Questions of Tools and Technology

Throughout the course of history, we humans have embraced technology. In many ways it is was makes primates special, and differentiates humans from other primates. I don't think we, as a whole, have ever had to question the technology we use. ... Until now.

As you can see/read, I'm not against technology, per se. After all, I'm writing this blog post from a computer and sending it off into "cyberspace" to be stored on a server someplace. But what do we do with old technology? When the computer finally fails and becomes so outdated that it can no longer be updated, where does it go? And where do we get our materials for our computers? (I'll add a video at the end of this post for those of you who might be interested in this question.)

But what to do with boats? When one is outfitting a boat - like we happen to be - how much technology do we add? What kind? I tend to be a K.I.S.S. (Keep It Simple Sailor) type of outfitter. This is partly due to my own desire to keep costs down, and my desire to have a different type of experience on board than I would in a house. But how does one decide how much technology to add and of what kind? Kerosene lamps are a type of technology, right? Ok, technically  speaking, but probably not what we think about.

It is helpful to me to keep the purpose of the entire venture in mind. I want to be out sailing or exploring places and people. I want to live in harmony with the natural world around me. I want to experience of cruising to be a spiritual praxis - to make me a better person: spiritually, psychologically, physically, emotionally, etc.

Larry and Lin Pardey ask the question: How can you make your boat "unstoppable"? They point out that often we think of electrical aids, when sometimes mechanical aids might be more beneficial.

MacNaughton's lists the following principles as being helpful for the MacNaughton Design Group:
"Everything you add to a boat takes something away. Figure out what you are giving up versus what it will do for you."
"Anything that isn't there can't break down. If it isn't there and therefore isn't broken down it won't keep you in harbor."
"Reducing your wants increases your happiness."

Good luck to all of those who are also outfitting.

Blessed Be

Here's the YouTube video regarding computers
 Ok - so I can't find it, I'll keep looking, in the meantime, if any of you know of the video of a fellow from IBM and a fellow representing Apple talking about the rare earth elements, let me know in the comments section, please.

Advent 1, 2011

Readings for the 1st Sunday of Advent:
    Isaiah 64:1-9; Psalm 80:1-7, 17-19; 1 Corinthians 1:3-9; Mark 13:24-37

In the advent seasons, when the past has fled, unasked, away
    and there is nothing left to do but wait,
God, shelter us.
Be our surrounding darkness;
    be the fertile soil out of which hope springs in due time.
In uncertain times, help us to greet the dawn and labor on, love on,
    in faith awaiting your purpose hid in you
        waiting to be born in due time. Amen.

(Ruth Duck, USA, 20th Cent. - United Methodist Book of Worship)

Lighting the 1st Advent Candle:

We light this candle as a symbol of Christ our Hope.
May the light sent from God shine in the darkness
    to show us the way of salvation.
O come, O come, Emmanuel.

~ United Methodist Book of Worship

Amazingly, we find ourselves back in Advent awaiting - the season of waiting. Waiting for Christ's birth; waiting for the Kingdom to be fully fulfilled, even as we set about working towards it's fulfillment; and waiting for Christ's second coming. All of this is tied up in this season of Advent.

During this season, I will be blogging twice a week: Mondays and Fridays. Fridays will continue the Advent theme.

To start with, I thought it might be helpful to give a very rapid overview of the where/what of the cultural arena into which Jesus was born. Note this is Rapid and an Overview. I'm using John Dominic Crossan's work The Birth of Christianity: Discovering What Happened in the Years Immediately After the Execution of Jesus (HarperSanFrancisco, 1998). I believe it is important to remind all of us that scholarly works (like Crossan's) are part of a larger discussion seeking truth, and that there are other good works out there. I just happen to have Crossan's work with me. I fully encourage you to learn more.

But first some very quick history ...

Here is the rapid overview. Alexander the Great and his Greek's conquered much of the known world, including Palestine. The Israelites revolted after a pig (an unclean animal) was sacrificed in the Temple, starting the Maccabees revolt. As part of the revolt, the Maccabees turned to a new upstart nation, Rome, to help them fight the Greeks. In turn, over the course of years, Roman increased more and more control over Israel, as Rome became the national world power.

Crossan's work argues through cross-cultural anthropology that one of the factors of imperialism is the commercialization of the rural communities. This rural commercialization encroaches upon the tradition way of life for peasants. In an agricultural society there are two "classes" or "strata" of people: and upper and a lower. The upper strata: Ruler, Governing Class, Retainer Class, Merchant Class and Priestly Class. The lower strata: Peasant Class; Artisan Class; Unclean and Degraded Class; and Expendable Class. The Ruler and the Governing Class (1-2% of the population) received 50-65% of the agricultural productivity. Retainer Class (5% of the population) made the entire process work through their military and scribal might. The Merchant Class reinvested their wealth back into the land, becoming part of the Governing Class, so as such, there was no middle class. The Peasant Class (the vast majority of the population) was purposefully kept close to a subsistence level so that any surplus could move up the chain. The Artisan Class was constantly recruited from the Peasant Class, as these would be former peasants who lost their land, or didn't inherit it in the first place (2nd sons, etc.), and their median income would be about 1/2 of the median income of the peasants. The Unclean and Degraded Class would be those who like porters, miners, and prostitutes could only sell their physical labor and/or bodies. In fact, they are often hard to distinguish between the Expendable Class. The Expendable Class varies between 5-10% in normal times, to 15% or even close to 0% on some occasions. This class paid the systemic price of holding the peasant class at a subsistence level. The Expendable Class was due to there being more people produced than the governing classes deemed fit to employ (Crossan. 154-6).

I thought the following introduction to Part V of his work, gave a nice and quick overview of how this was starting to play out in the Lower Galilee.

     The general conclusion from Part IV was that peasant dislocations created by rural commercialization increase the possibility or inevitability of resistance, rebellion, and even revolution. ...
     Part V has two chapters. Chapter 12 probes what went so terribly wrong between imperial Roman policy and traditional Jewish religion in the first two hundred years of their interaction. The constitutional traditions of Judaism involved a God of justice and righteousness under a law of justice and righteousness in a land of justice and righteousness. That God could not be other, and that people should not be other. God's Law was not a matter simply of divine will or divine command but of divine nature and divine character. In sacred law, in prophetic critique, and in scribal wisdom, this God stood against oppression and exploitation, against indebtedness, enslavement, and dispossession, against everything that increased inequality and destroyed equality. Land, as the basis of life, was not just a commodity for normal entrepreneurial manipulation: the land belonged to God; God's people were all tenants on divine property. Then along came Roman imperialism, which sought land for commercial exploitation as well as territorial expansion. Jewish tradition clashed predictably with that Roman policy. And it clashed not only because peasants usually resist rural commercialization but also (and especially) because Jewish peasants had a long and sacred tradition of such resistance.
     Chapter 13 places the third and final layer on my interdisciplinary model for context. Granted those anthropological and historical layers, there is still a further question. Was Galilee simply a Roman backwater of no value for urbanization or commercialization? Archeology indicates precisely what was happening in Lower Galilee in the first twenty years of the first common-era century [right when Jesus was born and into which Jesus ministry responds, too]. Herod Antipas was moving to urbanize Lower Galilee as his father, Herod the Great, had done earlier in Judaea and Sumaria. The rebuilding of Sepphoris and the creation of Tiberias represented centers of rural commercialization, and with their advent, anthropology, history, and archeology came together at the precise point where resistance could be expected. The time and place were now ready for the baptism-in-the-Jordan movement of John and the kingdom-of-God movement of Jesus.

John Dominic Crossan. The Birth of Christianity. 175-6.

Happy Thanksgiving - 2011

Today marks the celebration of Thanksgiving in the United States, and I find that while there is much yet to do, and while the world maybe in turmoil and trouble, I am thankful.

I'm thankful for family and friends, community and support, for the ways in which people are generous by nature. This is a time of year in which I am reminded of those gifts of God, of God's grace. As such I thought I would add a few prayers and a call to worship from the United Methodist Book of Worship.

A Blessed Thanksgiving to you.

Rev. Joel

Let the nations be glad and sing for joy,
   for you judge the peoples with equity
   and guide all the nations upon the earth.
Let all the peoples praise you, O God;
   let all the peoples praise you.
The earth has brought forth its increase;
   may God, our own God, bless us.
Let all the peoples praise you, O God;
    let all the peoples praise you.

(USA, 20th Cent., Alt)

Thank you, Creator of the universe,
    for the people gathered around us today.
We give thanks for the things of the earth that give us the means of life.
Thank you for the plants, animals, and the birds
    that we use as food and medicine.
Thank you for the natural world,
    in which we find the means to be clothed and housed.
Thank you, Lord, for the ability
    to use these gifts of the natural world.
Help us to see our place among these gifts,
    not to squander them or think of them as means for selfish gain.
May we respect the life of all you have made.
May our spirits be strengthened by using only what we need,
    and may we use our strength to help those who need us. Amen.

(Sue Ellen Herne, Mohawk, 20th Cent., Alt)

Most gracious God, you crown the year with your goodness.
We praise you that you have ever fulfilled your promise
    that, while earth remains, seedtime and harvest shall not cease.
We bless you for the order and constancy of nature,
    for the beauty of earth and sky and sea,
    and for the providence that year by year supplies our need.
We thank you for your blessing
    on the work of those who plowed the soil and sowed the seed,
        and have now gathered in the fruits of the earth.
And with our thanksgiving for these blessings,
    accept our praise, O God,
        for the eternal riches of your grace in Christ our Lord;
to whom, with you, O Father, and the Holy Spirit,
    be all glory and honor and worship, for ever and ever. Amen.

(J.M. Todd, England, 20th Cent., Alt)

Plastic or Plankton? Plastic in the Oceans

I have had a hard time believing that the Pacific Gyre, in particular, has tons of plastic floating around in it. But then, I was picturing plastic bags, bottles, jugs, etc. Big plastic, in other words. Why, then, aren't tankers and other transport ships reporting this? Wouldn't all this plastic garbage foul their props?

Turns out, I had my size wrong. Think small particles of plastic. Think animals confusing plastic for plankton. This video gives a good - if shocking to me - overview of what is going on out in the Pacific, not just in the gyre, but along the current lines, too.

Dennison Berwick notes:

The United Nations has estimated that there are 46,000 plastic objects in every square mile of ocean in the world. Research by the Algalita Marine Research Foundation has shown that in the areas where (because of winds and currents) the plastics tend to gather, there may be six to ten times more plastic than plankton measured by weight.  And most of these items are really small – small enough to be mistaken as food by fish and birds.  What they “eat” may be carrying ONE MILLION times more pollution such as pcbs than the ambient sea water they are floating in.  Studies have already shown that birds do absorb these toxins into their tissue.  Evidently the fishing industry hasn’t yet studied fish tissue.

But the Atlantic Ocean also has a plastic garbage patch. I'll let the BBC report on this one (below), and merely ask the question: What does the Indian Ocean have? What is our response to this? In a throwout culture, where does our garbage go when we are done with it? How much packaging is necessary? If we treat the world as a piece of Paradise (Heaven or Heaven on Earth) how does this change our actions?

Gives a new meaning to Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.

Blessed Be

Rev. Joel

Link: Algalita Marine Research Foundation

BBC News Report:  Gill, Victoria, "Rubbish Patch Blights Atlantic" 24 Feb 2010

'Rubbish patch' blights Atlantic

By Victoria Gill
Science reporter, BBC News, Portland
Scientists have discovered an area of the North Atlantic Ocean where plastic debris accumulates.
The region is said to compare with the well-documented "great Pacific garbage patch".
Kara Lavender Law of the Sea Education Association told the BBC that the issue of plastics had been "largely ignored" in the Atlantic.
She announced the findings of a two-decade-long study at the Ocean Sciences Meeting in Portland, Oregon, US.

The work is the conclusion of the longest and most extensive record of plastic marine debris in any ocean basin.
Scientists and students from the SEA collected plastic and marine debris in fine mesh nets that were towed behind a research vessel.

“ We know that many marine organisms are consuming these plastics and we know this has a bad effect on seabirds in particular ”
Dr Kara Lavender Law, Sea Education Association

The nets dragged along were half-in and half-out of the water, picking up debris and small marine organisms from the sea surface.
The researchers carried out 6,100 tows in areas of the Caribbean and the North Atlantic - off the coast of the US. More than half of these expeditions revealed floating pieces of plastic on the water surface.
These were pieces of low-density plastic that are used to make many consumer products, including plastic bags.
Dr Lavender Law said that the pieces of plastic she and her team picked up in the nets were generally very small - up to 1cm across.
"We found a region fairly far north in the Atlantic Ocean where this debris appears to be concentrated and remains over long periods of time," she explained.
"More than 80% of the plastic pieces we collected in the tows were found between 22 and 38 degrees north. So we have a latitude for [where this] rubbish seems to accumulate," she said.

The maximum "plastic density" was 200,000 pieces of debris per square kilometre.
"That's a maximum that is comparable with the Great Pacific Garbage Patch," said Dr Lavender Law.
But she pointed out that there was not yet a clear estimate of the size of the patches in either the Pacific or the Atlantic.
"You can think of it in a similar way [to the Pacific Garbage Patch], but I think the word 'patch' can be misleading. This is widely dispersed and it's small pieces of plastic," she said.
The impacts on the marine environment of the plastics were still unknown, added the researcher.
"But we know that many marine organisms are consuming these plastics and we know this has a bad effect on seabirds in particular," she told BBC News.

Nikolai Maximenko from University of Hawaii, who was not involved in the study, said that it was very important to continue the research to find out the impacts of plastic on the marine ecosystem.
He told BBC News: "We don't know how much is consumed by living organisms; we don't have enough data.
"I think this is a big target for the next decade - a global network to observe plastics in the ocean."

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/science/nature/8534052.stm
Published: 2010/02/24 11:50:30 GMT
© BBC 2011

Coffee, Tea Help with Mercury

Health experts have been encouraging us to eat more fish. At the same time, there is a growing concern about mercury levels in people who eat a lot of fish, and the ongoing mercury poisoning in some traditional communities who have relied upon the sea for their dietary needs. A new study by the University of Montreal surprised the researches with the following information.

Cooking fish (boiling or frying) reduces the mercury exposure by 40 to 60%. Up to this point, there has been debate as to weather cooking made any difference in ingested mercury levels. Researchers continued to test to see if ingesting coffee or tea might have a similar effect. Their hypothesis was that it would further reduce it 5-10% more. They were shocked to find that eating cooked fish while drinking coffee or tea reduced the risk to almost nil. Furthermore, the results of the testing showed that eating raw fish (i.e. sushi) while drinking coffee or tea reduced the risk to 50-60%. Using corn meal made almost no difference.

While researchers caution that more study needs to be done, I thought this was worthwhile passing on to you readers. Fish (and other seafood) become large parts of the diet of many of us boaters, especially those of us out cruising.

Here is a link to the article in the Montreal Gazette.

Blessed Be

Voluntary Simplicity so We Can Serve Others

This week I've been reflecting upon voluntary simplicity and conscious living and how that relates to others. I've been reflection upon those people who have impacted my life, and the ways in which I can live that can impact others. In the process I've been thinking about these three quotes, below. The point of them, I think, is that we are to help serve others. We can help to serve others by keeping our own wants and needs and desires simple so we have more resources (time, money, etc.) to be about the things we think are important.

What kind of quote would you add?

Earn all you can, save all you can, give all you can.
     ~ John Wesley

Civilization, in the real sense, consists not in the multiplication of wants but in their deliberate reduction. This alone promotes happiness and contentment – and increases the capacity for service.

     ~ Mahatma Gandhi

The truth is that man needs work even more than he needs a wage. Those who seek the welfare of the workers, should be less anxious to obtain good pay, good holidays and good pensions for them than good work, which is the first of their goods. For the object of work is not so much to make objects as to make men. A man makes himself my making something useful.

     ~ Mahatma Gandhi

Blessed Be

 

All Saint's Day / All Soul's Day

For me, All Saints Day (as well as All Souls - tomorrow) is a day to celebrate the saints who have gone on before. And I use the term "saints" in the New Testament sense of any and all believers, be they someone like St. Francis of Assisi or St. Paul or someone like my Grandparents or your cousin. For me, it is a time to remember this great communion of saints who is present around us. Without realizing it, my understanding over the years fits very closely with the understanding that Kriacos Markides relates in my post last week (A Time to Reflect). For me, heaven is not so much a place that is "up" as a place that is around us. To use a metaphor, it is like the fourth or fifth dimension.
So, how appropriate to celebrate these great saints who have finished their course in faith and now rest in God.

Here is a ritual that I have used in churches, but I also think can work quite well aboard boats, in small communities, or even by yourself, etc.

Blessed Be

GREETING
Grace to you and peace from God
     who is, and was, and is to come. Amen.
And from Jesus Christ the faithful witness,
     the firstborn of the dead, and ruler of the kings on earth. Amen.
The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all the saints. Amen.

(USA, 20th cent., alt)

PRAYER
We bless your holy name, O God,
     for all your servants who, having finished their course,
     now rest from their labors.
Give us grace to follow the example
     of their steadfastness and faithfulness,
     to your honor and glory;
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

(England, 20th cent., alt)

At this point, I have lit a candle for each person (saint) that the congregation names. To get people thinking about this, one can ask the following types of questions: Who has died during the last year? Who are those who have mentored you in the faith? After an appropriate amount of time, close with the following prayer.

PRAYER
Almighty God,
     you have knit together your elect
     in one communion and fellowship,
     in the mystical body of your Son Christ our Lord.
Grant us grace
     so to follow your holy saints in all virtuous and godly living,
     that we may come to those unspeakable joys,
     which you have prepared for those who sincerely love you;
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

(after The Book of Common Prayer)

*** The above greeting and prayers come from the United Methodist Book of Worship (#414 & 415) and the United Methodist Hymnal (#713) respectively.