about the Lawless, because I was wired for legalism from day one. </div><div><br /></div><div>The amazing thing about Romans is how Paul argues 3 righteousnesses. Paul argues the Hypocrites and the Lawless can both be made righteous, and even better, God can rescue both those tribes (even if neither knows they need it) while remaining righteous himself. </div><div><br /></div><div>It was for this reason Paul wrote the book of Romans, his only written, complete argument. The church in Rome was brand new, constituted suddenly when Nero allowed the Jews back into Rome. This was a fresh start with fresh people. He knew and loved all the people he lists in the 16th chapter, but he also knew a bunch of his Judaizing enemies had come to be part of that fresh start. Paul knew they'd come to Hypocritize this new church, and he wanted to cure the problem before it even started. The Letter to the Romans was his scalpel. </div><div><br /></div><div>Look what he does. </div><div><br /></div><div>He anticipates a brutal, legalistic attack on what will and must become a key church throughout the empire in its very first days, and look what he does. </div><div><br /></div><div>He makes room for Hypocrites and Lawless to be joined together into one living body. He gives a formula, not whereby "his team" will win, but whereby both sides can move forward together. </div><div><br /></div><div>You doubt this. </div><div><br /></div><div>You think Paul fought for grace against legalism without remorse. Or, at the very least, you think Paul was just teaching the pure gospel to pure hearers. You doubt this book was written to head off a fight between Hypocrites and Lawless. </div><div><br /></div><div>I submit to you Romans 14 as the "therefore" of the book. Just give it a read. </div><div><br /></div><div>When the righteousness of God is revealed, it can meld the Hypocrites and the Lawless together into a single, righteous body. </div><div><br /></div><div>Amazing.</div><div><br /></div>Kevin Knoxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16788817477327510023noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20104292.post-4352199273501347422020-07-17T09:51:00.002-04:002020-11-01T13:11:15.905-05:00Battle Flags Cannot Heal<div><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hn1VxaMEjRU" target="_blank">Are we the Baddies?</a></div><div>(This is a comedy sketch in which a Nazi officer is suddenly aware his unit's emblem is a skull.)</div><div><br /></div><div>Starting in 1600 or so, European scientists began the process of understanding and explaining why white Europeans were so easily able to dominate the rest of the world. At the summit of their thinking, they created the idea of race. They compared Quarter-horses to Clydesdales, and found these two different species of "horse" were intrinsically differentiated across a spectrum of speed and strength. They categorized these 2 breeds as "races", and went off to the races with the idea. They accepted that white Europeans were intrinsically optimized for mastery and the rest of the world for obedience. Their invention of this idea of race soothed their cognitive dissonance. </div><div><br /></div><div>The word, "race", as used today to encompass American social issues revolving around skin color, began its life in 1774. Darwin's famous book is actually entitled, "On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life". Darwin (who was not a racist) used word "race" in its scientific meaning, and others ran further with this thinking. Race took on a narrow and profitable definition in the United States when plantation owners embraced the new science of keeping the races separate. Racial purity would ensure masters maintained mastery and slaves remained compliant and productive. </div><div><br /></div><div>Science called the internal principle of heredity, "germ plasm", and recognized it was inherent in every being. In 1872, they coined the term, "genetics", to describe it. Only 11 years later, a scientific theory was advanced to quantify the advantages of intentionally maintaining good genetics - eugenics. The word "eugenics" literally means "good genetics" in Greek.</div><div><br /></div><div>Adolf Hitler famously took this acknowledged, if faulty, scientific hypothesis to its extreme and launched his notorious programs to ensure the Aryan "race" was kept genetically pure. </div><div><br /></div><div>The people following Hitler never asked themselves, "Are we the Baddies?" Any doubts they may have felt were mollified by their own jealousy and the pseudo-scientific rationales experts put forward. Were I in Germany in 1935, I have to admit the odds I would have done any better in the face of such rational arguments are not encouraging. I could have been the Baddie then, and if I could have been the Baddie then, I have to see I could be the Baddie now.</div><div><br /></div><div>We cannot understand history until we embrace the fact our most comfortable beliefs could be as false as Jefferson Davis's or Adolf Hitler's. Until we understand we could be the Baddies today, we cannot understand how Confederate politicians and Nazi politicians could be, however ambiguously, on the side of evil then. They calmed their cognitive dissonance by embracing arguments presented as scientifically reasonable and defensible. If the hypotheses behind eugenics were true, and these men had just enough excuse to believe they might be true, then they could do their jobs in peace. The family men under these leaders were just being faithful to their own consciences.</div><div><br /></div><div>Something ended eugenics - stopped it dead in its tracks. Something finally put this evil science to rest for good and for all, and we need to understand it. Hopefully, Stephen Jay Gould put the final nail in eugenics' coffin in 1996. Yes, eugenics was still alive and publishing in 1994. And yes, the broken science of white supremacy continues to bedevil social progress to this very day. </div><div><br /></div><div>When Herrnstein and Watson (who famously was part of the pair who codified the alphabet of the genome) released their pro-eugenics book, The Bell Curve, Gould took aim at its faulty science and shut it down. Almost 700,000 dead during the Civil War had only driven eugenics underground in America. Hitler could still send his scientists to America in the 30's to extend his thinking on race. 70,000,000+ dead during World War II finally made eugenics unpopular throughout the whole world, but it still quietly lived on. It was science that finally did the job. Science exposed the falsehoods of eugenics and the world accepted Gould's demolition thereof as final. </div><div><br /></div><div>Eugenics is finally off the table, but Race retains its destructive power. Race is no longer a scientific matter, but it's still culturally deadly. The invention of Race by white Europeans, and magnified grotesquely by 250 years of American slavery, 100 years of Jim Crow oppression, and 50 years of tone-deaf denial, continues to kill today. America stumbles forward in blind hope 350 years of cultural momentum toward hate can be wiped away with a simple declaration of colorblindness. </div><div><br /></div><div>10 years ago I thought racism was done and dusted. I would have stood anywhere and declared meaningful prejudice was eliminated in America. No longer. Good and helpful confrontations by Black Americans made me ask whether maybe I was deceived, maybe Race was still hurting Americans today, maybe I was helping keep that harm alive, maybe I was the Baddie. I was. I was supporting a culture that offered a worse life to innocent people because of their skin color. I was championing politics that were ruining the lives of innocents. I was the Baddie, and I am changing. </div><div><br /></div><div>The Confederate Battle Flag has somehow morphed into a Conservative cause, and my conservative friends -- my Christian friends -- have taken it up. How can they not cry? In 1860 a man might be excused, but in 2020 we know how that story goes. We know the death and oppression that flag boasts against our Black brothers and sisters. My friends' support for it, and for the Confederate "heroes" who committed their lives to support it, shakes me to the core. </div><div><br /></div><div>How are we not the Baddies when we fight to wave the Confederate Battle Flag in the face of those whom it has crushed for generations? </div><div><br /></div><div>Race exists because we created it 250 years ago. Race is no part of human makeup. Instead, it's a cultural pile-driver and the statistics show the generations it's driven into the dirt. We need to see those horrifying numbers and own American culture as the thing causing them. We need to be horrified and resolve to heal. </div><div><br /></div><div>We need an American conversation about this culture, a conversation with my friends at the table. </div><div><br /></div><div>Can we not forswear that battle flag and talk?</div><div><br /></div>Kevin Knoxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16788817477327510023noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20104292.post-38507795254756540092020-06-22T19:52:00.003-04:002020-11-01T13:10:59.904-05:00Listening to Experiences Not Our Own<div>Those who know history are freed to repeat the good parts.</div><div><br /></div><div>We all have our little parts to add in trying to understand the Black community's reaction to the killing of George Floyd. My little part might be to give a contrarian view of the history that brought us to his moment. I'm not qualified to speak to the experience of living as a Black person in America, but I can add a bit to what we learned in US History class. I look forward to hearing your part. We need each other if we're going to make things better.</div><div><br /></div><div>We start far away and long ago, because slavery was not invented in America. Russians, as we know them today, are the descendants of Vikings who got rich selling Irish slaves to Muslims. Vikings raided England and Ireland, took captives, sold them in Iraq, and settled down in what we now call Russia to enjoy the money they made. Modern Russia is what it is today because Vikings got rich off slavery. Look throughout the modern Middle East and modern Russia both, and you'll find no hated class of Irish descendants of slaves. A massive nation was built on slavery, but there's no lasting hatred. What was different there, or in practically all historical slavery?</div><div><br /></div><div>The Vikings were not capitalists.</div><div><br /></div><div>No, really. That's what's different. Capitalism changed everything, but not always for the better.</div><div><br /></div><div>In the age of the explorers, the Dutch were making tons of money trading with China, but every now and again a ship would sink causing some poor Dutch merchant to end up in the poor house. These merchants put their heads together and came up with a creative plan whereby a group of investors would pool their investments across many trading missions then share the profits and losses equally. Everybody got rich and nobody had to go to the poor house. It was a win, so they made it bigger. Thousands of investors would give lumps of money (capital investment) to a stock exchange where smart dealers would set up flotillas of missions to trade in the Far East. </div><div><br /></div><div>People got very rich this way. It worked so well that to this day no one has found a better way to turn large lumps of money into larger lumps of money. </div><div><br /></div><div>They say to err is human, but to really mess up you need a computer. Capitalism is like a computer for money. Capitalism has not escaped all the evils of the empires before it, and its mistakes were made at record speed. Europe became as wealthy as the Great Khan himself, and a whole community of the rich began looking for new ways to turn their newly embigified lumps of money into bigger lumps. </div><div><br /></div><div>They found sugar. </div><div><br /></div><div>Again, really. The rich Brits went nuts for sugar, of all things. There was not just a market for sugar, but a burning demand. Investors were earning back 8% on everything they could give. The well just would not run dry. At 8% over 20 years, an investor could quintuple his money. No one asked why or how sugar was winning so hugely; they just sunk more money into sugar. We know the "how and why" they didn't want to know. </div><div><br /></div><div>The how of sugar's amazing success was importing slaves at a daunting rate and replacing them frequently, since they tended to die after just a handful of years. It was better for the stockholders to replace these waylaid children of God than to care for them in any way, because those stockholders made money at both ends; selling people and working them to death were both profitable. T'was stockholders killed millions of Africans. </div><div><br /></div><div>The world had never seen so many millions of people treated so evilly, nor so many people grow so rich so quickly, nor so many people enjoy so many delectable baked goods with sweetened tea.</div><div><br /></div><div>In the American colonies, it was different. In America the work was a little less deadly and the slaves tended to live longer. This created a different culture from that which the Carribean plantation holders had on the sugar islands. In America, the slaves tended to have children and grow families. That demanded a different mentality than was required to work people to death. Only two mentalities could possibly long endure. Had a mentality of respect triumphed, slave-owning whites could have loved their slaves as equals and raised them up to full stature. The mentality of proud greed prevailed in America, though, and it allowed masters to demean their slaves and treat them as intrinsically less than human. </div><div><br /></div><div>1 out of every 3 people alive in the American South in 1850 was a Black human being, and that created an intolerable reality. Humans tend to connect to each other in very human ways, but mass slavery was an utterly inhuman arrangement. The 2/3 of people in the South who were white could not look themselves in the face if they imagined they were abusing people equal to themselves before God. They relieved that mental tension, that guilt, by believing and teaching their children Black people were created by God to be ideally suited to slavery. They were intrisically undisciplined. They were naturally strong. They were insensible to pain. They were in need of the Christian gospel. They both needed and loved to be treated just as masters chose to treat them. </div><div><br /></div><div>It was not enough. That belief was enough to make the money flow from cotton, but there was still one more human tension to relieve. Many white people sexually preyed on the vulnerable Black people they immorally called their private property. Rape, abuse, forbidden love, and every other form of human bonding, oppression, and reproduction mushroomed. This was domestically unacceptable, so one more divine lie needed to be cooked up and swallowed by the whole of American culture, North and South together. Whites taught their children most Black people were dangerous, unclean, pestilent, filthy. They taught their maturing sons that to be sexually joined to a Black American was to degrade, to foul, one's self. Union between whites and Blacks became an imagined offense to God, purity, and Christian morals everywhere. </div><div><br /></div><div>The necessary lies of African subhumanity and uncleanness grew and spread in America unchecked for 250 years. In 1859 American culture, even much of abolitionist culture, held African American slaves to be fitted only for the lowest of living. After 1865 slavery was illegal, but culture still held African Americans to be fitted only to be hidden away and left to disappear. The laws changed, but the culture didn't budge. We know that, because in 1963 it was still legally mandated in America to treat Black people as subhuman and unclean. The new laws of 1865 did not erase 200 years of disdain and disgust from the heart of a young Christian man. No, he passed that cultural lie on undiluted to his children.</div><div><br /></div><div>In 1964 finally it became illegal to treat Black people as subhuman and unclean, but a young Christian man in 1964 did not suddenly have 300 years of disdain wiped from his heart, any more than his great granddaddy did. We know that from the many, many laws we've needed to pass since that banner year of 1964 to close loopholes no loving person would find.</div><div><br /></div><div>In 2020, the law of this land makes people of every race equal in almost every way, but 350 years of disdain continue to work their poison. The law is better and maybe almost good, but there's more to human love than law. The law is, at the very least, doing better than we are. It's now time to work on hearts.</div><div><br /></div><div>The culture of our land is mixed. Almost every American heart displays toward Black Americans some of that respect to which they are entitled, but almost every American heart also carries some of that disdain which our history wires into us. We do not feel this disdain. We are insensitive to it. Disdain persists unfelt within us, even though we do not sense our insensivity. Neither did that young white man of 1859 sense his insensitivy. He prided himself on his large-heartedness toward his slaves. Neither did that young white man of 1963. He prided himself on his large-heartedness toward coloreds every bit as much as his forefathers. In 2020 we pride ourselves on our "color-blindness", and it is a step on the path toward decency, but it's a step taken without any mirror. We cannot see ourselves as we are seen by the Black Americans around us. </div><div><br /></div><div>Guess who can see us as we are seen by the Black Americans around us.</div><div><br /></div><div>Whites are surrounded by 40 million people who have been hated, belittled, and disdained for 400 years, and who continue to try to carve out an equal opportunity among us. They see us clearly. They have proven themselves faithful by any standard we could hope to claim for ourselves, and yet many of us do not trust their complaints. We are blind to their pain, but they cannot help but see us. They must see us, because our failings are their history, their present, and (unless someone does something smart) their future.</div><div><br /></div><div>My heritage is American, but when I look back a little further I see Scotland. I feel a little warm and fuzzy when I see St. Andrew's Cross on a blue field. Need I tell you how the Scots reacted to British rule? We've all seen Braveheart. That brutality is the standard against which I must evaluate the patience and longsuffering of African American people, because they've been treated far worse than my people were treated by the English. I am thankful for the kindness they've exhibited over the years, decades, and centuries. We have not earned their grace. I cannot look at the anger in American streets today without remembering the decades of cultural injustice I've witnessed with my own eyes. What's more, as a white man raised to insensitivity toward this injustice, I know I've only witnessed a fraction of what was there to be seen.</div><div><br /></div><div>So, in light of my history lesson, what do I recommend to myself? What do I think I should do?</div><div><br /></div><div>I should open my ears to the story only Black Americans can tell. I must quit telling people they're wrong to be angry without hearing them tell me the reasons they are angry. I must quit making my hearing contingent upon every protester being a saint. Most protesters are no greedier than I would be after walking 4 centuries in their shoes. I need to seek out the voices of the angry and give them a fair listen. I need to be shaken, and not to try to shout down faithful, angry brothers and sisters.</div><div><br /></div><div>It's past time we quit making our Black American neighbors shout into a void. We need to hear them with all the heart we put into silencing them these 6 decades past. </div><div><br /></div><div>Let's hear the bad and work to find a good path forward. I suspect ... I cannot promise, but I suspect ... somewhere in our 400 years there've been some good parts. Someone, somewhere did something good and right. If we can silence our hate-memes against protesters and open our hearts to the whole story, I believe we could find something of which to repent, something worthy to be changed, and maybe even something worth doing again. Those who keep fighting anger with hate and mockery have forgotten history. It's never worked before and if they carry this day, we'll all be doomed to forever repeat the divisions of our history. </div><div><br /></div><div>Let's apply our history lessons, and do something beautiful instead.</div><div><br /></div>Kevin Knoxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16788817477327510023noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20104292.post-44377086263983196302019-12-25T17:32:00.001-05:002020-11-01T13:08:28.290-05:00Le PoignardWe all know I'm obsessed with not using the mouse, right?<br />
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Maybe...<br />
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Or maybe I'm obsessed with not switching between keyboard and mouse!<br />
<br />
I'd like to introduce my newest dictionary, the Poniard. The poniard is the left-handed dagger of Steno. It was used in place of a shield during polite European swordplay, and was quite the discovery. A poniard was easier to carry when shopping for the Mrs. than even the smallest shield, allowed the user to be offensive, and generally looked cool on a gentleman's hip. Now, just like a dashing Renaissance swordmaster, anyone will be able to sally forth in style while fending off rude emails.<br />
<br />
This steno poniard is a left-handed dictionary. Using it, I'm able to type 99% of anything I'd ever type with both hands, but without releasing the mouse at any point. It's perfect for all flavors of editing. With the right hand firmly wielding the mouse I slash the cursor madly wherever I have text to expunge, cut it with the left, click again where it needs pasting, drop it in with the left, and fly bravely into the next grammatical disaster to begin again.<br />
<br />
Using nothing but my trusty poniard, I am able to type this paragraph entire (to include arrowing around and adding random punctuation - like! and? 4 no good "reason", or 'cause' if you'd rather. And, yes, the lowly ` and * can be found.) Things like [], {}, and <> are present, of course, as are =, +, ^, and /. I tweaked the number system so 1234567890,10,11,12 are all available through the Nimble Number System and added the traditional punctuation marks with them. Shift-8 gives you a *. I've also built in F 1-12 with any one of shift, control, and alt.<br />
<br />
Yes, that paragraph entire was typed using the poniard. My right hand was lazily draped across the back of the couch the entire time. I achieved a stunning 3 words per minute doing so. Needless to say, that's with no muscle memory, since I just finished building it, but I'm beginning to feel the love. A year from now, I'd love to be up to 20 words per minute with it. That's okay, because I intend to use it mostly as an editing enabler.<br />
<br />
Things like arrowing around, pasting, deleting, and typing individual letters to make a plural of a lonely word work great with this system. Things like alt-F4 and ctrl-W are breathtakingly easy. It was actually made to ctrl-A, ctrl-C, ctrl-V and does so with STKPWRO/KRO*/SRO*.<br />
<br />
You'll recognize the C and the V, and gather adding an O adds the control key to the stroke. The A is the new stroke there, being STKPWR (best read as Z+R). It's always been the vowels that killed any singlehanded system, and not just E and U. Every consonant can be made using the 7 keys of the left fingers. It's the vowels that stubbornly refuse to fit. I've treated the left-hand keyboard as 7 keys plus 4 modifiers (being the #, *, A, and O). Using those 11 keys, I've generated something like 250 strokes. It's a bit tight, but I've tried to impose some order.<br />
<br />
The consonants are unchanged. The vowels are all Z-based. Z+R=A, Z+R*=O, Z+H=E, Z+H*=U, Z+HR*=I. Yes, I is a full mash of all finger keys. Adding the traditional steno A-key adds "shift" to the letter. That's how you make a capital letter. Adding O adds "control". Adding AO does not add "shift-control" to the letter, as you might expect, but adds "alt". So, you can add the 3 main modifiers to the keys, but not in combinations like shift-control or alt-control. So far, that's not hurt me. If I deem it necessary, I've got an idea for that, but it will be complex and I'm going to let the stuff I have sink in a bit before I try to go that far.<br />
<br />
The action keys, like return, backspace, delete, page up and down, tab, et cetera are all available and use the patterns already proven in the Nimble Single Stroke Commands dictionary. Again, adding shift, control, and alt is done the same way as the letters.<br />
<br />
The function keys were a little tricky, but I've gone with the Nimble Number System again, and this time added *. So, hitting a nimble 8+* will give you F8. Add an O to that, and you have control-F8.<br />
<br />
And then things get even stickier. Sorry. It's the best I was able to do, and I'm getting quite comfortable with it. The next 16 patterns are all just shape-based.<br />
SKWH: ,.!?<br />
STPR :;/\<br />
SKPH ([{<<br />
STWR "'`*<br />
<br />
Make the shape to get the first character in the list. Add A for the second, add O for the third, add AO for the fourth. And then, if you add * to any shape, you get a variation of the plain character. You might get a close bracket or a space-less version of the same punctuation.<br />
<br />
Just one more note to make here. I lost two left-hand-only briefs that I cared about. Other's mileage may vary. I lost KPA* to force upper case without a space. At the same time, I needed a way to force lowercase as well, so I put all that on STK. STK forces lower, STK* forces upper case, and STKA* forces a blank space then upper. If you feel more need to keep using KPA than to have X, though, you can just add a KPA* at the end of the dictionary to override the dictionary's default.<br />
<br />
# Give the left hand ability to force to "lower", "upper", and "upper with space" commands<br />
values['STK'] = '{^^}'<br />
values['STK*'] = '{^}{-|}'<br />
values['STKA*'] = '{}{-|}'<br />
<br />
And then I needed to replace WR for were. I used WE*R. Again, if you don't expect to need the right arrow, you can create an override and get it back.<br />
# Add-ons to make up for briefs we've overwritten<br />
# Replace WR (were)<br />
values['W*ER'] = 'were'<br />
<br />
Okay. That about does it for a first introduction. If enough people think this has potential and want documentation I'm sure I can be persuaded. Here's hoping someone else thinks it's a useful idea.<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<br />
<br />
<a href="https://drive.google.com/open?id=1fidSIwMi7nw1ZdkhfZRIosp6hjDV0_-R" target="_blank">Poniard</a>Kevin Knoxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16788817477327510023noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20104292.post-78572557493557230662019-11-09T19:16:00.005-05:002020-11-01T13:08:12.762-05:00Nimble Numbers - UpdateStenography is full of exciting discoveries. In this case, my discovery was how hard it was to change 3 years of learning the original steno numbering system. Sigh. I've taken the Nimble Number System and converted it for use with the original 4 numbers. Nimble's system was more efficient, but I've had to take the less painful route because I'm a wimp. So be it.<br />
<br />
The Nimble Number system v2 is now available to any Plover user on any Plover-compatible keyboard of the classic Ireland 23- key layout.<br />
<br />
The classic stenography numbering system uses: STPH- for 1, 2, 3, and 4; -FPLT for 6, 7, 8, and 9; and AO- for 5 and 0. You can create a number of arbitrary length, as long as that number is in steno order. At some point, someone introduced the idea of adding -EU to any pair of numbers to reverse them. So, using classic steno, you can write any 2-digit number and several longer numbers if you're lucky. It was always a fun game to see how few strokes you could use to type a long number. With some cleverness, you could often find a 3-digit or even 4-digit single stroke.<br />
<br />
Nimble's system is superior. He uses STPH-in combinations to create every digit from 0-9. That's the best thing about his system. The counting numbers to 9 are all on the left hand. Beyond that, though, he then replicates the pattern on -FPLT to make a 2-digit number, on -RBGS to make a 3rd digit, and on SKWR- to make a fourth digit. That's sweet. And for one more great piece of goodness, he uses AOEU to add marks like the $ and %. I don't actually know what the combinations are he uses, but I didn't let a little thing like complete ignorance slow me down. I've created my own.<br />
<br />
AOEU can create 16 combinations, so I've created the ability to add 16 decorations: $, ., :, -, (), and / in several different forms. You can now single-stroke $12.34, (1234), 18:00, and 12.34%. Granted, they're all finger-twisters, but you don't have to start to that way. I'm certainly not.<br />
<br />
I'm getting used to the idea by working mostly with 1 and 2 digit numbers. They're pretty easy. I'm also getting up to speed pretty quickly on IP addresses, which use some 3-digit numbers. 3 is not too hard. I do have to say, the 4-digit numbers are very hard because I had to compromise the S- key. The original system relied on the S- being split into two keys. I could not do that. Instead, wherever you would hit the lower S-, you have to hit the *. It's a sad accommodation, but it still leaves those numbers available to me if I ever find one I need to use a lot.<br />
<br />
So, the dictionary comes with 3 Help Strokes. Hit #-F, #-P, and #-L to see the following 3 bits of detailed help:<br />
<br />
I need to improve this, but I'll put it out here now as a full disclosure thing.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">#-F</span><br />
<span style="font-family: courier new, courier, monospace;">....Writing Nimble Numbers</span><br />
<span style="font-family: courier new, courier, monospace;">....How to stroke the numbers 0-14</span><br />
<span style="font-family: courier new, courier, monospace;">...H<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span> 4 </span><br />
<span style="font-family: courier new, courier, monospace;">..P.<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span> 3 </span><br />
<span style="font-family: courier new, courier, monospace;">.T..<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span> 2 </span><br />
<span style="font-family: courier new, courier, monospace;">S...<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span> 1 </span><br />
<span style="font-family: courier new, courier, monospace;">..PH<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span> 7 </span><br />
<span style="font-family: courier new, courier, monospace;">.TP.<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span> 6 </span><br />
<span style="font-family: courier new, courier, monospace;">ST..<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span> 5 </span><br />
<span style="font-family: courier new, courier, monospace;">.TPH<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span> 9 </span><br />
<span style="font-family: courier new, courier, monospace;">STP.<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span> 8 </span><br />
<span style="font-family: courier new, courier, monospace;">STPH<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span> 0 </span><br />
<span style="font-family: courier new, courier, monospace;">S..H<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span> 10 </span><br />
<span style="font-family: courier new, courier, monospace;">.T.H<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span> 12 </span><br />
<span style="font-family: courier new, courier, monospace;">S.P.<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span> 11 </span><br />
<span style="font-family: courier new, courier, monospace;">S.PH<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span> 14 </span><br />
<span style="font-family: courier new, courier, monospace;">ST.H<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span> 13</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">#-P</span><br />
<span style="font-family: courier new, courier, monospace;">....Nimble Numbers Table of Possibility</span><br />
<span style="font-family: courier new, courier, monospace;">....Single stroke 1, 2, 3, and 4 digit numbers with all modifiers</span><br />
<span style="font-family: courier new, courier, monospace;">---</span><br />
<span style="font-family: courier new, courier, monospace;">-<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Bare number</span><br />
<span style="font-family: courier new, courier, monospace;">....<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span> 3 <span style="white-space: pre;"> </span> 32 <span style="white-space: pre;"> </span> 321 <span style="white-space: pre;"> </span> 3217 </span><br />
<span style="font-family: courier new, courier, monospace;">-<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Leading decimal</span><br />
<span style="font-family: courier new, courier, monospace;">.O..<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span> .3 <span style="white-space: pre;"> </span> .32 <span style="white-space: pre;"> </span> .321 <span style="white-space: pre;"> </span> .3217 </span><br />
<span style="font-family: courier new, courier, monospace;">-<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Central decimal</span><br />
<span style="font-family: courier new, courier, monospace;">.OE.<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span> .3 <span style="white-space: pre;"> </span> 3.2 <span style="white-space: pre;"> </span> 3.21 <span style="white-space: pre;"> </span> 32.17 </span><br />
<span style="font-family: courier new, courier, monospace;">-<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>$ alone</span><br />
<span style="font-family: courier new, courier, monospace;">A...<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span> $3 <span style="white-space: pre;"> </span> $32 <span style="white-space: pre;"> </span> $321 <span style="white-space: pre;"> </span> $3217 </span><br />
<span style="font-family: courier new, courier, monospace;">-<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>$ with central decimal</span><br />
<span style="font-family: courier new, courier, monospace;">AOE.<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span> $.30 <span style="white-space: pre;"> </span> $3.20 <span style="white-space: pre;"> </span> $3.21 <span style="white-space: pre;"> </span> $32.17 </span><br />
<span style="font-family: courier new, courier, monospace;">-<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Trailing colon</span><br />
<span style="font-family: courier new, courier, monospace;">..E.<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span> 3: <span style="white-space: pre;"> </span> 32: <span style="white-space: pre;"> </span> 321: <span style="white-space: pre;"> </span> 3217: </span><br />
<span style="font-family: courier new, courier, monospace;">-<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>O'clock</span><br />
<span style="font-family: courier new, courier, monospace;">AO.U<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span> 3:00 <span style="white-space: pre;"> </span> 32:00 <span style="white-space: pre;"> </span> 321:00 <span style="white-space: pre;"> </span> 3217:00 </span><br />
<span style="font-family: courier new, courier, monospace;">-<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Trailing hyphen</span><br />
<span style="font-family: courier new, courier, monospace;">A..U<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span> 3- <span style="white-space: pre;"> </span> 32- <span style="white-space: pre;"> </span> 321- <span style="white-space: pre;"> </span> 3217- </span><br />
<span style="font-family: courier new, courier, monospace;">-<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Negative as -</span><br />
<span style="font-family: courier new, courier, monospace;">AO..<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span> -3 <span style="white-space: pre;"> </span> -32 <span style="white-space: pre;"> </span> -321 <span style="white-space: pre;"> </span> -3217 </span><br />
<span style="font-family: courier new, courier, monospace;">-<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Leading (</span><br />
<span style="font-family: courier new, courier, monospace;">A.E.<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span> (3 <span style="white-space: pre;"> </span> (32 <span style="white-space: pre;"> </span> (321 <span style="white-space: pre;"> </span> (3217 </span><br />
<span style="font-family: courier new, courier, monospace;">-<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Negative as()</span><br />
<span style="font-family: courier new, courier, monospace;">A.EU<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span> (3) <span style="white-space: pre;"> </span> (32) <span style="white-space: pre;"> </span> (321) <span style="white-space: pre;"> </span> (3217) </span><br />
<span style="font-family: courier new, courier, monospace;">-<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Trailing )</span><br />
<span style="font-family: courier new, courier, monospace;">..EU<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span> 3) <span style="white-space: pre;"> </span> 32) <span style="white-space: pre;"> </span> 321) <span style="white-space: pre;"> </span> 3217) </span><br />
<span style="font-family: courier new, courier, monospace;">-<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Percent symbol</span><br />
<span style="font-family: courier new, courier, monospace;">...U<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span> 3% <span style="white-space: pre;"> </span> 32% <span style="white-space: pre;"> </span> 321% <span style="white-space: pre;"> </span> 3217% </span><br />
<span style="font-family: courier new, courier, monospace;">-<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Percent with central decimal</span><br />
<span style="font-family: courier new, courier, monospace;">.OEU<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span> .3% <span style="white-space: pre;"> </span> 3.2% <span style="white-space: pre;"> </span> 3.21% <span style="white-space: pre;"> </span> 32.17% </span><br />
<span style="font-family: courier new, courier, monospace;">-<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Trailing /</span><br />
<span style="font-family: courier new, courier, monospace;">AOEU<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span> 3/ <span style="white-space: pre;"> </span> 32/ <span style="white-space: pre;"> </span> 321/ <span style="white-space: pre;"> </span> 3217/</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">#-L</span><br />
<span style="font-family: courier new, courier, monospace;">....Writing Several Nimble Numbers</span><br />
<span style="font-family: courier new, courier, monospace;">....How to stroke 2, 3, and 4 digit numbers</span><br />
<span style="font-family: courier new, courier, monospace;">The first digit of any number is typed on the STPH- keys</span><br />
<span style="font-family: courier new, courier, monospace;">The second digit of any number is typed on the -FPLT keys</span><br />
<span style="font-family: courier new, courier, monospace;">The third digit of any number is typed on the -RBGS keys</span><br />
<span style="font-family: courier new, courier, monospace;">The fourth digit of any number is typed on the -*KWR keys</span><br />
<span style="font-family: courier new, courier, monospace;">The fourth digit is a mess. Sorry. The S- could not be reused</span><br />
<span style="font-family: courier new, courier, monospace;">so substitute the * for the S-, so it's out of sequence</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">so substitute the * for the S-, so it's out of sequence</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">To download and play with the dictionary, click here:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://drive.google.com/open?id=1_DkAidKu47S3RjTqCTBYwWuPh53VrwXc" target="_blank">Nimble Numbers 2</a></span><br />
To download and use the Nimble Numbers system with the single command dictionary, click here:<br />
<a href="https://drive.google.com/open?id=1_J_N5Kq8pUvUE0tj9Crt4DjsormXBFCV" target="_blank">Nimble Single Stroke Commands 2</a><br />
<br />Kevin Knoxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16788817477327510023noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20104292.post-40594810963036721022019-10-11T19:46:00.000-04:002020-11-01T13:07:48.998-05:00Nimble NumbersStenography is full of exciting discoveries.<br />
<br />
No, really, it is.<br />
<br />
Okay, well stenography is full of things that excite me, and when the community user Nimble mentioned he had a new way to write numbers, I was completely stoked. His system relied upon a custom keyboard, though, and therefore was not usable by me.<br />
<br />
Enter determination.<br />
<br />
The Nimble Number system is now available to any Plover user on any Plover-compatible keyboard of the classic Ireland 23- key layout.<br />
<br />
The classic stenography numbering system uses: STPH- for 1, 2, 3, and 4; -FPLT for 6, 7, 8, and 9; and AO- for 5 and 0. You can create a number of arbitrary length, as long as that number is in steno order. At some point, someone introduced the idea of adding -EU to any pair of numbers to reverse them. So, using classic steno, you can write any 2-digit number and several longer numbers if you're lucky. It was always a fun game to see how few strokes you could use to type a long number. With some cleverness, you could often find a 3-digit or even 4-digit single stroke.<br />
<br />
Nimble's system is superior. He uses STPH-in combinations to create every digit from 0-9. That's the best thing about his system. The counting numbers to 9 are all on the left hand. Beyond that, though, he then replicates the pattern on -FPLT to make a 2-digit number, on -RBGS to make a 3rd digit, and on SKWR- to make a fourth digit. That's sweet. And for one more great piece of goodness, he uses AOEU to add marks like the $ and %. I don't actually know what the combinations are he uses, but I didn't let a little thing like complete ignorance slow me down. I've created my own.<br />
<br />
AOEU can create 16 combinations, so I've created the ability to add 16 decorations: $, ., :, -, (), and / in several different forms. You can now single-stroke $12.34, (1234), 18:00, and 12.34%. Granted, they're all finger-twisters, but you don't have to start to that way. I'm certainly not.<br />
<br />
I'm getting used to the idea by working mostly with 1 and 2 digit numbers. They're pretty easy. I'm also getting up to speed pretty quickly on IP addresses, which use some 3-digit numbers. 3 is not too hard. I do have to say, the 4-digit numbers are very hard because I had to compromise the S- key. The original system relied on the S- being split into two keys. I could not do that. Instead, wherever you would hit the lower S-, you have to hit the *. It's a sad accommodation, but it still leaves those numbers available to me if I ever find one I need to use a lot.<br />
<br />
So, the dictionary comes with 3 Help Strokes. Hit #-F, #-P, and #-L to see the following 3 bits of detailed help:<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">#-F</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">....Writing Nimble Numbers</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">....How to stroke the numbers 0-14</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">...H<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span> 0 </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">..P.<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span> 1 </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">.T..<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span> 2 </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">S...<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span> 3 </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">..PH<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span> 4 </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">.TP.<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span> 5 </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">ST..<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span> 6 </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">.TPH<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span> 7 </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">STP.<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span> 8 </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">STPH<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span> 9 </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">S..H<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span> 10 </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">.T.H<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span> 11 </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">S.P.<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span> 12 </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">S.PH<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span> 13 </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">ST.H<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span> 14</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">#-P</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">....Nimble Numbers Table of Possibility</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">....Single stroke 1, 2, 3, and 4 digit numbers with all modifiers</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">---</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">-<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Bare number</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">....<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span> 1 <span style="white-space: pre;"> </span> 12 <span style="white-space: pre;"> </span> 123 <span style="white-space: pre;"> </span> 1234 </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">-<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Leading decimal</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">.O..<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span> .1 <span style="white-space: pre;"> </span> .12 <span style="white-space: pre;"> </span> .123 <span style="white-space: pre;"> </span> .1234 </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">-<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Central decimal</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">.OE.<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span> .1 <span style="white-space: pre;"> </span> 1.2 <span style="white-space: pre;"> </span> 1.23 <span style="white-space: pre;"> </span> 12.34 </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">-<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>$ alone</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">A...<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span> $1 <span style="white-space: pre;"> </span> $12 <span style="white-space: pre;"> </span> $123 <span style="white-space: pre;"> </span> $1234 </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">-<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>$ with central decimal</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">AOE.<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span> $.10 <span style="white-space: pre;"> </span> $1.20 <span style="white-space: pre;"> </span> $1.23 <span style="white-space: pre;"> </span> $12.34 </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">-<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Trailing colon</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">..E.<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span> 1: <span style="white-space: pre;"> </span> 12: <span style="white-space: pre;"> </span> 123: <span style="white-space: pre;"> </span> 1234: </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">-<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>O'clock</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">AO.U<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span> 1:00 <span style="white-space: pre;"> </span> 12:00 <span style="white-space: pre;"> </span> 123:00 <span style="white-space: pre;"> </span> 1234:00 </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">-<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Trailing hyphen</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">A..U<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span> 1- <span style="white-space: pre;"> </span> 12- <span style="white-space: pre;"> </span> 123- <span style="white-space: pre;"> </span> 1234- </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">-<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Negative as -</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">AO..<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span> -1 <span style="white-space: pre;"> </span> -12 <span style="white-space: pre;"> </span> -123 <span style="white-space: pre;"> </span> -1234 </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">-<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Leading (</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">A.E.<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span> (1 <span style="white-space: pre;"> </span> (12 <span style="white-space: pre;"> </span> (123 <span style="white-space: pre;"> </span> (1234 </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">-<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Negative as()</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">A.EU<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span> (1) <span style="white-space: pre;"> </span> (12) <span style="white-space: pre;"> </span> (123) <span style="white-space: pre;"> </span> (1234) </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">-<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Trailing )</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">..EU<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span> 1) <span style="white-space: pre;"> </span> 12) <span style="white-space: pre;"> </span> 123) <span style="white-space: pre;"> </span> 1234) </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">-<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Percent symbol</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">...U<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span> 1% <span style="white-space: pre;"> </span> 12% <span style="white-space: pre;"> </span> 123% <span style="white-space: pre;"> </span> 1234% </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">-<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Percent with central decimal</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">.OEU<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span> .1% <span style="white-space: pre;"> </span> 1.2% <span style="white-space: pre;"> </span> 1.23% <span style="white-space: pre;"> </span> 12.34% </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">-<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Trailing /</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">AOEU<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span> 1/ <span style="white-space: pre;"> </span> 12/ <span style="white-space: pre;"> </span> 123/ <span style="white-space: pre;"> </span> 1234/</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">#-L</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">....Writing Several Nimble Numbers</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">....How to stroke 2, 3, and 4 digit numbers</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">The first digit of any number is typed on the STPH- keys</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">The second digit of any number is typed on the -FPLT keys</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">The third digit of any number is typed on the -RBGS keys</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">The fourth digit of any number is typed on the -*KWR keys</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">The fourth digit is a mess. Sorry. The S- could not be reused</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">so substitute the * for the S-, so it's out of sequence</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">To download and play with the dictionary, click here:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://drive.google.com/open?id=1-Q3sNEOaunq-UDGKQPi-EWp54o5xKSaN" target="_blank">Nimble Numbers</a></span><br />
To download and use the Nimble Numbers system with the single command dictionary, click here:<br />
<a href="https://drive.google.com/open?id=1_KoSpN_c8IaaXA8Q4iriAGl_meDl7N5R" target="_blank">Nimble Single Stroke Commands</a><br />
<br />Kevin Knoxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16788817477327510023noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20104292.post-74427348019459171952019-06-21T19:33:00.002-04:002020-11-01T13:08:45.321-05:00Single Stroke CommandsMost people control their computer like a first-person shooter computer game. With one hand on the keyboard and the other flipping back and forth between computer and mouse. It's a point-and-click game for them, played for a living wage, and frankly most people are happy to let their time slowly drain away in just this way. They type a bit, let the computer catch its breath whilst switching to the mouse, drift the pointer over to the next target, click it, give the computer another nap while swinging their hand back to keyboard, type again at long last, and repeat 1,500 times per day.<br />
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Others are not so easily amused.<br />
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These people, the lazy and hard to please folk who demand their computer take no pointless breaks, control their computers like a guitar, performing several actions at once. They never take their hands off the keyboard, and issue complex commands with a stroke or two. They compose a new message, switch from email to browser, create a new tab, log on to a remote computer, switch to an ssh prompt, issue commands, copy configuration lines to a text editor, and get hacking without "lifting" at any point, at full throttle throughout.<br />
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This is the magic of "keyboard shortcuts", and they're <i>almost </i>enough to run a computer at full throttle, but even the mighty shortcut keys have a problem. Mere mortals cannot use them without lengthening their fingers another inch or so and learning to twist them with precision across two rows of keys to find distant Alt, Super, and Function keys in all their critical combinations and sequences.<br />
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Only stenographers can truly run at full throttle. Only stenographers have every keyboard shortcut at their fingertips.<br />
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<a href="https://drive.google.com/open?id=1Xd75iG_LiegY__zVIdEhGjP4yLz-SuTn" target="_blank">Download the Single Stroke Commands Dictionary</a><br />
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Using the Single Stroke Commands dictionary within Plover, every keyboard shortcut is under your fingers in the home position. Install the dictionary per usual procedures, then hit the following key combinations to activate each keyboard shortcut.<br />
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To hit the 4 arrow keys:<br />
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KPR-FRLG is [Up] as {#Up}{^}{>}
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TWH-FRLG is [Down] as {#Down}{^}{>}
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SK-FRLG is [Left] as {#Left}{^}{>}<br />
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WR-FRLG is [Right] as {#Right}{^}{>}<br />
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To hit page up and page down with home and end keys<br />
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PHR-FRLG is [Page_Up] as {#Page_Up}{^}{>}<br />
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WHR-FRLG is [Page_Down] as {#Page_Down}{^}{>}<br />
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KPWR-FRLG is [Home] as {#Home}{^}{>}<br />
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TPWH-FRLG is [End] as {#End}{^}{>}<br />
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To hit named action keys<br />
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TKP-FRLG is [Escape] as {#Escape}{^}{>}<br />
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TKW-FRLG is [Tab] as {#Tab}{^}{-|}<br />
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SP-FRLG is [Space] as {#Space}{^}{>}<br />
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SHR-FRLG is [Return] as {#Return}{^}{-|}<br />
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Any of the keys above can be combined with modifiers, along with any fingerspelled letter key. So, you can hit "[Shift]-[End]" or "[Super]-[T]" or "[Control]-[Shift]-[Alt]-[Tab]". The following diagrams show how to use the right hand to add modifiers to any key hit with the left hand, be it a shortcut key or a simple letter.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhN0NisoL5QXkpZbSUJT4c5xLiBhbsNEm5lQihdN61yF6unqY0Dr8jw8GEitaA10lQfFy4k_vhFTEN8uG5dSwNrIsQe93DxeQZDIFgV4su4FLnGaSXPZmDqlEFqlbG6NTRmX0oWvg/s1600/StenoBot-FRLG.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="114" data-original-width="220" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhN0NisoL5QXkpZbSUJT4c5xLiBhbsNEm5lQihdN61yF6unqY0Dr8jw8GEitaA10lQfFy4k_vhFTEN8uG5dSwNrIsQe93DxeQZDIFgV4su4FLnGaSXPZmDqlEFqlbG6NTRmX0oWvg/s1600/StenoBot-FRLG.png" /></a></div>
?-FRLG is [?] as {#?}{^}{-|}<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzly3GIUrzZDd2RA8dFUD7LAG_IRHFH5_X-UiszJoj1b37rLIRfTAMrm52BktstGFUo0Km8SP3DjYqhM_JoJ0pAJMEuRcR8JHgNYh6e6GJLlFe1ti0OQIzElSXuXmfJYs-y7RsBQ/s1600/StenoBot%252BFRLG.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="114" data-original-width="220" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzly3GIUrzZDd2RA8dFUD7LAG_IRHFH5_X-UiszJoj1b37rLIRfTAMrm52BktstGFUo0Km8SP3DjYqhM_JoJ0pAJMEuRcR8JHgNYh6e6GJLlFe1ti0OQIzElSXuXmfJYs-y7RsBQ/s1600/StenoBot%252BFRLG.png" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAqtj2vFMbBJxDjM7tkjJbO7GhUN1DZsmRoGHTRqIj54bXi-ULHrak3zYaq-qVuDEfQYajExyZLjbJbjJkPSDNajiW4TnFeSQT_Jn21wTIAo2Uohgw-K3SP9kwANKWmiOPXAptSw/s1600/StenoBot%252BFRBLG.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a>?*FRLG is [Control]+[?] as {#Control_L(?)}{^}{-|}<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJmnDJd1oOmw0gj5bRio3WWyRchhgxeerauV6sbPTrDbiF200KUsbzzYkVI09m5yqlrRl1frU53zMQcQepGWwABqE3F9Ug95b4lrx8KLjPa-FbHa9LF1nLdv5afy_ePEkuQgHNhg/s1600/StenoBot-FRBLG.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="114" data-original-width="220" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJmnDJd1oOmw0gj5bRio3WWyRchhgxeerauV6sbPTrDbiF200KUsbzzYkVI09m5yqlrRl1frU53zMQcQepGWwABqE3F9Ug95b4lrx8KLjPa-FbHa9LF1nLdv5afy_ePEkuQgHNhg/s1600/StenoBot-FRBLG.png" /></a></div>
?-FRBLG is [Shift]+[?] as {#Shift_L(?)}{^}{-|}<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHRoiqAzSZjcPeBKTzYdbMpRbKUsuPnxwPhO7sLOlHVXflSlqCqJHH_GfzInGdRtsIjTzQQy_tkAHiLRxrr9JzmFh7Po5PednaU0dN0Rig620XzL23GloSBGUUSTVtx-fvzhrDUg/s1600/StenoBot-FRLGTS.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="114" data-original-width="220" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHRoiqAzSZjcPeBKTzYdbMpRbKUsuPnxwPhO7sLOlHVXflSlqCqJHH_GfzInGdRtsIjTzQQy_tkAHiLRxrr9JzmFh7Po5PednaU0dN0Rig620XzL23GloSBGUUSTVtx-fvzhrDUg/s1600/StenoBot-FRLGTS.png" /></a></div>
?-FRLGTS is [Alt]+[?] as {#Alt_L(?)}{^}{-|}<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7xWoQjx8yMt43Ex_jguVd58b7o2yk0-X9c60F0_EBrZ_pQXTpxYbRqMX5xWTuSmzvv280ipq1ySYJB5GbAIrCjezbInYkU10fQaffI7RRdjXKdSiAPp2cPZ253fPxzVhXGZcKgQ/s1600/StenoBot-TSDZ.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="114" data-original-width="220" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7xWoQjx8yMt43Ex_jguVd58b7o2yk0-X9c60F0_EBrZ_pQXTpxYbRqMX5xWTuSmzvv280ipq1ySYJB5GbAIrCjezbInYkU10fQaffI7RRdjXKdSiAPp2cPZ253fPxzVhXGZcKgQ/s1600/StenoBot-TSDZ.png" /></a></div>
?-TSDZ is [Super]+[?] as {#Super_L(?)}{^}{-|}<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAqtj2vFMbBJxDjM7tkjJbO7GhUN1DZsmRoGHTRqIj54bXi-ULHrak3zYaq-qVuDEfQYajExyZLjbJbjJkPSDNajiW4TnFeSQT_Jn21wTIAo2Uohgw-K3SP9kwANKWmiOPXAptSw/s1600/StenoBot%252BFRBLG.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="114" data-original-width="220" height="103" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAqtj2vFMbBJxDjM7tkjJbO7GhUN1DZsmRoGHTRqIj54bXi-ULHrak3zYaq-qVuDEfQYajExyZLjbJbjJkPSDNajiW4TnFeSQT_Jn21wTIAo2Uohgw-K3SP9kwANKWmiOPXAptSw/s200/StenoBot%252BFRBLG.png" width="200" /></a></div>
?*FRBLG is [Control]+[Shift]+[?] as {#Control_L(Shift_L(?))}{^}{-|}<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkBQUpqBhclfWeBWiuLvWZYx7FGxxF5lupvB_dpClBFLfaN0abnUqJFa6YseROCjBdjr1YDuWzniG2glGP3pfKyMFy2iWhI-59wgUQo8nLqe94K1ZU60sp-Pc5wpuXKva4anLtCA/s1600/StenoBot%252BFRLGTS.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="114" data-original-width="220" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkBQUpqBhclfWeBWiuLvWZYx7FGxxF5lupvB_dpClBFLfaN0abnUqJFa6YseROCjBdjr1YDuWzniG2glGP3pfKyMFy2iWhI-59wgUQo8nLqe94K1ZU60sp-Pc5wpuXKva4anLtCA/s1600/StenoBot%252BFRLGTS.png" /></a></div>
?*FRLGTS is [Control]+[Alt]+[?] as {#Control_L(Alt_L(?))}{^}{-|}<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgP0DLAxeo-sKbLN1UtzN7CbOU5GA5PRg6ut_K6AYAj5-dqxS2msnUcARr7NcrL1YuUgJm2Y8S_C9y0Zcp8zoNPYaIVtJrg2lCh7mLa4AnykyVNkPHGSgm3YWwdS0ZRhbTQ9RLZBQ/s1600/StenoBot%252BFRBLGTS.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="114" data-original-width="220" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgP0DLAxeo-sKbLN1UtzN7CbOU5GA5PRg6ut_K6AYAj5-dqxS2msnUcARr7NcrL1YuUgJm2Y8S_C9y0Zcp8zoNPYaIVtJrg2lCh7mLa4AnykyVNkPHGSgm3YWwdS0ZRhbTQ9RLZBQ/s1600/StenoBot%252BFRBLGTS.png" /></a></div>
?*FRBLGTS is [Control]+[Shift]+[Alt]+[?] as {#Control_L(Shift_L(Alt_L(?)))}{^}{-|}<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-gUHxJPrfAeIJlXWVky4xdDC_GVZntcFDkzSWr_fhtQDGiL-kUsqWUX2-uGzRIDpZVX5h3Do3SNhRnGWHMzFC1OjZl863yiNw7vWKPNXkRshDJHztXB6cWR3hLv4MFj16zP-uaw/s1600/StenoBot-FRBLGTS.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="114" data-original-width="220" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-gUHxJPrfAeIJlXWVky4xdDC_GVZntcFDkzSWr_fhtQDGiL-kUsqWUX2-uGzRIDpZVX5h3Do3SNhRnGWHMzFC1OjZl863yiNw7vWKPNXkRshDJHztXB6cWR3hLv4MFj16zP-uaw/s1600/StenoBot-FRBLGTS.png" /></a></div>
?-FRBLGTS is [Shift]+[Alt]+[?] as {#Shift_L(Alt_L(?))}{^}{-|}<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9J4ZnKzo4YJdzq709i9_wdpt_CahuGU34pTIyjkl60fYSI8-b4KuCETq_5XFMB92lY38waR-Q8_Yy4qJgCWJp97uiN8cSAUBmE6SpRIFRRGZ1wXMETcWSzrVxTS8r9LBZ3ZC1ig/s1600/StenoBot-BTSDZ.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="114" data-original-width="220" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9J4ZnKzo4YJdzq709i9_wdpt_CahuGU34pTIyjkl60fYSI8-b4KuCETq_5XFMB92lY38waR-Q8_Yy4qJgCWJp97uiN8cSAUBmE6SpRIFRRGZ1wXMETcWSzrVxTS8r9LBZ3ZC1ig/s1600/StenoBot-BTSDZ.png" /></a></div>
?-BTSDZ is [Shift]+[Super]+[?] as {#Shift_L(Super_L(?))}{^}{-|}<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPJka5FOULCWmL8E90Y0WkIP-Gm1zrkH7hY0yAvhqOhdRcC0KfDXu98PCO8Wy5o6JT_1bhfVXs-JcI9ixPP42oxOwig-_uzNus0WS-W0443aAdVMllqjH9xho57mMhiDu3obcBOg/s1600/StenoBot-PTSDZ.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="114" data-original-width="220" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPJka5FOULCWmL8E90Y0WkIP-Gm1zrkH7hY0yAvhqOhdRcC0KfDXu98PCO8Wy5o6JT_1bhfVXs-JcI9ixPP42oxOwig-_uzNus0WS-W0443aAdVMllqjH9xho57mMhiDu3obcBOg/s1600/StenoBot-PTSDZ.png" /></a></div>
?-PTSDZ is [Alt]+[Super]+[?] as {#Alt_L(Super_L(?))}{^}{-|}<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGy7en2V5X-cgsNXog9JDrhg_4PW-plErL23KSlLoBfFHUbG8E48ITic9r0U_Vx0mkYx7hWSMx1Tvzqp5tAozTy39JhmyMqmPbDozlGuIcNGmJcp8dt7iZi9X6ruD67T5FOH4fGQ/s1600/StenoBot-PBTSDZ.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="114" data-original-width="220" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGy7en2V5X-cgsNXog9JDrhg_4PW-plErL23KSlLoBfFHUbG8E48ITic9r0U_Vx0mkYx7hWSMx1Tvzqp5tAozTy39JhmyMqmPbDozlGuIcNGmJcp8dt7iZi9X6ruD67T5FOH4fGQ/s1600/StenoBot-PBTSDZ.png" /></a>?-PBTSDZ is [Shift]+[Alt]+[Super]+[?] as {#Shift_L(Alt_L(Super_L(?)))}{^}{-|}<br />
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Hitting the F1, F2, etc. function keys, you hit the simple navigation pattern of -FRLG with the appropriate left-handed number key. You can also add Control, Shift, and Alt to these function key presses. To hit the function keys from 6-9, you use the left hand simple navigation pattern of TKHR-, along with any desired modifier.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirkubv0nxW-qQfhya7lqrJBNqkFhj0Hl1tLhef2NXtHoeXrlka5k3cL0zUsCpgwaf3v97InZ96ckaATCWSOxSHPZtQzrIpyK2qzwwk63Z72c2diUrUq4uATYbY-Z1rrGwABwxcUg/s1600/StenoBot_LowFunctions.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="114" data-original-width="220" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirkubv0nxW-qQfhya7lqrJBNqkFhj0Hl1tLhef2NXtHoeXrlka5k3cL0zUsCpgwaf3v97InZ96ckaATCWSOxSHPZtQzrIpyK2qzwwk63Z72c2diUrUq4uATYbY-Z1rrGwABwxcUg/s1600/StenoBot_LowFunctions.png" /></a></div>
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1-6R8G is [F1] as {#F1}{^}{>}<br />
2-6R8G is [F2] as {#F2}{^}{>}<br />
3-6R8G is [F3] as {#F3}{^}{>}<br />
4-6R8G is [F4] as {#F4}{^}{>}<br />
56R8G is [F5] as {#F5}{^}{>}<br />
106R8G is [F10] as {#F10}{^}{>}<br />
14R-6R8G is [F11] as {#F11}{^}{>}<br />
12-6R8G is [F12] as {#F12}{^}{>}<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOBOsM2ifqfTnrWuSb2_kRjLoRLSgkVkIp_5vCO2RsgE3x6SgCgba1k99G6d_ihnoQdU5QIsCBdGeUB-TFNoiv1QOZnzrO0F9DWGAyTgmrIul289N_nZsg_tXFRvbS0rSVGz0Y9w/s1600/StenoBot_HighFunctions.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="114" data-original-width="220" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOBOsM2ifqfTnrWuSb2_kRjLoRLSgkVkIp_5vCO2RsgE3x6SgCgba1k99G6d_ihnoQdU5QIsCBdGeUB-TFNoiv1QOZnzrO0F9DWGAyTgmrIul289N_nZsg_tXFRvbS0rSVGz0Y9w/s1600/StenoBot_HighFunctions.png" /></a>2K4R-6 is [F6] as {#F6}{^}{>}<br />
2K4R-7 is [F7] as {#F7}{^}{>}<br />
2K4R-8 is [F8] as {#F8}{^}{>}<br />
2K4R-9 is [F9] as {#F9}{^}{>}<br />
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The "[Super]" key is known to Windows users as the "Windows Key" or "Win Key". The "[Super]+<number>" combination is powerful. Hitting <number>-TSDZ with any number 1-5 immediately switches focus to the numbered application as pinned to the Windows Taskbar. You can add Shift or Alt to the Super+number combination. To hit the numbers from 6-9, use the combination STK-<number>.</number></number></number><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKX5rYglqWyfXJkpqHD0rx0U2UfV7qNWA6qGXjFFLC8iyWF7Fj55fuXm62CzELx9q5ag082sVmhaLTrWltBeFoRe2Hkdrce1fbjRqNi5BTHZPhbPOTdpA_HrvAmLRq441EbXsz1g/s1600/StenoBot_LowSupers.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="114" data-original-width="220" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKX5rYglqWyfXJkpqHD0rx0U2UfV7qNWA6qGXjFFLC8iyWF7Fj55fuXm62CzELx9q5ag082sVmhaLTrWltBeFoRe2Hkdrce1fbjRqNi5BTHZPhbPOTdpA_HrvAmLRq441EbXsz1g/s1600/StenoBot_LowSupers.png" /></a>
1-9SDZ is [Super]+[1] as {#Super_L(1)}<br />
2-9SDZ is [Super]+[2] as {#Super_L(2)}<br />
3-9SDZ is [Super]+[3] as {#Super_L(3)}<br />
4-9SDZ is [Super]+[4] as {#Super_L(4)}<br />
59SDZ is [Super]+[5] as {#Super_L(5)}<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPEkCOFh1V6bBvXJLgAnViht28JnlixvKIvm_ygINv3y6SiJd5Pv95Sp41pd0XWK72P9By5f0B8fJP8WuteDXnVFwwTMmtnm7e07hpWR2SkBrlL-ihnzwNptiF0IKdJLvvYhEWcw/s1600/StenoBot_HighSupers.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="114" data-original-width="220" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPEkCOFh1V6bBvXJLgAnViht28JnlixvKIvm_ygINv3y6SiJd5Pv95Sp41pd0XWK72P9By5f0B8fJP8WuteDXnVFwwTMmtnm7e07hpWR2SkBrlL-ihnzwNptiF0IKdJLvvYhEWcw/s1600/StenoBot_HighSupers.png" /></a>
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12K-6 is [Super]+[6] as {#Super_L(6)}<br />
12K-7 is [Super]+[7] as {#Super_L(7)}<br />
12K-8 is [Super]+[8] as {#Super_L(8)}<br />
12K-9 is [Super]+[9] as {#Super_L(9)}<br />
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There are only 2 more goodies at this point: repeat commands and strokable help.<br />
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Repeat Commands<br />
Stroke any number from 2 to 20, 30, 40, or 50 plus the asterisk and then a command stroke, and that stroke will be submitted that number of times. #H*/KPR-FRLG (which is seen by Plover as 4*/KPR-FRLG), for example, will send "[Up]" 4 times, and you will go up 4 lines.<br />
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Strokable Help<br />
Stroking 0* and then a command stroke will print out what that stroke does, like:<br />
[Up]<br />
Stroking 1* and then a command stroke will print out exactly the definitions you see above, like:<br />
KPR-FRLG is [Up] as {#Up}{^}{>}<br />
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I expect this will prove most useful for those who want to create a phonetic brief for an otherwise hard to remember stroke. Of course, I'd rather give the user a way to type the command they want and have the dictionary print out how to stroke it, but the world doesn't always give us our druthers. To make up that lack, I've written this document, and hope it proves helpful to you.<br />
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There are weaknesses in this system. Some are intrinsic and others can be repaired. It's intrinsic to the shortcut key system itself that many are hard to find, to learn, and to remember. I recommend learning them one program at a time and only at a speed at which you can add them to your regular, daily usage without causing excessive stress. A repairable weakness is how the key combinations can be daunting. Anyone with the motivation could come up with a more easily memorable, phonetic name for each combination they use frequently.<br />
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If I can help, drop me a line.<br />
<br />
Kevin<br />
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Links:<br />
<span style="color: #0000ee; text-decoration-line: underline;"><a href="https://drive.google.com/open?id=1Xd75iG_LiegY__zVIdEhGjP4yLz-SuTn" target="_blank">Download the Single Stroke Commands Dictionary</a></span><br />
<span style="color: #0000ee; text-decoration-line: underline;"><br /></span>
Mouse vs keyboard: <a href="http://facweb.cs.depaul.edu/sjost/csc423/examples/anova/efficiency.pdf">http://facweb.cs.depaul.edu/sjost/csc423/examples/anova/efficiency.pdf</a><br />
This study compares the tedious alt+letter+letter method of keyboard navigation. The single stroke commands dictionary allows you to go faster than this document understands. Still, it's a good bit of work.<br />
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Links to loads of keyboard shortcuts: <a href="https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/12445/windows-keyboard-shortcuts">https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/12445/windows-keyboard-shortcuts</a><br />
<br />
Create your own shortcuts: <a href="https://www.laptopmag.com/articles/create-keyboard-shortcuts-windows-10">https://www.laptopmag.com/articles/create-keyboard-shortcuts-windows-10</a><br />
<br />Kevin Knoxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16788817477327510023noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20104292.post-5314732823689655482017-12-23T16:18:00.001-05:002020-11-01T13:09:06.443-05:00Type DifferentYou can drive a keyboard. If you're average, you can pilot it somewhere between 30 and 70 words per minute, which isn't bad at all. After 40 years behind a keyboard I could cruise near the high end of that range, but I left it all behind. Stenography called out to me with the promise of 200+ words per minute, and I jumped. <a href="https://github.com/openstenoproject/plover/wiki" target="_blank">The Open Steno Project</a> makes the secret tools of court reporting available to anyone with the desire and time to Type Different.<br />
<br />
Picture in your mind typing out the word, "and ". In the quiet of your mind, you can feel those three fingers snapping down on the A N and D keys, and then your thumb smacking out a space. You know the shape and timing of the word, "and ". You can type it in under a second without thinking and without error, even though it's four separate actions that must happen in a precise order.<br />
<br />
Stenography converts those four actions into one, allowing the stenographer to type faster than lawyers talk.<br />
<br />
Imagine that world for a second. Imagine you could hit all four keys for the word "and " at once then smoothly move on in the same way to word after word, spraying 4 or 10 or 6 perfectly spelled characters on the page with each motion. Why stroke 4 keys, when you could lay down 2 or 3 or 4 words in the same amount of time? Who could walk away from a deal so sweet? In fact, why don't our computers already do this?<br />
<br />
The rub is, "Dan"<br />
<br />
If your poor computer sees you stroke A, D, N, and the spacebar all at once (assuming your computer reads what you typed from left to right), it would have no way to know whether you meant, "and" or "Dan". Even the shift key would offer no clue, because you might want, "And" and not "and". Therein is the awkward difficulty in word-based typing, and why us computer users still slog along with letter-based typing.<br />
<br />
Stenography is the science of making word-based typing possible. It's complex, but within the grasp of most people. It works by settling on some soft rules.<br />
1) The keys stroked on a stenographic keyboard are always read from left to right and top to bottom<br />
2) The keyboard is rearranged with consonants clustered at the left and right and vowels in the middle so as to make the largest number of the most frequently used words typable with one stroke. Every remaining word, special character, and control character can be typed, albeit with 2 or more strokes<br />
3) One finger often hits more than one key at a time, making more patterns possible<br />
4) The total number of keys on a stenographic keyboard is actually smaller than the number letters in the alphabet. What is more, some of the keys appear on the keyboard twice -- yes, it works. The combining of keys makes up the difference<br />
5) Stenographic words are typed by sound more often than by spelling, and those sounds become memory helpers pointing toward the shape of each word<br />
6) Why have a spacebar at all? When you're striking a word at a time, it's obvious where the spaces should be, so a stenographer seldom types a space<br />
<br />
Steno knows the difference between "and" and "Dan" because the steno keyboard actually has one D on the left side and another on the right. The stenographer can choose to stroke DAN or AND, making it clear to the computer just which he or she meant, and the principle extends to every word there is. Assigning a unique stroke to each and every word is a heady science, but one that's proven its validity over years of the most rigorous use.<br />
<br />
<b>Nothing about learning to type at 200+ words per minute comes cheap. </b><br />
Remembering back to learning to type, there were many days of frustration when you knew what to type and your fingers just wouldn't do it. Stenography uses half as many keys, but does so in hundreds more ways, so achieving competency takes time. 2 years is the usual minimum time it takes a dedicated student to test at 225 words per minute. Learning to type different is a commitment, not a whim.<br />
<br />
<b>Everything about learning to type at 200+ words per minute is rich. </b><br />
The exercise of absorbing new rules, the challenge of creating new muscle memories, and the new thinking patterns word-based typing allows are all addictive. The drudgery of typing is elevated for me into a rewarding experience full of wins, level-ups, and discoveries, except the skill I build will be available to me for years to come. This game makes a difference.<br />
<br />
I'm not a dedicated student, so 2 years is not in the cards for me. I played at steno for just over a year before I was good enough to start using it daily for everything. After 4 months of daily use, I've almost made it back to my daily typing speed pre-stenography. I've watched others progress faster, and some much faster, but that's okay. I've enjoyed my journey so far, and it's clear I've still got plenty of room to grow. I may never hit 200, but 120 seems sure to happen someday. The quest is fun, and the future looks rosy. I was maxed out typing the same as everyone else, but I'm nowhere near my limits with stenography.<br />
<br />
The people at the Open Steno Project are as friendly as I've ever met, and questions are always welcome. If I've piqued your interest, drop on by.<br />
<a href="https://github.com/openstenoproject/plover/wiki">https://github.com/openstenoproject/plover/wiki</a><br />
<a href="https://github.com/openstenoproject/plover/wiki/Links-to-the-Steno-Community">https://github.com/openstenoproject/plover/wiki/Links-to-the-Steno-Community</a><br />
<br />Kevin Knoxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16788817477327510023noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20104292.post-30899094406831718462015-10-06T22:08:00.001-04:002020-11-01T13:09:47.509-05:00The Two MartiansI've read <em>The Martian</em> and seen <em>The Martian</em>, and I have some thoughts about which is better. No, the book is not better. They're both better. <br />
<br />
The book is an 8+ hour investment, and by and large it gives good return on that investment the whole way through. The movie is a 3 hour investment, and it does the same. Both mediums gave me the experience of laughing my way through a deadly experience, and I highly recommend either one. <br />
<br />
I recommend the book to everyone who:<ul>
<li>Wants to get the feel of the science behind the decisions the character makes</li>
<li>Wants the feeling of an alien disaster to fully permeate their imaginations </li>
<li>Wants to enter into Mark Watney's psyche</li>
</ul>
<br />
I recommend the movie to everyone who:<ul>
<li>Wants to share the laughter and fears with others as part of the experience</li>
<li>Thrills to see human emotion as opposed to visualizing it</li>
<li>Would rather block off 3 hours for the experience than catch as catch can with a book for 8 hours spread over however many days</li>
</ul>
<br />
Both gave me the same laughter, fear, and tears, but they did it in different ways and on different levels. To be sure, the movie added some preachy moralizing at the end that wasn't in the book, but I can live with that. The book is probably the better personal experience, if you have the time to invest, but there's something special about the shared experience of the movie. <br />
<br />
As for books allowing you to really get into the character's head, I'm not so sure that's correct. The movie simply had to cut 6 hours of the experience. Many actions and events didn't make it into the movie, but virtually all the feelings did. Over and over again, I saw Mark Watney react emotionally to some event, and felt as much a part of it as when I was reading. A thing explained deeply in the book was a fleeting glance in the movie, but I found both powerfully fun. <br />
<br />
Both are good for 4.5 out of 5. <br />
Kevin Knoxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16788817477327510023noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20104292.post-89233756955510025202015-02-05T21:57:00.001-05:002015-02-05T21:57:10.969-05:00Is Living Better Spiritual?I'm writing about physical stuff: sleep, food, exercise. Is that spiritual?<br />
<br />
I don't know. <br />
<br />
A lot of people argue we can be spiritual while we're doing physical stuff, but I'm thinking the truth is somewhat further down the road. I'm just not sure where. <br />
<br />
The Lord is very clear, and His disciples after Him. "The kingdom is not meat and drink; but righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit." Physical stuff is not the material of the kingdom. <br />
<br />
But. <br />
<br />
I'm currently experiencing a thyroid deficiency. I function normally until I suddenly hit an energy limit, after which I barely function at all. From that moment until I recover, hours or days later, I judge every person harshly, make mountains of molehills, and find joy in nothing. There's nothing grossly wrong with me, just a tiny hormone imbalance, but my contribution to the goodness of the kingdom plummets. Every relationship in my life is tested, and I'm helpless to contribute positively. It's all I can do not to undo the good I built when all was normal. <br />
<br />
My standing before God doesn't change one whit, and I turn to Him in those times, not away. This is not a faith issue. My spirit may even be mysteriously strengthened in some way in the midst of this trial, but I'm confusing and hurting people I love. His grace is sufficient for me, and for those whom I love and hurt, but this little thyroid imbalance reverberates painfully through my little corner of His kingdom. <br />
<br />
Eating well, sleeping well, and exercising wisely, the things that keep me within my thyroid's limits, become spiritual disciplines. Should I spend fifteen extra minutes preparing wise food or praying? It's a toss up. The contrast is clearer if I throw in a third option, like watching the latest tennis match. A trashy meal or a skipped prayer won't crush my thyroid, but a missed TV show might actually help it by making time for me to eat, sleep, or exercise. Doing right things might make a positive difference for someone tomorrow.<br />
<br />
If physical things become spiritual in times of duress, are they not always spiritual? I think they are. More and more, I believe Jesus was looking forward to the day He would get to cook fish for His friends, the day He'd really need a long drink of water, the day He'd fall happily into bed and enjoy His fill of much-needed sleep. I believe Jesus desired to put on flesh even before His death became part of the mission. Jesus must want to relate to us physically, because He was certainly under no obligation to create such a physical world. Jesus must love this world and His people as the sweaty, real, amazing things He created us to be.<br />
<br />
Since I'm still an old 'Damentalist (I take the "fun" out of "fundamentalism") I'll share with you a scripture that persuades me. <br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Mat 25:34-36<br />
Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me. </blockquote>
The King relishes shared, physical acts. The kingdom may not be meat and drink, but it is awarded to those who share their meat and drink. <br />
<br />
I reach this conclusion. Self-improvement is not spiritual, but living better is. Eating, sleeping, and exercising to mold myself into a stunning specimen of humanity may be great, but when used that way they are nothing spiritual. These same disciplines, however, when used to make me better able to love the people I love, seem pretty spiritual to me. <br />
<br />
Food, rest, and work become the kingdom of God. Kevin Knoxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16788817477327510023noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20104292.post-85313146890036400582015-01-27T21:14:00.002-05:002015-01-27T21:15:17.887-05:00Lifting myselfI lift myself up a lot. I lift myself from my chair and bed onto my feet several times a day, of course, but I do a lot more than that. I lift myself from the ground using my hands, or only my feet. I lift myself up to a bar using nothing but my hands. I even lift most of myself using only my back muscles. <br />
<br />
For 30 minutes a day, I lift myself in the most difficult way I can. When it gets easy, I intentionally make it harder. I lift myself using just one foot. Or I lean more of my weight onto my hands. I'm only just getting to where I can lift my whole mass up to a pull-up bar, but someday I'll need to make that harder. And when the day comes, I have several strategies, ready-made. <br />
<br />
The thing is, the more and harder ways I find to lift myself, the better my body becomes at doing it - and the better I become at being me. I think I've probably already written a piece somewhere about how exercise makes me better at being a social creature, so I don't have to write that now. Today, I just want to write about making my body better at doing body stuff. Over the last three years, I've been amazed at watching what I've made better and worse by pushing myself physically. <br />
<br />
I'm all-in on doing this until the day I die. It may be the most consistently exciting 30 minutes of my day. I mean that. I always resisted exercise, but I love doing this. <br />
<br />
First, let me talk about the things I've made worse. I'm pushing this thing, but there are concerns. <br />
<ul>
<li>Repetitive Stress Tendon Injuries<br />I started doing this at age 47, and was pleasantly surprised how much I could do and how quickly I became able to do more. I read all the warnings about letting the tendons develop, and I understood them. I still didn't let my tendons develop, and I repeatedly injured them. I'm continually re-realizing how very weak my tendons had become, and how much more slowly I need to progress through levels of difficulty. Not less than 6 weeks after a mild tendon injury can I begin testing that tendon again. If I stop immediately upon noticing an issue developing, I can get back into the game after a 2 weeks rest, but I keep trying to pretend nothing's wrong. In my youth I played through injuries. With each new injury I learn again I must always let tendons heal, and I'm actually getting better about it. </li>
<li>Adrenal Fatigue<br />This one is no joke. Almost a year ago I began to notice I was tiring sooner while working. I kept pushing, and even pushing harder. I especially applied this thinking to my 30 minutes of lifting. I imagined I was growing weaker, and only work would reverse that trend. Wrong. My body was slowly shutting down and trying its best to warn me, but I interpreted its messages incorrectly. By May of 2014, any hard work would drain me completely, to the point I could hardly think straight or even stay awake. In June I took a little swim out into the ocean and very suddenly was so drained I wasn't sure I'd make it back. 8 months later, I'm pretty sure I'm beginning to make a recovery. Pushing myself when my body was crying for rest was a bad, bad mistake. After this year, I might even avoid making it again. Time will tell. </li>
</ul>
Spending months recovering from troubling adrenal exhaustion while simultaneously nursing strained tendons is a small price to pay for the benefits I feel from training my body to do all it can do. I'm genuinely not sure whether I'll make those two mistakes again, or how often, but it's worth the risk. I'm still all-in on this stuff. <br />
<br />
Everything in my world weighs about half what it did three years ago. I used to have to rest after carrying my 70 pound tennis ball machine to the courts. Today, I set it up and go. I used to have to plan a day before to make sure I had energy for setting things up at church. No more. I bring the groceries in with the same number of loads, but now I don't wish I hadn't carried so much. I can weed the yard now, without regretting it for days afterward. <br />
<br />
More importantly, to me, I'm smarter and less afraid about almost everything. I've hit my limits several times every week, so I know what I cannot do and what I can. I used to say, "Sure!" when presented with an opportunity to do something beyond my limits. I did it easily last time. (Yeah, twenty years ago.) I would go out, and sure enough do it just like twenty years ago, but then I'd be sore for weeks. Now, when presented with the same opportunity, I know for a fact whether I can do it and whether I'll suffer for my decision. That knowledge makes my yes's and my no's confident. I value that. <br />
<br />
Here's a high level record of what I'm doing these days<br />
<ul>
<li>I work on balance almost every day<br />Two years ago I learned I really couldn't stand long on one foot, no matter how hard I tried. The progress comes glacially, but it comes. Over the course of a month I see almost no difference, but somehow over two years it's made a real difference. I can now stand on one foot with my eyes closed or walk a slackline. Since falls are the leading cause of both fatal and non-fatal injury in the aged, I can't ever imagine stopping this effort. </li>
<li>I work on strength about 3/4 of all days<br />The benefits are wide-reaching. I work pushing, pulling, standing, forward, and backward strength, and am learning to skip sessions when I need to. </li>
<li>I work my aerobic capacity 2-3 days a week<br />I sprint in 6 foot wide figure eights, followed by pushups, then half squats, all in succession and as quickly as I can. The net effect is to drive my heart rate and breathing up somewhere near (but not to) my max. </li>
<li>I work flexibility a little bit each day<br />I'm not really getting any more flexible, but moving to the limits of my mobility keeps those limits as comfortable as possible.</li>
<li>I never jog<br />Everything I do is sprint-like. Nothing in my life requires me to keep my heart rate at 70% for hours, so why train myself to be able to do so? People jog, treadmill, stair step to build an ability I never personally use, so I don't copy them. </li>
</ul>
The experts to whom I choose to listen say I'm doing it right, but this is the 21st century. There are experts out there everywhere saying jogging, boot camps, power yoga, bicycling, weight lifting, martial arts, rock climbing, gym membership, massage, swimming, rowing, crawling, or any other thing is the perfect thing. What I'm training matches up well with what I do. It's just the usual stuff I do every day, taken to a useful and fun extreme. <br />
<br />
Paul tells me bodily exercise profits little, by which he means it only helps one part of me and only for these brief 70 years. I can accept that. But I'd just as soon these last 20 years I have here be useful. I'll keep doing what I'm doing. Kevin Knoxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16788817477327510023noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20104292.post-50560546274254697792015-01-17T20:44:00.001-05:002015-01-17T20:44:05.694-05:00Food mattersI now weigh 30-40 pounds more than when I left the Army. And I live in America. It's impossible that I should not know this is an issue. For years I've said I would never diet, but in all those years my weight was never an issue. My words were empty. Well, now the rubber hits the road, and I have to decide what to do. And now I'm a few decades better informed. The science has advanced. <br />
<br />
Nothing's going to change. <br />
<br />
I have friends who battle anorexia, friends who've given up trying to eat better, friends who never realized there was anything to learn about food. Frankly, though, there are several ways eating well is part of living better, so I'm going to try to capture a few thoughts about it in a post. From the perspective of living better, where living better means trying to make the relationships in my life more alive, here's why I care.<br />
<ul>
<li>Dying of an eating-related disease wouldn't make my relationships any more alive</li>
<li>Making myself weak and sick to look stunningly thin wouldn't make my relationships more alive</li>
<li>Being weak and overweight wouldn't make my relationships more alive, either</li>
<li>Refusing to eat what everyone else at dinner is eating, without a real reason, strains relationships</li>
<li>Being strong empowers me to do all the other things I need to do in those relationships</li>
</ul>
It matters to me to eat relationally. <br />
<br />
Here's my diet. I've kept this up for twenty years, and I've enjoyed it. <br />
<ul>
<li>Every meal I eat is pleasurable to me</li>
<li>If mankind's been eating a food for the last 6000 years, I'll eat it every time no matter what the FDA says</li>
<ul>
<li>Salt, milk, wheat, butter, eggs, beef - I'm in</li>
<li>High carb and low carb have both been part of mankind's diet, and I eat both</li>
</ul>
<li>If mankind invented it in the Industrial Age, I'll avoid it when I can</li>
<ul>
<li>White anything (sugar, bread, rice, caffeine) provides energy, but none of the fiber, enzymes, and vitamins needed to repair the normal damage of life</li>
<li>!!! Any sugar substitute !!!</li>
<ul>
<li>I'd eat a meal of white sugar with a spoon before I'd drink a diet soda</li>
</ul>
<li>Except dessert. I think humans were made to enjoy dessert, and several times a week I enjoy me some industrial age dessert.</li>
</ul>
<li>I try to get as much real food into me as I can</li>
<ul>
<li>I don't go for the whole raw thing, but I eat a little raw food</li>
<li>Real food, not stripped, shaped, flavored, and repackaged, contains all that stuff I mentioned above. </li>
<li>That's the stuff that enables our bodies (when mixed with adequate sleep) to self-heal so many of the leading causes of untimely death </li>
<li>Seriously. Given only empty nutrition, our bodies lack the resources they need to heal</li>
</ul>
<li>I try to eat/drink something fermented three times a day</li>
<ul>
<li>The intestinal biome is critically important and enables us to digest milk, wheat, and other good stuff</li>
<li>Kombucha, kefir, buttermilk, sauerkraut </li>
</ul>
<li>I take supplements</li>
<ul>
<li>They're of debatable value, but when I quit taking each I suffer symptoms</li>
<li>I buy the expensive, food-based supplements - very few grocery vitamins do anything</li>
</ul>
<li>I never count calories</li>
</ul>
<br />
Diet is critical, but in America it's about body shape - thinness - and thinness is about diet. When people talk about food, they're talking about calories. Low fat and low carb are both all about body fat. That's a deception. Diet should be about life, and life is many-dimensional. <br />
<br />
You need to know heavy dieting combined with heavy exercise, the formula recommended by all and followed to extremes by some, is a leading cause of hypothyroidism - which is a leading cause of weight gain. Yes, you read that right. Weight loss is a leading cause of weight gain and heavy exercise is a leading cause of low energy.<br />
<br />
I'm suffering with hypothyroidism (in my case, not due to dieting but to poor stress management.) I'm advised to eat less and take thyroid meds, but I'm resisting that advice. So far I'm six months into my resistance, and I'm happy with my progress. My plan does not include intentionally reducing my caloric intake. Time will tell which set of experts is right, but I'm currently going with the ones who say some thyroid deficiencies can be addressed with diet, proper exercise, and rest. <br />
<br />
I'm never going to have the ripped beach physique, but that doesn't mean food doesn't matter to me. I just care about it differently than most of the books I read. I care about eating food rich in nutrition, and even at my current weight I'm enjoying good food and good strength. I have the energy to spend time and energy with friends, and worrying about the food that might be served doesn't interfere with our plans (except for that tree-nut allergy in our family.) <br />
<br />
I live better when I enjoy food and to profit from it. Kevin Knoxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16788817477327510023noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20104292.post-84938610335227303312015-01-09T22:25:00.000-05:002015-01-09T22:25:50.393-05:00Snippets of DoomI recently read a Facebook status by a major Christian personality stating he'd never missed a day of scripture reading. He went on to assert - insist - we should all take up that standard. He clearly stated it was wrong to skip a day of reading. I'm not living right unless I'm reading scripture daily. Such "snippets of doom" have ruled my life for a long, long time.<br />
<br />
I am trying to "live better," so I have to engage with this man's assertion. Will reading scripture daily be part of my plan? What about Fasting? Diet? Exercise? Literature? Prayer? Savings? Insurance? Tithing? Charity? Tidiness? Checklists? Passion? ... Sleep?<br />
<br />
Every one of those items has been declared mandatory if we want to "live right." (Except exercise. Paul said exercise is of little profit, so many Christians wipe that one clean off the table.) I want to "live better," so I'd better stop living wrong.<br />
<br />
In fact, if I'd only quit living wrong, I'd be living better automatically ... without ever living at all!<br />
<br />
Instead, let me share this quote from a tennis training podcast I heard the other day. "There's no right or wrong. There are only consequences."<br />
<br />
Fantastic. <br />
<br />
Let's agree there are things at the ugly end of the spectrum that really are wrong and things at the lovely end of the spectrum that really are right, but focus for a blog minute on the stuff between those extremes. Should I improve upon my idea of "living better," and replace it with "living right?"<br />
<br />
To my misguided ear, trying to live right sounds like the better strategy:<br />
+ Living right conjures images of selecting an unimpeachably correct target then striving to reach it. <br />
- Living better smells like taking a vague step somewhere in a general direction and hoping it ends well. <br />
+ Living right copies the best method of navigating to a far-away city. Pinpoint the goal on the map and follow the instructions for getting there. <br />
- Living better reeks of the process I use to enjoy a walk in the woods. Stumble across a promising path and wander where it leads.<br />
<br />
Actually, that hippy-dippy "living better" stuff scares me to death. I instinctively want to know God's standard and the best way to achieve it. Full stop. The idea of proceeding without an ideal sounds like a recipe for becoming lost, and not in any good way. I genuinely fear hearing the Lord tell me, "Take from him the talent he has, and give it to the man who has ten." Living better sounds like the express lane to eternal vagrancy<br />
<br />
Still, I'm committed to vagrancy these days and I think I like it. <br />
<br />
Looking back across the years, living right didn't make me the righteous man of my dreams. Living as if I were holier than I was paralyzed me. I was afraid to live at all. A man who does nothing does none of it wrong, but he doesn't live.<br />
<br />
I think I'm a fundamentalist-ish outlier in this whole area. I believe a good number of people are pretty comfortable with the first part of my quote, "There is no right or wrong." It's popular these days to quit doing everything the preachers call mandatory. So, I'm probably not alone if I do not commit to read the Bible every day. Still, if I resist my fundamentalist nature and quit trying to live right, I still stagnate if I don't aggressively choose to live better.<br />
<br />
Daily scripture reading is neither right nor wrong, but we choose our consequences when we decide how we'll use our Bibles. There are questions only God and His children can answer, and it's work to chase them them through scripture, commentary, conversation, and blog. Searching for treasure enriches those who find it. No one makes wealth doing nothing.<br />
<br />
For some strange reason, this balance excites me. I like hearing I'm free from doom, and I like even more hearing there's a reason to sweat out the work of living better. Life isn't good to those who believe every snippet of doom. Neither is life good to those who neglect the work needed to live better. Finding the road between those two ditches is the trick.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Kevin Knoxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16788817477327510023noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20104292.post-85338118300937482672015-01-07T20:59:00.004-05:002015-01-09T22:26:12.022-05:00Do You Want to Live Better: SleepLiving better requires sleep.
<br />
<br />
Seriously. If you intend to make your relationships come alive, there may be no single better way to shoot yourself in the foot than regularly to short change your brain on sleep. I've done this all my life, and it's never worked well for me. In seeking solid information on the subject, I found this amazing article:
<br />
<a href="http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2013/10/18/236211811/brains-sweep-themselves-clean-of-toxins-during-sleep">We don't always want sleep, but we need sleep</a>
<br />
<br />
God told us something like this a long, long time ago, but science is getting closer to understanding why it's true.
I find that helpful. <br />
<br />
Every bodily function produces waste, but the brain's wastes are handled uniquely. The brain has to shut down to clear them, and the process takes a long time. It appears the brain clears these poisonous waste products by shrinking our neurons as we sleep, thereby making space to flush a whole slough of damaging waste proteins away.
<br />
<br />
When we wake up our neurons re-expand, and the waste products begin accumulating again.
<br />
<br />
I imagine the brain-flush to be somewhat like tooth brushing. It's a critical habit, but missing any individual session isn't risky. Plaque is only a problem, for most people, when it's allowed to take root. The beta amyloid that causes brain plaques doesn't seem to be a problem if we sleep long enough, regularly enough to keep major deposits from forming. <br />
<br />
A sleepless night isn't going to kill anyone, but a discipline of late nights and early mornings supported by coffee damages us in real ways. Science is currently connecting beta amyloid accumulations with Alzheimer's, but I find my experience with irritability, impatience, depression, and willpower deficits after accumulating sleep debt plenty convincing. John Wayne, Steve Jobs, Thomas Edison, and a thousand other red-blooded Americans unite and call me a wimp. With them I must agree. I don't want to be a wimp, but I really am.<br />
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God and life both call us to endure times of great hardship, and I'm happy to pull my weight when I must, but I can't call keep it up. If I miss too much beauty rest, I'm truly ugly to be around. I'm daily called to play a part in tending the lives of a few people to whom God has joined me, and I best live up to that calling when I'm reasonably well-rested.<br />
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Americans are tough.
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Proud Americans take no handouts. We make it by maximizing our productivity, maximizing the number of productive days in every week and the number of hours in every day. My insomnia's always been a flag-waver's blessing, and I'm at home as an American, living the American way. God's way is Sabbath, but Sabbath is difficult. I'm American, from my debit card clear down to the bottom of my 401k, so Sabbath is frankly terrifying. Believing God will meet my needs, while I simply rest, gives me all the warm fuzzies of a bungee jump into deep fog.
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If I'm going to live better, though, I must risk rest. With God's blessing, I hope to treat my ongoing insomnia as enemy rather than friend. Ten years ago I was sleeping 5-6 hours per night with very little insomnia. Five years ago I was up to 6+ hours, but as I started getting closer to having enough sleep I started facing insomnia. I've made it to 7+ within the last 5 years, and am working toward 7.5. Evidence is rich I'm not sleeping too much, but I'm rested enough my anxieties lead to insomnia commonly. Here are things I'm trying:
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<ul>
<li>Absolute darkness<br />Science says darkness is necessary for deep sleep. I hate to be a science denier, but darkness never did much for me. I slept in absolute cavernous darkness for a couple months, and observed how my symptoms and degree of restedness didn't change at all. </li>
<li>Turning off screen devices<br />For years, I shut off my computer and fell quickly into sound sleep. These days, I find about twenty minutes after I stop the last activity of the night, often when I shut off the computer, the first wave of sleep hits me. Since my biggest problem is accidentally pushing through that sleep wave into my second wind, I'm finding some ease sleeping when I make sure I stay on the computer until bed time. </li>
<li>Melatonin<br />When I get my second wind, I'm going to be either awake or in an awful, zombified, half-asleep state for a couple hours. As soon as that happens, I take .6-1.2mg of melatonin every 20 minutes until I'm asleep. It works very consistently for me. Happily, on nights when I hit the sack at or before that first wave of sleep, I fall asleep well without the assistance. That assures me the assertions melatonin are not addictive are probably true. </li>
<li>Prayer<br />Prayer cuts both ways, for me. When anxieties entangle my mind, prayer lets me slowly brush away each strand. I'm not wired to just slice through the whole web with one bold declaration of faith, but I can sort of roll each concern up in front of the Father and leave it with Him. That's a necessity for me. Once, however, the wave of sleep hits I don't quit praying! I start obsessing about prayer itself. I can't just quit. Suddenly, I find I'm well into my second wind, and prayer transforms aggressively from solution into problem. </li>
<li>Talking<br />Copy and paste the prayer stuff here. Talk can relax me, but at some point I'm surprised to find I've pushed into my second wind and there's no going back. </li>
<li>Meditation<br />Meditation is a tremendous sleep aid - prior to 7:00 AM. Or practically any other time I should carefully stay awake. As an intentional sleep aid, though, it never has worked for me.</li>
<li>Thinking happy thoughts<br />I always thought I stunk at thinking happy thoughts. Actually, happy thoughts only work if a sleep wave is rolling in. My problem has been trying to "happy thought" my way back to sleepiness after reaching my second wind. Knowing that, and managing my sleep waves better, I finally discovered a happy thought that works consistently for me (I'm reporting against almost 3 weeks of happy experiment with it.) That's kind of cool. The trick for me is to find a thought sufficiently complex and absorbing, but completely without any goal or solution over which I can obsess. </li>
</ul>
When I do all this, and still fail to fall asleep, I'm not shocked. I remind myself I'm not truly exhausted, refuse to allow myself to solve any of my problems, and wait quietly until the melatonin kicks in. <br />
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Life really is measurably better this way. Kevin Knoxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16788817477327510023noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20104292.post-43960236458916035252015-01-05T20:30:00.000-05:002015-01-05T20:30:45.192-05:00Living BetterWho has the time, energy, and willpower it takes to live better?
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And what business do I have implying people aren't already living the best they possibly can by blogging about it?
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I don't know the answer to either of those questions, but the need to live better is filling my mind lately. When something's on my mind, I experiment. Mistakes, victories, setbacks, and questions are avalanching through my life these days, and blogging about it seems like a helpful part of the discovery process.<br />
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I hate to sound arrogant by voicing my opinion on what living better means. I'm writing these things because I don't know! Still, I need a hypothesis, so here's where I'm starting.
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<b>Living better is doing whatever makes the relationships in my life more alive.</b>
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It seems like a tricky thing. To make all those relationships richer I must improve myself, but I'm convinced self-improvement is a dead-end. An awful lot of people tried to teach me how to "be the best 'me' I can be," but they all left me flat. Maybe I can make my point with a quick analogy. If I frequent the gym to have the best body I can have, I'll either love my new body and become a jerk or grow depressed at my lack of progress. (Ask me how I know ... you'll find the answer filed under "Mistakes.") If, however, I hit the gym to improve my ability to serve people, I succeed. I taste the reward of being more helpful, and I don't even mind that I still look like "generic nerd #3."
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Forgive me in advance when I sound like I'm proclaiming life's answers. Half my experiments turn out really badly, but I have to try them anyway. Anything I talk about out here is a work in progress. Failure and mistakes are part of the process.<br />
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So, The Familyhood Church blog just may warm up again. If I generate any momentum, it will be on the subject of practices that help and hinder my efforts to live better. Writing always helps me sort out my thoughts, so to some degree this is a selfish endeavor. I won't kid you, though. I crave feedback. If mere writing were enough, I'd journal. I'd love to hear your thoughts.
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KevinKevin Knoxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16788817477327510023noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20104292.post-89602660685450553622014-04-12T10:33:00.000-04:002014-04-12T10:33:35.284-04:00Hosanna ... No wait. ... Crucify Him!<blockquote>The young, Arab-American media darling seems oddly withdrawn, given the situation. He's being thrown a spontaneous ticker-tape parade in celebration of his return to New York City on Sunday, June 28th. The kid's been trending on Twitter for months, but no one guessed he'd won this kind of love. He's taken the Tea Party, the Democrats, and everyone else to the woodshed in the polls, and today's spontaneous excitement is spiking his mojo-meter through the roof. Even the main stream media loves him as a member of a trendy minority (it helps they can feature his attacks on the Tea Party every evening.) The country needs something badly, and this kid will be old enough to run for president in just 2 election cycles. <br />
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The culmination of this year's 4th of July celebration will be the fireworks display over One World Trade Center, and the kid heads there first thing the next day. On a busy Monday morning he barges in, speaking to no one, and shuts off the entire building's Internet and telephone connections. Office-drones pour out of the elevators, trying to figure out what's happening. He drives them all into the streets and forbids any commerce. For two hours, he kills the business of America's most precious skyscraper. Erected on the foundation of the Twin Towers, One World Trade Center declares to the world how America reacts to defeat. The show must go on! But this kid stops the commerce. An odd thing indeed, for anyone angling after the presidency!<br />
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Suddenly, CNN interrupts their own coverage of the excitement with a tape of the kid - this Arab-American kid - looking up at One World Trade Center and saying, "This tower will fall in smoke and ashes. Not one twisted I-beam will remain connected to another, and I will build it again in three days." Twitter explodes in fury at this "towel-head" who thinks he might level America's tower again. Within the week, CNN is carrying images of our young hero dressed in orange, standing in front of a judge, entering no plea to charges of making terroristic threats. Seconds later, the judge reads off charges of treason. <br />
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Our young media darling's still trending, but now under hashtag #CrucifyHim.<br />
<br /></blockquote>
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NT Wright continues to enrich my understanding of Jesus' life. Jesus didn't cleanse the temple because a few money-changers were lining their pockets. Jesus prophetically enacted the cessation of prayer in the temple, and He emphatically declared the primary reason. The word our bibles translate, "thieves" or "robbers," is used by Josephus to describe a group of Zionist rebels against Rome. Jesus fingered the temple as a central rallying point for the local anti-Rome movement, and prophetically enacted the emperor Titus's reaction to the inevitable rebellion Israel's narcissism and violence fostered. This makes sense of Jesus odd response to Israel's outpouring of affection in the triumphal entry. Just before He entered the temple, Jesus says:<br />
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<blockquote>Luke 19:41-45 <br />As he approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it and said, “If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace—but now it is hidden from your eyes. The days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment against you and encircle you and hem you in on every side. They will dash you to the ground, you and the children within your walls. They will not leave one stone on another, because you did not recognize the time of God’s coming to you.” When Jesus entered the temple courts, he began to drive out those who were selling. ...</blockquote> <br />
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Unless I'm mistaken, this was the only political act of Jesus' life. Prior to this moment, Jesus never spoke, acted, or encouraged His disciples to consider changing any single thing about any Earthly political or religious government. He maintained He was the king of a great a kingdom in the same way I maintain the air is filled with wi-fi signals. He spoke of His kingdom as a tangible thing, but never expected for one moment Pilate would grasp what it might be. His kingdom is one of love and peace, and with His entrance into the world His kingdom began its work of eroding every other kingdom of men, of power, of bloodshed, and of greed.<br />
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This understanding of the cleansing of the temple also makes clearer sense of His crucifixion. The destruction of the temple was written deeply on every Jewish heart, even more deeply than the destruction of the Twin Towers weighs in ours. Israel heard Jesus' prophecy as a threat to repeat that violence against God's house and theirs, and they heard Him more or less correctly. They only misconstrued the means of the temple's destruction. They could only imagine Jesus was promising to raise an army of His own with which to destroy Herod's (presumably profane) temple, and raise up a new one of His own. Their calls to crucify Jesus flowed from hearts jealous for the best things they knew: for Israel, for the temple, for God.<br />
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And here's my challenge to you. If nationalism was death to Israel, can our obsession over the loss of America's Christian-ness be life to us? <br />
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Find the spiritual half of the explanation of Jesus' thoughts about the temple in this 5-minute youtube. NT Wright presents here how completely Jesus intended to replace the spiritual functions of the temple in His own body. <br /><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1rTG9MMWN4">Wright Explains the Temple</a><br />
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For the second half, I need to refer you to Wright's "The Challenge of Jesus." In this 200 (small) page book, Wright summarizes several hundred (dense) pages of argument detailing how Jesus worked to persuade Israel to give up her nationalism. Israel believed with all her heart the restored temple would again receive the Shekinah glory. From Zion's hill they expected to rule all the Earth. Pages 62-67 highlight the argument I've made here. Kevin Knoxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16788817477327510023noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20104292.post-88533380607474106132014-03-01T16:55:00.001-05:002014-03-01T16:55:53.349-05:00Heretics and Heroes by Thomas CahillI'm so depressed. <br />
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If you'd like to join me, give "Heretics and Heroes: How Renaissance Artists and Reformation Priests Created Our World," a read. It's hard to imagine how Mr. Cahill can traverse 500 years of European humanity in 300 pages, but he covers it well. And it's not pretty. <br />
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European history is a greased pig of a thing in my mind. Just the time I think I've got the connections, there's some underlying cause I've never imagined or some critical connection I've forgotten over the years. (e.g. Did you know the indulgences Luther condemned were funding the works of Michelangelo, whom we all love and admire?) Cahill spends 290 pages connecting art, religion, and atrocity in compelling ways. I love any book that ties things together, making them easier both to understand and to remember. He starts the book memorably by isolating the European slaughter of millions during the conquest of the new world. It doesn't integrate well, but it's stunning nonetheless. His view of Europe's actions is unrepentently, gloriously, depressingly unforgiving.<br />
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After putting the new world in his rear-view mirror, Cahill's portrayal of the expansion of human self-understanding as expressed in Renaissance art is intriguing, and even thrilling. I've long understood there are artists I should admire, and could even recite some of the reasons why. Cahill brilliantly captures the growth of self-realization, of what it means to "be." I'd admired Botticelli's work, for example, but Cahill shows me why it was ground-breaking and how I see all people more completely for Botticelli having painted them the way he did. Cahill's exploration of the growing of the human self-concept alone is worth the price of the book. <br />
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But, silly me, I bought the book mostly to get a historian's take on the Reformation. <br />
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Cahill does not disappoint, unless you're hoping to read about some good thing that may have come to humanity out of Christianity's most famous upheaval. Cahill continues to describe the evolution of ideas as they pass from thinker to thinker. (Erasmus starts at Thomas a Kempis and adds linguistics. Luther starts at Erasmus and adds grace. Zwingli starts at Luther and clarity, and so on.) Calvin gets a thorough treatment and we go up through the kings of England, Elizabeth, and beyond. He does an especially helpful job with Catholicism's delayed and ineffectual response. When Cahill's done, you've seen the whole sweep of Reformation and Counter-Reformation with all its glories and warts. And its blood.<br />
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The contrast between the two stories interleaved within this single binding is unspoken, unavoidable, and striking. By the last page, Cahill's shown how the Renaissance ennobled, enlightened, and expanded the worth of mankind. His Reformation disgusts. It killed many, divided all, ennobled none. The neurotic grasping of his sad Martin Luther may have been brave and helpful, but Luther's message of freedom was only narrowly applicable to legalistic obsessives in the first place and in the end was taken up by those kings Europe most able to use it to entrench and establish their political power. Christian disagreement has always existed, but the Reformation became a historical watershed only because the powerful embraced it as a tool. The Renaissance told humanity how beautiful it could be. The Reformation demonstrated how ugly it already was. <br />
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Cahill doesn't wrap his story so tightly and conclusively as I've done here. He guides the reader to some conclusions, while leaving others to their own discretion. You're getting my gut feel upon putting the book down. He's comfortable placing the good side of the Reformers on display where he can find it, and he concludes the book with a recital of some positive things he sees Christianity bringing to the world. I cannot, however, reach any other assessment of the tapestry he's woven. The Reformation was a gut-wrenchingly terrible thing. <br />
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I only wish my heart could rise to the Reformers', my brothers', defense. <br />
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Cahill is substantially correct. <br />
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If Jesus is not risen from the dead, we are of all men most miserable, indeed. And yet, Jesus is risen from the dead. The history of bloodshed attending one of our proudest moments, the Reformation, is a stain on our name and attached to His. It was not to foment, spawn, and feed wars Jesus suffered and died. It's incumbent on us to learn from the evil Cahill details so coherently. <br />
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In the year 1550, with the Reformation birthing its most powerful changes, is it possible there were Christians humbly loving other Christians in countless communities of Italy, Germany, England, and France? Is it possible lowly Catholic and Protestant people were clothing the naked and building each other up in Christ on both sides of the theological divide? And that God was genuinely displeased with the murders my heroes caused? The Catholics are wrong about countless critical things, but does knowing that make "me" right?<br />
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Knowledge breeds narcissism, and narcissism stops at nothing. The heart of Christianity is not in the fire of revival, nor in the whirlwind of media, nor in the earthquake of Reformation, but in the still, small love of community. We need each other and Jesus more than anything the Earthly empire of Christianity can do for us. Kevin Knoxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16788817477327510023noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20104292.post-27278505585154202232014-01-11T17:49:00.004-05:002014-01-11T17:49:46.672-05:00Bodily Exercise Profiteth <blockquote class="tr_bq">
For bodily exercise profiteth little: but godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come. 1 Tim 4:8 (KJV)</blockquote>
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
“Physical training is good, but training for godliness is much better, promising benefits in this life and in the life to come.” 1 Tim 4:8 (NLT)</blockquote>
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I've dedicated an average of 30 minutes a day for the last 2+ years to the first physical training program I've done since the Army. My inner Damentalist scold (Christian Fundamentalist - minus the Fun) reminds me daily this theft of 200 hours a year from God and myself, stolen from my poverty only to feed my pride, is shameful. In fact, to this day I hide my training like a literature professor hides his Louis L'Amour collection. But, like that professor, I keep doing it. <br />
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"Hello. My name is Kevin Knox and I do physical training."<br />
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But the faux-Training Anonymous introduction is not quite right, because I'm only writing this to persuade you to train physically, too. I should say something more like, "Psst. Hey, Buddy! Wanna score some pushups? I can hook you up right over here. The price is right."<br />
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I'm probably the only guy I know who avoided exercise because of this verse. On the other hand, somehow, I'm also the only guy I know not currently avoiding exercise! So far as I can tell, everyone else is avoiding it like fermented beet juice. Really, most people avoid exercise for normal, rational reasons: it hurts, it sucks up time better spent not hurting, and all it does is enable them to do more things that also hurt. Most people are already physically able to do all the stuff they really like doing (like watching football players hurt themselves for money) so exercise is a clear and present negative with no positives - at all. <br />
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Of course, there is the weight/health thing, but let's ignore that. Everyone thinks they should exercise so they can be thinner. The doctors all say if we're sexier, I mean "thinner", we'll live longer and be able to do all the stuff we want to do. Our TVs, jobs, insurance companies, billboards, radios, Internet pop-up ads, and one of our Facebook friends who just lost 8 pounds all remind us the doctor said it, too. But weight-loss is a crock. I'll get this out of the way quick, losing a single pound of fat by exercise hurts too much for too long to survive as a real option. It works for a couple hormonally blessed people who see tangible results, and it works in short bursts for some unmarried people, but for purposes of this discussion we can profitably toss weight loss out the window. Weight loss persuades few to add physical training to their lives. <br />
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What persuaded me? <br />
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For me it was tennis. After all these years, I'm still addicted to losing tennis matches, but my knees were tiring of the whole affair. Unable to walk up stairs or crawl into bed like a bipedal primate, I was confronted with an ugly choice. I could start reminiscing at age 47 about my glory days on a tennis court, or start doing squats like a second religion. I chose the latter, and within a couple months I could walk like a created being again. After a year I'd forgotten what it was like to fear stairwells. <br />
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The decision was almost magical. <br />
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If, on October 1, 2011, I'd been able to pray a quick prayer and live for one day with the knees I have now, I'd have broken down in tears, praised the Divine Healer, and remembered that day for the rest of my life. The healing came, just not overnight. It wasn't magical in practice, but looking back it still feels that way. In practice, I did squats two days a week and went through three kinds of pain. Warmup hurt because the tendons didn't want to play along. Exercise hurt because my muscles didn't want to play along. Recovery hurt because I'm not 25 any more. But when my knees started working again, I was hooked. <br />
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I set a goal of 11 pullups. I had no idea what kind of goal that was, but I set it and started the process. Two years in, I'm only up to three, and I could already do one when I started. Two years is a long, long time to spend getting from 1 pullup to 3. I responded to that frustration in several different ways. Impatience made me unhappy. Intensity led me to injure myself. Doubt was the most profitable. Doubt got my creative juices flowing and drove me to try some of the stuff that's working now. <br />
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So, what did I learn by all those pullups? I learned there's technique to the pullup. It doesn't look like it, but poor technique will stall progress and/or lead to injury. There's an obvious need for strength, but I also learned there's a need for coordination. Lastly, I learned the pullup is not the goal! The pullup is a gateway to a whole collection of skills that require real balance in addition to the technique, strength and coordination the pullup builds. There's so much more to this stuff than I ever knew.<br />
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The simple process of setting a goal and chasing it taught me about assessing and making honest allowance for my abilities. It taught me to accept what is, rather than demand what I imagine. Training means demanding improvement of myself, but injury is not an improvement, so I learned to slow down. Learning to require of myself what I can deliver, not what some book or video says I can deliver, is the greatest lesson my training program's given me to date. <br />
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Now let me remind you of the second half of this post's verse. <br />
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"... but training for godliness is much better, promising benefits in this life and in the life to come."</blockquote>
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Godliness is hard, too, and I'm learning it's hard in more ways than I could possibly have guessed. Godliness is not just resisting temptation. There are parallels in godliness to the balance, technique, coordination, and strength in physical training. Holiness, relationship, expectation, and good works all work together to achieve the goal of godliness. <br />
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It's an odd thing to say, but physical training is opening doors to godliness I never knew existed. And my knees don't hurt any more. <br />
<br />Kevin Knoxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16788817477327510023noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20104292.post-78366287151688226352013-12-22T22:48:00.002-05:002013-12-22T22:54:16.920-05:00Jesus' Confusing Birth<em>It came to pass in those days there went out from President Obama a decree all nations under the American Peace must contribute to their own protection. This decree came in the third presidential term of Hamid Karzai in Afghanistan, and all people went to be counted in a U.N. census, every one to own city. </em><br />
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<em>Joseph also went up from Khandahar in the Southwest Plateau into Ghazni, the city of Mahmud (because Joseph was of the lineage of Mahmud) to be taxed with Maryam, his wife.</em> <br />
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Luke wrote his gospel to Greeks and Romans. It can be helpful to look at his gospel through their eyes, and how they'd have seen it very differently from a Jew of their day or a Christian of our own.<br />
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+ Presidents Bush and Obama keep the peace in Afghanistan at the cost of the occasional civilian casualty. Caesar Augustus kept his own peace-keeping forces in Judea, though his limited technology led to somewhat different rules of engagement for Roman garrisons.<br />
+ Afghanistan is a province most Americans wish they'd never heard of. Judea was very much the same thing to a Roman. It was a constant cesspool of rebellion, full of enemies, and providing almost no economic worth to the empire. <br />
+ We know Afghanistan as a hidey-hole for terrorists. Judea grew a steady crop of Zealots who'd gladly suicide to take a few Romans with them.<br />
+ Hamid Karzai is the President of Afghanistan, and Herod the Great was the Roman-installed, Roman-monitored leader of Judea.<br />
+ The Taliban promises as soon as the people obey Sharia law fully, Allah will free the nation from their tyrannical overlords. In Judea, the Pharisees insisted essentially the same thing about Rome. <br />
+ One word from a woman's betrothed about her pregnancy would unleash the Taliban's wrath on her instantly. Joseph faced the same concern for Mary. <br />
+ American culture has largely outgrown the stigma of unwed childbirth, and so had the Roman and Greek cultures. Luke had a job explaining Jewish morality to his culturally advanced readers!<br />
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The Jesus story was to Luke's readers the story of a nobody born to nobodies in a nowhere backwater ruled by suicidal terrorists, religious fanatics, and a sycophantic king. It was just another weird story from a weird place!<br />
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The Jesus story provoked the average Roman to wonder why would God be born in such a place when Rome was available? Rome had the CNN of the ancient world. Anything to happen in Rome could be known the world over in weeks. And if God were to schedule His debutante's ball for Judea, why send an army of angels to announce Himself to shepherds? What kind of glory or intimidation could they bring? Why hide from Herod, Quirinius, and the High Priest of that Jewish religion?<br />
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Our God handled the event mysteriously to the Roman mind, and also to the American mind. The American mind grapples with it by asserting God was trying to prove His love to the very least, or He was fulfilling prophecies to His people. American's look at God's odd behavior and need to find some ultimately victorious strategery. <br />
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I settle for something simpler. <br />
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My sentimental favorite theory is Jesus was unwilling to seat Himself at the head of the table, preferring to seat Himself in the humblest place and allow the host to move Him up. He announced Himself as God in the humblest way imaginable, and He did it for all the reasons He gave His disciples. <br />
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Or did He tell the parable because He knew it was true, even of the most important things? What Jesus actually did greatly outweighed what people knew about what He did. The doing was sufficient, even if no gawking spectators are amazed by the event. One doesn't play a fanfare when planting a seed. One plants it. A man who trumpets the planting of his seed doesn't truly trust the mystery of gardening. He wants his credit now, in case the crop never comes. Jesus knew He was planting Himself deeply in rich soil, and the family He reaped would be without end. He needed no audience.<br />
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The humility of Christ's birth bears a message, but the message is of God's total confidence. God needs no props from His enemies and only love from His friends. Kevin Knoxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16788817477327510023noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20104292.post-75359474392636887152013-10-31T22:09:00.002-04:002013-10-31T22:09:36.600-04:00Book Review: High PriceI found <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/High-Price-Neuroscientists-Self-Discovery-Challenges/dp/0062015885/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1383270639&sr=1-1&keywords=high+price" target="_blank">High Price: Drugs, Neuroscience, and Discovering Myself</a></em> incredibly moving, which is unexpected in a discussion of the neuroscience of addiction. There are two general classes of people who will profitably wrestle with the claims of Dr. Carl Hart, those in relationship with someone addicted and those who care about the state of black opportunity in America. When the book began I was in the first class, but by the end I found myself in both.
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Dr. Hart is a reasonable and angry black man living in a nation that imprisons its black drug users at a vastly higher rate than its white drug users. At a time when 13% of America's drug users were black, 46% of those convicted for drug crimes were black. Dr. Hart ties that number to the demonization of crack cocaine. Until 2010, the possessor of an amount of crack cocaine received the same penalty as the possessor of 100 times that potency of powdered cocaine.
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Dr. Hart is also a neuroscientist specializing in the effects of addictive substances on the human brain. When this neuroscientist tells me there's no meaningful difference between the effects of powdered versus crack cocaine on the brain, I'm inclined to believe him. And when he tells me inequitable sentencing laws exist because politicians are much more likely to be elected when they're tougher on black crime than on white crime, I grudgingly have to admit he might have a point.
<br />
<br />
And finally, Dr. Hart is a survivor of the destructive South Florida 'hoods that produced the hip-hop phenomenon Run DMC and countless dangerous gangsta thugs. Dr. Hart tenderly shares how his family has been impacted by too many of the stereotypical dysfunctions of those 'hoods, and his own story is one of success only by the narrowest of margins. He made it out because of his own willpower, but it was a willpower given opportunity thanks to random strokes of luck, the generosity of many mentors, and the necessary support of American liberal politics. Dr. Hart is a walking exception, but he's not forgotten his roots. And he's not forgotten the streets never needed to be so mean. <br />
<br />
<em>High Price: Drugs, Neuroscience, and Discovering Myself</em> was written more to fix the root problem of drugs in America than to help individual addicts recover. I'm hesitant to summarize his formula for that fix here, because he builds his radical approach on a carefully constructed foundation, but if I try it's in hopes you'll actually read this book. Let me give just a couple hints of the data and anecdotes he supplies.
<br />
<ol>
<li>You know that rat that keeps pushing the button that gives him hits of cocaine until he dies of starvation? And how that experiment was promoted as proving the powerful addictive power of cocaine? Did you know the rats in question were all kept in solitary confinement, and the only things in their cages were cocaine and food? No friends. No mates. No toys. No paths to investigate. Nothing.
<br /><br />Put me in that situation, and I might O.D. on cocaine, too. <br /><br />
Rats placed in a stimulating and normal environment with access to cocaine spend their time very much like rats without access to cocaine. The compulsive behavior of their more famous cousins doesn't exhibit itself in the presence of healthy stimuli. (And don't even start me on the experiments demonstrating Oreo cookies are equally as addictive as cocaine.)</li>
<li>There are two significant differences between powdered cocaine and crack cocaine. The first is that crack cocaine can be smoked rather than snorted, which causes it to hit the blood stream in a more concentrated rush. The hit comes faster and harder, but it's no more intoxicating than powdered cocaine. To achieve the same rush using powdered cocaine it has to be injected, which is inconvenient, but both products cause the same intoxication. <br /><br />
The second difference is that crack cocaine is cheaper, making it the drug of choice for poor blacks. It's sold in smaller quantities on street corners, while powdered cocaine is sold in larger quantities behind closed doors.
<br /><br />Crack cocaine is not radically more addictive than powdered cocaine, but it is radically more targeted for enforcement. </li>
<li>The social problems of the mean streets of South Florida existed before crack cocaine was ever invented, and the invention of crack cocaine has not meaningfully increased those problems. South Florida had addicts before it had cocaine, and it always will. Addiction is a personal problem, not a drug problem. An addict who cannot obtain one drug will use another, and a non-addict will not become addicted no matter what intoxicants are made available to him. Addiction is a problem of pain management. </li>
</ol>
Dr. Hart's solution to the root cause of drug addiction is to present other powerful ways to manage pain than chemical relief. Chief among those other pain management tools is the skillset required to succeed in our society, and we are actively taking that tool out of the hands of our black men.
<br />
<br />
It is painfully obvious our inner cities are not fully equipping their children to succeed in white collar America, but the problem only begins there. Thanks to the war on drugs, one misstep undoes whatever little good may have been done for these people. Being caught one time with a meager amount of crack cocaine results in a life-long felony record, with its life-long impact on every opportunity America has to offer.
<br />
<br />
Those of you who reveled in Jean Valjean's story as told in Les Miserables should consider the difficulties a black man suffers after being caught with that threshold amount of crack cocaine. No amount of change or growth will remove that scar from his life. The only injustice Valjean suffered at Javert's hand was the blind imposition of unfair justice, but that's exactly what we are imposing on one out of every three black men in America. And when those men finally complete their prison terms, they have no more stake in their own society, our society. We've left them without hope, and that makes them dangerous people indeed.
<br />
<br />
These facts barely touch the surface of what I learned from <em>High Price</em>. The main thing I learned is that 80% of drug users will go on to lead normal, healthy, productive lives, given the chance. Black drug users no longer get that chance. They go to prison, and when they come out their opportunity at a normal life is gone.
<br />
<br />
Dr. Hart convinced me, from many different perspectives, we are reaping in violence exactly what we've sown in false justice. We are ruining lives that could be and should be saved. <br />
<br />
I highly recommend challenging yourself with this book.
Kevin Knoxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16788817477327510023noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20104292.post-20206526011004562482013-09-04T21:54:00.000-04:002013-09-04T22:42:07.055-04:00Chasing the Shingle Creek Passage<div style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri"; font-size: 12pt;">
<div>
I’m writing this from a beach chair at Publix beside my dead car, awaiting the tow
truck. The Florida sun is doing what the Florida sun does, and the clouds look
like they’re stirring up to do what Florida clouds do, what they did
yesterday.</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
Yesterday, we dropped the van at a local retirement village, and took the car
about three miles away to a public kayak put-in. We’d drop into Shingle Creek,
take a south passage through a promising cypress stand to where it joins a more sizable river, and pull back out at the
retirement village. There’d we’d visit a friend of ours, and gather
everything up a for a nice ride home.</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
...</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
To be continued.</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
...</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
The car's safely at the shop now and I'm back in the air conditioning, clicking a real keyboard. </div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
...</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
The put-in went smoothly. We were flowing with the current, concerned only
the Florida sun might burn us before we arrived at our friend's. Laziness was
our watchword. Dana hates adventure, and we were both content to watch the sun
dappling the river-bottom through tannin-infused water. A leaf rolling with
the flow tumbled into a sun-beam and glowed fiery red from under the water. Just
as quickly, it rolled back over to its brown side and relinquished the spotlight
to some duckweed or a spray of stray bubbles rising from the muck. </div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
At points there were interesting things on the other side of the river, but paddling way over there was far too much work. We
drifted for nearly an hour, enjoying Florida and admiring the stream as it narrowed. Soon, we could touch
trees on both sides of our channel at the same time. The water was still there, but it was
no longer gathered into a neat creek. Instead, it spread wide throughout a plain
of cypress. The Everglades are like this. They call it, "The River of Grass," because it's actually a single miles-wide river running slow and shallow across our virtually level state. </div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
Our creek became a river of cypress. </div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
Towering cypress are always surrounded by nubbins called
"cypress knees," about 12 inches tall. We found ourselves snaking between knees, dodging peacefully
left and right, wending our way, following the best flow of our channel. We noticed
quickly the best path was always marked by orange trail blazes. Someone had mapped a
course through our maze, and we had only to follow it. </div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
Who knows how far we went in the next hour. We don't. One mile? Two? Like the frog
in the slowly warming water, we'd noticed the channel overgrowing but we saw only reason for hope. At one
point, I'd had to jump out of the kayak to help it over a log. At another we
were bunny hopping ourselves over multiple submerged logs. All the while, the tree
cover was growing thicker, the shade deeper, the weeds wilder, the water darker,
and channel narrower. But the little orange blazes beckoned us onward with their promise of passage. Someone had gone before us.</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
The blazes continued past the sign that said the trail ends, and so did
we.</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
The little things kept lightening our mood. A flock of ibis or a beautiful
egret not used to seeing people. A wine bottle tied up as a sign to weary
travelers. Cypress knees like mini terracotta armies, mothers with babies, or
some other abstract art. And the little things kept darkening our mood, too. More
and bigger spiders than I'd ever seen in my life falling into our kayak by the dozens, the sound of solid limbs hitting and poking our
inflatable kayak, the bubbles popping on the surface when I stepped in
especially organic muck. I don't know how many times I looked at the boat to see
whether the bubbles were coming from the muck or a puncture. </div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
A half hour after passing the end of the trail, the water flowed under some
weird field of lily pads too thick to break with paddles. I was out on foot again,
but we passed safely through and the orange blazes led us on. There were chainsaw
cuts keeping the path clear, but before long I was walking and towing the kayak
far more than we were paddling. Once we completed our passage and joined the main river, though, all
would be well. We were much later than we'd planned, much muddier than our friend would understand, and anxious to get back to our car again before they locked the gate behind us, but success would make it all worth while. Darkness was still a ways off, even if the gathering clouds hid the sun nearly as effectively.</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
My ankle became a concern. It had been a week and a half since I wrenched it. It had been improving steadily, but none of us was banking on it doing the job
I was asking of it today. The water averaged calf-deep, and so did the muck. I
was usually thigh-deep in muck and brown water before my feet found purchase, kicking and tripping the whole time over
invisible, submerged logs of every shape and firmness. Sometimes I could stand
on them, and sometimes I'd slide from them instead. Progress was measured in
brown stumbles and hard towing, but progress we did. I'd very nearly decided not to wear an ankle brace for a quiet paddle down a lazy river. I was so glad to have erred toward caution this once. And I was glad for the cooling effect of the water to keep the swelling
down. </div>
<div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7piPhe11xJ3fmFIWdtm6SCjCZBK_Fo0_YXEqXjXZUkYZa1u4RbgxCUvspPRjFYtrSUEa8nkfYOKuA8pf0r5egMcdkRzdyHI1rs0OuMM8giBHJEKCes3nPwUzyDXnCrC7gKpePag/s1600/ShingleCreekPassage.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7piPhe11xJ3fmFIWdtm6SCjCZBK_Fo0_YXEqXjXZUkYZa1u4RbgxCUvspPRjFYtrSUEa8nkfYOKuA8pf0r5egMcdkRzdyHI1rs0OuMM8giBHJEKCes3nPwUzyDXnCrC7gKpePag/s320/ShingleCreekPassage.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
</div>
<div>
In a final babble of promise, the water sped up. It was an exciting sign. The land was coming
together and our channel deepening. Maybe our Shingle Creek passage would finally be complete, and we were about to join our river. We took hope. </div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
The river presented us with another log, though, and this one too big to go over. We'd have to portage. Before
we did that, I figured I'd walk ahead to see how much
further the river really was. I tried three paths. All were completely impassable. The
portage wouldn't work. </div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
Shingle Creek said, "No." Instead of triumphing, we'd stumble back through every turn and twist and log and
slip. We were going back. </div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
The clouds picked up on our mood and chose that minute
to do what Florida clouds do. The drizzle gained heft and speed, and drowned our last flicker of hope. We both wear glasses, so the rain added a level of difficulty to our
journey. Spotting the faded orange blazes was much more important now, and we had to see them without windshield wipers. Trying to stay in the boat whenever the lightning was especially close only added to the injuries already inflicted.
</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
And now we were fighting the clock. Dark comes after 8:00,
and we were well past 5:00. We'd been three hours getting so far with the
current, and the way back would be harder to find. The way down was only
a matter of sticking to the deepest water. The way back held two critical turns we knew we could miss. </div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
There were no options. We started. </div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
We rolled fifty or more of our orange blazes back up, the clock ticking faster than we could slog or paddle. Every single sighting of orange was
a drama, but we kept finding them. And suddenly we didn't see any more. There'd been
one confusing decision with an orange to our front and an orange to the left. We'd
gone forward. A hundred yards later, we'd seen nothing but white/blue
blazes. We were familiar with those, but orange had brung us, and it was
orange we'd go home with. Back we went. We tracked left and were rewarded
with a dozen more orange blazes, then they dried up, too. </div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
We backtracked yet again to our last orange blaze and stopped. Cold. We had options aplenty, but it was 7:00, and the
bewildering (today I notice "wilderness" is at the root of "bewilder") cypress
didn't have that "I'm Tom Bodett, and we'll leave the lights on," kind of
feeling. We didn't sense the welcome to spend our night amongst God's cypress knee armies. We were no more than a mile or two from our car, but we were an
hour from dark and the odds we'd find the right path in that hour grew closer and closer to
zero. </div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
Each moment wasted on hesitation felt like a judgment day.</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
All the obvious thoughts came to mind. Quietly shivering all night in a damp kayak,
crying uncle then waiting for the helicopter and floodlights, listening to our friends tell us how
we should have been more prepared, several dozen Readers' Digest survival
stories, alligators anywhere
(along with snakes and untold bugs.) The mind is not always our best friend.</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
We decided.</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
It turns out my ancient BlackBerry actually does have a functioning GPS which the
911 operator can access. She calmly explained to us that at that very moment there was a cozy
little subdivision just 150 yards to our West. We squinted as hard as we could to the West, and had to take her word for it. There was nothing but cypress to be seen, but we abandoned the kayak and
struck off. She corrected our course to the left as we went, and 70 yards later we finally saw the first
rooftop. </div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
Cypress swamps are thick. <br />
<br />
As near as I can tell, I've mapped our route at <a href="http://www.mapmyfitness.com/routes/view/282972225" target="_blank">MapMyRide</a> (choose Satellite view to see the cypress stand, and zoom out a bit to see where we were trying to go.) Your guess is frankly as good as ours where we stopped, but it was down there somewhere. <br />
</div>
<div>
We ended up having to skirt a retention pond, but soon we were on manicured
grass again. (My heart warmed a little bit toward manicured grass.) I went back, found, deflated, and hauled out the kayak. A friend
came and drove us back to our car, and we headed back to the van with all our
stuff. At 9:00 we did make it to the van just before the car died. Of course, that the car died was only appropriate after the day we'd had so far. The check engine light had
been on for a day, but it was just an oxygen sensor warning - no big deal. I figured I'd
get it to the shop on Tuesday, and we'd live with bad mileage until then. Not
this time. This time we'd be transferring things to the van and leaving the car
in the Publix parking lot until I could get back to it. </div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
Three days later, we have the car back at home and running well. It was a cracked vacuum line that chose a quiet Sunday afternoon to finally break. The kayak seems no worse for wear, and we've found no ticks or spider bites to remind us of our adventure. I've got a little poison oak, but not enough to really trouble me. Time will have to tell whether our fancy Nikon d3100 survived
the adventure, though. We're going to let it dry a bit longer before we put the
battery back in.
</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
I could not be more relieved things ended so easily. There were no
sirens, no night in the swamp, and a story to tell for a long time. </div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
Already I'm starting to look back on the trip fondly. </div>
</div>
Kevin Knoxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16788817477327510023noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20104292.post-80254437247151011722013-08-07T22:40:00.001-04:002013-08-07T22:40:53.188-04:00The Progress of Man Toward GodI've been thinking about this too long not to type a little something about it. I'm seeing the Bible as a journal of the progress of man toward God, and a very complete journal. It records God's coaching of us, and our attempts at carrying out our Coach's instructions. It comes complete with progressions and measurable progress. <br />
<br />
And maybe a prediction of what comes next?<br />
<br />
Let me give you some general headings, and see what you think. <br />
<ul>
<li>Adam<br />Adam had no idea how to get to God. He didn't even know it was hard. He didn't even know <em>being like </em>God was out of reach! He ignorantly set foot on the stage of life and tried to pull of a miracle by a little culinary adventure. I used to believe Adam would have been home-free had he only eaten from the Tree of Life, instead of from the forbidden Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. My current thinking is had Adam chosen the right afternoon snack he'd have had fewer setbacks in learning to reach God, but he'd still have had to learn. </li>
<li>Seth to Noah<br />We're talking about a handful of chapters here. As nearly as I can tell, these people lived kind of like New-Agers think they can live now. They had some sort of confidence they could just walk with God and that was enough. And it was, for at least one guy. Enoch seemed to handle the freedom and responsibility pretty well. The rest of the world didn't do so well. We're all just thankful God found Noah and his family worthy of preserving. </li>
<li>Noah to Abraham<br />There's even less information here than there was for the last group of people, but we know Melchizedek was leading some folk in worshipping God, and we know Job leaned heavily on the virtue of sacrifice. Basically, Noah probably didn't teach his sons a whole lot about worship, but people built on his memories and whatever direct revelation the Lord gave. </li>
<li>Abraham to Moses<br />God speaks to Abraham and Abraham tells his sons what God said. So far as I know, the memory of walking with God like Enoch disappears from the Earth after Abraham. In its place is one couple and their miracle family. Through one son, then two, then twelve comes a nation of people who've heard from birth God makes promises to people. I don't see a lot of instruction here about how to reach God, but there's a real and amazing confidence God is reaching them. Here's a beginning</li>
<li>Moses<br />Moses is the redwood tree of the Old Testament. God chose Moses to carry His instructions for worship to Abraham's family. The children of Israel's family learn from Moses how to gather together, how to sacrifice, how to celebrate, and how to say thanks. Whenever we study the Old Testament, we focus on the failures of Israel's family to reach God. Focus for a second on the fact they made a skilled effort. Remember whenever you think about this there was at all times a remnant of people successfully reaching God. Many people failed to follow Moses' instructions, but there was always someone "doing it right." From the time of Moses onward, there was always someone pleasing God by doing the things He sent Moses to teach.</li>
<li>Joshua - Samuel<br />Yes, I see success here. After Joshua fit the battle of Jericho, the people of God got down to the business of living in their new world. God made promises to Abraham, and gave instructions to Moses. Now they were living in that fulfilled dream. They had motive and opportunity to know God. They found out it wasn't that easy. Clearing their lives of idolatry was even harder than clearing the land. Following the instructions of God required knowing those instructions, applying yourself daily, and genuine belief that the invisible God was worth knowing. People failed in droves, but there are some great success stories, too. The report is that every man did what was right in his own eyes, but some of them actually saw the Truth. By the end, the people truly did trust Samuel for a while, and the remnant always sought God. </li>
<li>David to Jehoiachin <br />The kings over Israel (and later over the Northern and Southern divisions of Israel) upped the ante considerably. For starters, they got everyone on the same sheet of music. All Israel worshipped pretty much however the king worshipped. David doesn't quite have the stature of Moses, but he's cut from the same cloth. He loved God, heard instructions from Him, and obeyed them with all his heart. By the time Solomon was done, the people had a place to gather, a priesthood to mediate for them, and a clear picture in their mind what it was to be "the" peculiar people God was calling for. From David's day forward, the people had a vision of what it was to be Israel. The remaining Israelite kings led their people as well. The kings of the Northern Kingdom led them astray while the kings of the Southern Kingdom hit every extreme of loss and restoration. In every case, the vision burned a little more clearly in the eyes of the remnant few than in the days of the judges. </li>
<li>Ezra to Jesus<br />And here we pass into the murky age, and into the age filled with treasures. I hope and pray your teaching has been more complete than mine, but I knew nothing of these last 500 years of the Old Testament. There's an upward transition from David to Jesus, and it's right here. Ezra was a stranger to me, but he stands almost as tall as Moses himself and Jesus' message would have been incomprehensible without him.<br /><br />Jesus could make of us a kingdom of priests because Ezra first transformed Israel into people under priests. </li>
</ul>
<br />
Have you ever noticed 1 and 2 Chronicles is a rerun of 1 Samuel through 2 Kings. There's a reason for that. The first history is told in the mindset of the kings. It tells how God made Israel great by making its kings great. The second history is told in the mindset of the priests and is rich with insights the kings never had - even as they were living the story out. It's a subtle but significant difference. <br />
<br />
The twin books of Ezra and Nehemiah begin right where 2 Chronicles leaves off, and essentially become 3 Chronicles. They begin with Israel deeply separated from Yahweh after their best and brightest were carried captive to Babylon. God lived in a building in Jerusalem, and that building had been leveled. Judah's sin caused that disaster, so they had to regard their disaster as their own fault. Yahweh had made promises to Abraham, explained them to Moses, and fulfilled many of them in David, but He ploughed it all under when Israel refused to keep His covenant. God's people had no hope. The isolation was astronomical, hopeless. <br />
<br />
But the people of Judah brought the Word of God with them to Babylon. They were separated from the land, the temple, the blessings, but those powerful words spoke into their abandonment. In the darkest of hours Daniel could consult the scrolls. So could Ezra. So could all the remnant. <br />
<br />
From Adam to Jehoiachin "The Bible" is almost unmentioned in the Bible. Abraham had Yahweh's promise, but not one little page of The Bible. Moses wrote five books of The Bible, but he didn't start with a single page of it himself. David had Moses' five books and so did a few priests, but the people never heard more than an occasional reading from The Bible. They took their lead from David and his priests. Comfort and guidance came from the temple pageant and the knowledge God was with the king. We can hardly imagine relationship with God apart from His words, but The Bible was truly not central to Israel's spiritual life.<br />
<br />
It was during the Babylonian captivity the synagogue system began. Desperate for any connection to God, the people discovered the consolation of the scriptures. They turned whole-heartedly to the scriptures and began to realize how rich and full their lives were with just them. They expected life without the temple to be empty, so the richness of scripture came as a delightful surprise. The synagogue became the place to gather and share the Word of God together. <br />
<br />
It was in Babylon the Jewish religion became an individual one. During the time of the kings, Israel was a nation and its reality was whatever its king made of it. Each individual Jew saw himself as a part of Israel's whole, and Yahweh related to the nation. In Babylon, the people began to see Yahweh relating personally to each Jew. Israel could be in captivity for its sins, even while my relationship to Yahweh was healthy and rich. <br />
<br />
It's also worth mentioning that from the day of Babylon until now, Israel's main problem was never again idolatry. Legalism, distorted mysticism, and worldliness weren't cured in Babylon, but curing idolatry is an amazing change. <br />
<br />
By the time the second temple was completed, Israel was a stronger nation of God-followers than ever before. We focus on Israel's mistakes throughout the 39 books of the Old Testament, but we need to see their success. Following an invisible God is hard! Abraham's pupils were stronger than Noah's, Moses's than Abraham's, David's than Moses's, and Ezra's than David's. The people of Israel struggled, but they grew closer to God each time he revealed a little more about Himself. The nation of Israel fell and fell again, but they were a little higher each time they rose. And never forget the silent remnant received the Lord's commendation in every generation. <br />
<br />
It should not be the shock it is to me when I see the Lord succeeded in all those generations, but it's a happy shock. And it makes me want to recalculate everything about how Jesus changed everything when He came. <br />
<br />
Kevin Knoxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16788817477327510023noreply@blogger.com1