What we call something can have a significant impact on the way we perceive it. This is why marketing works. This is why we couch what we say in euphemisms. Words really do matter, because they shape and carry our meaning to others.
Historically, the naming of a child was a joyful and serious matter. It was an opportunity to set the direction for the child, to declare the parents' love and affection for it - and often to declare many other things, such as allegiances, ties, fealties and oaths. Simply naming a child after a favorite uncle could have significant repercussions through the life of that child. The uncle might dote on the child, and the child may be given to paying a little more attention to that uncle and his behavior.
But if the child is told that they were named after that uncle and he turns out to be a criminal, what will the child think? An impressionable child might take that as an indication of his or her own nature, and believe that they too are destined to lean towards a life of crime. We don't name our children after Charles Manson, John Wilkes Boothe, Adolf Hitler or Joseph Stalin because we don't want our children identifying with those men. We name our children after the best and finest that we know, people that we admire. That is why so many freed slaves took the names of famous presidents. How many Lincolns and Washingtons are there among the African American population?
Christians traditionally choose names that come from the Bible, or that are the names of saints. When a child learns that they were named after someone who was known for their virtue, they have a lifelong opportunity to identify with that virtue. A child may also be named directly after a virtue, to provide a constant reminder of that virtue. Children have also been named after towns and cities from the Bible where miracles happened, or where famous events of virtuous people took place. All of these offer that lifelong bond to virtue and goodness.
Given this backdrop, it has dismayed me to see so many children being named in rather vain and meaningless ways. Naming of children has become like naming family pets; we pick names that sound good to us. Or we just plain make up a sound and slap it on a child. Worse still are cases where a parent names a child by their favorite store, or a sports hero, or a car. The child will forever carry a reminder that their parent assigned them a name - that most intimate means of identification - that conveys a message of frivolity or simplemindedness. That is the legacy of an ill-chosen name.
When you are blessed with children, consider the name that you give to each one of them. The saints are great examples of virtue, and telling a child that they are named after someone who exemplifies goodness can be a wonderful gift. Or name a child after a famous man or woman from history who did great things so that your child can have some notion of who to emulate. In any case, choose your names wisely because your child will have a lifetime to consider who they are, and their name is a natural starting point.
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
Friday, May 25, 2007
Homosexuality
I'm a heterosexual man. An attractive woman turns my head. An attractive man does not. Why? Because that's what my body tells me to do. I didn't take Heterosexuality 101 in grade school so that when I hit puberty I'd be attracted to girls. I was built to be heterosexual.
Of course, we know that people vary due to genetic and developmental forces. We also know that those variations affect our physical and mental abilities. Some variations produce mild effects, such as a preference for a particular color or spiciness in foods. Some are more pronounced, such as photographic memories, predisposition towards addiction, great physical prowess and so on. No matter the intensity, they all come to us unbidden. We don't take Addiction 101 or Memory 311 in college. Our basic physical and intellectual makeup are conferred upon us by circumstance.
That brings us to homosexuality. It is a builtin sexual desire for members of the same sex. It is an instinct that is conferred upon certain people by circumstance. They don't take Homosexuality 101 to learn how to become homosexuals. They have a sincere attraction to people who are the same sex. So what's the big deal?
Well, let's take a look at what sexuality is all about.
Sexuality is about propagation of the species. That's why we have it. That is sex's raison de etre. People take the raw act of creating new members of our species and fill it out to be much more complete. We bond as husbands and wives because that is the fulfillment of the act of love that is most advantageous to the family when they create new life. Without the bond, men and women would separate after sex, just like animals do, leaving the women to deal with the birth of the child. Clearly nobody would do that, because we're so much better than the animals. Right?
That little jab at sex outside of marriage is made possible because people separate their animal instinct for procreative sex from the human instinct for that loving bond. In a similar way, homosexuality seems to make sense because it has everything that a healthy relationship seeks except for the creation of a child. That's why homosexuality fools so many people into believing that it's a healthy thing - it looks a lot like a healthy thing.
It's not healthy because it excludes the possibility of creating life. Remember the very purpose of sex? To create new life? Homosexuality precludes that possibility. Oh, we might be able to artificially accomplish something to permit homosexual couples to physically create a new life, but their sexual congress isn't going to be the source of that life.
Well, who says sex has to create new life? It's not in anybody's operating manual about how to be human. Heterosexual couples use birth control to do pretty much the same thing; they take the possibility of creating new life out of the act of sex, retaining only the physical bond and possibly the emotional bond between the couple. It's just like homosexuality, and it probably covers the majority of the population in America.
To understand it, I'll use the Olympics as a metaphor.
Imagine if athletes came from all over the world to assemble in one city. They were all incredibly well-trained and capable. Fans flooded in as well, buying up hot dogs, program guides, painting their faces with their national flags and hooting and hollering to support thier athletes. They all assembled in the olympic stadium. The runners are at the starting line. The official raises his hand to start the race. A hush falls over the stadium. Then everyone goes home.
The fundamental element to the Olympics is the competition. It's why the athletes trained. It's what the fans came to see. Oh, they also got a chance to meet people from all over the world, see a new city, try new foods, be involved in the sheer experience of the Olympics. But without the competition, there are no Olympics. The meetings might continue, but they would turn into something that isn't the Olympic experience.
So it is with human sexuality. Without the very purpose behind sexuality as an integral part of the act, it is incomplete in a very fundamental way. That incompleteness causes our perception of the act to change and restructure. The changes take place slowly as the new perceptions are institutionalized for later generations. We know what happens when heterosexuals forget about the fundamental purpose of sex when we look around and see so many families lacking fathers. We'll learn in the coming decades what perils are part of institutionalized homosexuality.
Homosexuality is an unfortunate flaw in the genetic and developmental forces that go into our makeup. It becomes part of the instincts of an apparently non-trivial fraction of our population, and we are a planet of people largely dominated by our instincts. If I were to present this argument to a homosexual, I would appear to be chopping at the foundation of their existence. Imagine if I were to tell you that heterosexuality was unhealthy for you. That it was leading you to an unhappy end. If you thought that anything could come of my claim, you'd be pretty motivated to shove that argument down my throat. That's how strong these particular instincts are.
But that's all they are; instincts. There are healthy ones and there are unhealthy ones. Homosexuality is an unhealthy instinct because it attempts to reinforce the notion that sex devoid of the possibility of the creation of life is a healthy attitude. It is the same attitude that encourages the use of contraception and, ultimately, abortion.
In time, technology will give us two avenues that people can walk down. The first is for homosexuals to have children. The second is to reset the instincts of a homosexual to those of a heterosexual. The path that we choose will tell us much about ourselves.
Of course, we know that people vary due to genetic and developmental forces. We also know that those variations affect our physical and mental abilities. Some variations produce mild effects, such as a preference for a particular color or spiciness in foods. Some are more pronounced, such as photographic memories, predisposition towards addiction, great physical prowess and so on. No matter the intensity, they all come to us unbidden. We don't take Addiction 101 or Memory 311 in college. Our basic physical and intellectual makeup are conferred upon us by circumstance.
That brings us to homosexuality. It is a builtin sexual desire for members of the same sex. It is an instinct that is conferred upon certain people by circumstance. They don't take Homosexuality 101 to learn how to become homosexuals. They have a sincere attraction to people who are the same sex. So what's the big deal?
Well, let's take a look at what sexuality is all about.
Sexuality is about propagation of the species. That's why we have it. That is sex's raison de etre. People take the raw act of creating new members of our species and fill it out to be much more complete. We bond as husbands and wives because that is the fulfillment of the act of love that is most advantageous to the family when they create new life. Without the bond, men and women would separate after sex, just like animals do, leaving the women to deal with the birth of the child. Clearly nobody would do that, because we're so much better than the animals. Right?
That little jab at sex outside of marriage is made possible because people separate their animal instinct for procreative sex from the human instinct for that loving bond. In a similar way, homosexuality seems to make sense because it has everything that a healthy relationship seeks except for the creation of a child. That's why homosexuality fools so many people into believing that it's a healthy thing - it looks a lot like a healthy thing.
It's not healthy because it excludes the possibility of creating life. Remember the very purpose of sex? To create new life? Homosexuality precludes that possibility. Oh, we might be able to artificially accomplish something to permit homosexual couples to physically create a new life, but their sexual congress isn't going to be the source of that life.
Well, who says sex has to create new life? It's not in anybody's operating manual about how to be human. Heterosexual couples use birth control to do pretty much the same thing; they take the possibility of creating new life out of the act of sex, retaining only the physical bond and possibly the emotional bond between the couple. It's just like homosexuality, and it probably covers the majority of the population in America.
To understand it, I'll use the Olympics as a metaphor.
Imagine if athletes came from all over the world to assemble in one city. They were all incredibly well-trained and capable. Fans flooded in as well, buying up hot dogs, program guides, painting their faces with their national flags and hooting and hollering to support thier athletes. They all assembled in the olympic stadium. The runners are at the starting line. The official raises his hand to start the race. A hush falls over the stadium. Then everyone goes home.
The fundamental element to the Olympics is the competition. It's why the athletes trained. It's what the fans came to see. Oh, they also got a chance to meet people from all over the world, see a new city, try new foods, be involved in the sheer experience of the Olympics. But without the competition, there are no Olympics. The meetings might continue, but they would turn into something that isn't the Olympic experience.
So it is with human sexuality. Without the very purpose behind sexuality as an integral part of the act, it is incomplete in a very fundamental way. That incompleteness causes our perception of the act to change and restructure. The changes take place slowly as the new perceptions are institutionalized for later generations. We know what happens when heterosexuals forget about the fundamental purpose of sex when we look around and see so many families lacking fathers. We'll learn in the coming decades what perils are part of institutionalized homosexuality.
Homosexuality is an unfortunate flaw in the genetic and developmental forces that go into our makeup. It becomes part of the instincts of an apparently non-trivial fraction of our population, and we are a planet of people largely dominated by our instincts. If I were to present this argument to a homosexual, I would appear to be chopping at the foundation of their existence. Imagine if I were to tell you that heterosexuality was unhealthy for you. That it was leading you to an unhappy end. If you thought that anything could come of my claim, you'd be pretty motivated to shove that argument down my throat. That's how strong these particular instincts are.
But that's all they are; instincts. There are healthy ones and there are unhealthy ones. Homosexuality is an unhealthy instinct because it attempts to reinforce the notion that sex devoid of the possibility of the creation of life is a healthy attitude. It is the same attitude that encourages the use of contraception and, ultimately, abortion.
In time, technology will give us two avenues that people can walk down. The first is for homosexuals to have children. The second is to reset the instincts of a homosexual to those of a heterosexual. The path that we choose will tell us much about ourselves.
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
The Great Struggle
A maturing experience is one in which we are faced with a situation that requires that we make some difficult choices. Those choices are about things that cause us to decide what's important in life. They help us to discover our priorities and to then hone them. The ultimate goal of maturing, of course, is to become better men and women.
The process of maturation is the one thing that is truly timeless. Every man or woman ever born was faced with it. As a result, there is no more unifying experience than that of maturing. Older members are still maturing, but they are likely ahead of those who are younger. This means that there is a very natural mentoring relationship between the older and the younger members of a society.
When children are focused on the process of maturation, they can look to those who are older for guidance and help. As they get older themselves, they can provide basic aid and direction to those slightly younger then they are. Indeed, even helping peers will be valuable given that some learn about the lessons of life more quickly than others.
In ages past, old and young alike were busied with the task of simply staying alive. Finding food, shelter and clothing have been the primary activities of human beings until only very recently. Those are maturing activities. They cause people to face the fact that we are human, and that there is value in the cardinal virtues. Humility, chastity, charity, moderation, zeal, etc., all have clear purpose and meaning in a society that must work together in order to survive. A successful society will naturally move towards those values. A society that does not will tend to fragment, falter and crumble.
Does this mean that when we were struggling to feed, clothe and house our families that we were in some kind of nirvana? Hardly. We are human and we have always been creatures infected with sloth, greed and the other capital sins. However, the hardships of life tend to demand that we make clear choices about whether we choose vice or virtue.
Now consider the choices that we make in modern America, particularly the children's choices. Can they get the new cell phone with the television-on-demand or do they have to stay with the out-of-date phone? Are low-riders still in fashion? Will they go out for track or for soccer this year? How can they work their schedule so they can watch the latest episode of The Simpsons?
That's just the consumerist side of American life. There is a far darker side that gives children choices about who their marijuana supplier is going to be, or where they'll steal their music and movie downloads, or how to sneak down to the tattoo shop. That's the rebellious side, and it's even more frivolous and wasteful of human life than is the consumerist.
The decisions that face us, whether we are 15 or 55, are simply no longer significant. We are lost in a sea of frivolity, of meaningless choices. The people of America were once great because of the challenges that we faced. We were building a nation from a wilderness. That demanded that people take stock of that which was important to them because there were sacrifices to be made, and that required people to decide. Will I sacrifice this, or will I sacrifice that? That decision is the cornerstone of building a sense of ethics and morality.
Great nations seem to invariably fade away, either because someone with more resolve comes along, or because they collapse from within. What makes a nation great is the struggle that it faces in order to stay a nation. The very timbre of the people of that nation is defined by the struggle.
America is at the top of the heap of nations on this planet if we measure such things in terms of industrial, technological and military might. That too will fade away if we, as a nation, do not choose to undertake some great struggle.
What might that struggle be? Should it be ivory tower noble, or gritty effective? Should it be the sort that stirs the people into a frenzy of desire, or one that speaks softly to their contemplative side? If you were to set a direction for this nation, what would it be? Clean up the environment? Achieve a 100% literacy rate? Install democratic governments in every nation?
Tell me what you thing. Let me know what struggle is before us that would not only occupy the energies of the entire nation, but would also give us an opportunity to shape the character of our young people so that they will be finer individuals than we are. Think big. Think of the well-being of the nation and indeed of the entire planet. We are all neighbors here, whether we like it or not. Will we struggle against them or will be struggle with them against a common foe?
The process of maturation is the one thing that is truly timeless. Every man or woman ever born was faced with it. As a result, there is no more unifying experience than that of maturing. Older members are still maturing, but they are likely ahead of those who are younger. This means that there is a very natural mentoring relationship between the older and the younger members of a society.
When children are focused on the process of maturation, they can look to those who are older for guidance and help. As they get older themselves, they can provide basic aid and direction to those slightly younger then they are. Indeed, even helping peers will be valuable given that some learn about the lessons of life more quickly than others.
In ages past, old and young alike were busied with the task of simply staying alive. Finding food, shelter and clothing have been the primary activities of human beings until only very recently. Those are maturing activities. They cause people to face the fact that we are human, and that there is value in the cardinal virtues. Humility, chastity, charity, moderation, zeal, etc., all have clear purpose and meaning in a society that must work together in order to survive. A successful society will naturally move towards those values. A society that does not will tend to fragment, falter and crumble.
Does this mean that when we were struggling to feed, clothe and house our families that we were in some kind of nirvana? Hardly. We are human and we have always been creatures infected with sloth, greed and the other capital sins. However, the hardships of life tend to demand that we make clear choices about whether we choose vice or virtue.
Now consider the choices that we make in modern America, particularly the children's choices. Can they get the new cell phone with the television-on-demand or do they have to stay with the out-of-date phone? Are low-riders still in fashion? Will they go out for track or for soccer this year? How can they work their schedule so they can watch the latest episode of The Simpsons?
That's just the consumerist side of American life. There is a far darker side that gives children choices about who their marijuana supplier is going to be, or where they'll steal their music and movie downloads, or how to sneak down to the tattoo shop. That's the rebellious side, and it's even more frivolous and wasteful of human life than is the consumerist.
The decisions that face us, whether we are 15 or 55, are simply no longer significant. We are lost in a sea of frivolity, of meaningless choices. The people of America were once great because of the challenges that we faced. We were building a nation from a wilderness. That demanded that people take stock of that which was important to them because there were sacrifices to be made, and that required people to decide. Will I sacrifice this, or will I sacrifice that? That decision is the cornerstone of building a sense of ethics and morality.
Great nations seem to invariably fade away, either because someone with more resolve comes along, or because they collapse from within. What makes a nation great is the struggle that it faces in order to stay a nation. The very timbre of the people of that nation is defined by the struggle.
America is at the top of the heap of nations on this planet if we measure such things in terms of industrial, technological and military might. That too will fade away if we, as a nation, do not choose to undertake some great struggle.
What might that struggle be? Should it be ivory tower noble, or gritty effective? Should it be the sort that stirs the people into a frenzy of desire, or one that speaks softly to their contemplative side? If you were to set a direction for this nation, what would it be? Clean up the environment? Achieve a 100% literacy rate? Install democratic governments in every nation?
Tell me what you thing. Let me know what struggle is before us that would not only occupy the energies of the entire nation, but would also give us an opportunity to shape the character of our young people so that they will be finer individuals than we are. Think big. Think of the well-being of the nation and indeed of the entire planet. We are all neighbors here, whether we like it or not. Will we struggle against them or will be struggle with them against a common foe?
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