On Life

Render Unto Caesar

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The Tribute Money - (Le denier de Cesar) - James Tissot

Brooklyn Museum – The Tribute Money – (Le denier de Cesar) – James Tissot, Public Domain via Picryl

On Sunday April 28, I gave the message at our church on the theme of “Discernment in Politics.” It’s been a crazy day and because of that, I do not have a book post prepared so I thought I would share a transcript of the talk. This is not a message about what person or party to support or even how to make those choices. It’s more about living with wisdom and peace in this fraught political season. I hope you find it helpful.

Discernment in Politics: Matthew 22: 15-22

15 Then the Pharisees went out and laid plans to trap him in his words. 16 They sent their disciples to him along with the Herodians. “Teacher,” they said, “we know that you are a man of integrity and that you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. You aren’t swayed by others, because you pay no attention to who they are. 17 Tell us then, what is your opinion? Is it right to pay the imperial tax[a] to Caesar or not?”

18 But Jesus, knowing their evil intent, said, “You hypocrites, why are you trying to trap me? 19 Show me the coin used for paying the tax.” They brought him a denarius, 20 and he asked them, “Whose image is this? And whose inscription?”

21 “Caesar’s,” they replied.

Then he said to them, “So give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.”

22 When they heard this, they were amazed. So they left him and went away. (Matthew 22:15-22, NIV)

Introduction

Have you ever noticed how when you are anxious in anything that it helps to take some deep breaths, to step back, and understand what is going on. Recently, I had a physical exam, and my blood test results show a particular measure out of whack. These days, you often get this info before hearing from your doc. Of course I go on the internet and discover all the dire things this could mean. So I wrote to my doc. It turns out he ran a follow up test that was finer grained, identifying a condition, probably genetic, that was benign, and sent me an educational article. My doc’s discernment and the educational info he sent greatly reduced my anxiety and gave me a few things I could do and watch out for.

Much of our political discourse, particularly in advertising and on social media, is designed to arouse our anxiety. Part of this is to keep us clicking. It appeals to more primitive parts of our brains involved in protecting ourselves, bypassing the parts of our brain that think. There are times when we need that part of our brain. I’d like to suggest politics is not one of them and the example of Jesus in Matthew offers us a lesson in political discernment.

Some Background

A little background might help us in understanding the passage. First of all, it is part of a section from Matthew 21:23 through 22:46 where Jesus is engaging various opponents in the temple during the week before the crucifixion. After responding to a question on what authority he does things like cleanse the temple, he tells three parables about the two sons, about the wicked tenants in the vineyard, and about the wedding banquet where his opponents recognize that he is speaking about them.

So we come to this passage where the Pharisees and Herodians get together to trap him. What’s curious about all this is that they are usually political enemies. The Pharisees are the people’s party while the Herodians support the Roman establishment. The trap they come up with is ingenious. Rome levied a special poll tax on subject peoples that Roman citizens did not need to pay. It was a reminder that they were under the thumb of Rome.

The question they come up with is a “gotcha” question, at least if you just stuck to “yes” or “no.” Answer yes, and Jesus would alienate many Jews who resented the tax, including some of the Pharisees. Answer no, and Jesus could be charged with treason.

When Jesus asks for a coin, they probably gave him a denarius that had an image of Tiberius Caesar on one side. The image alone would be offensive to Jews who were told to “make no graven images” and the inscriptions were equally offensive: “Tiberius Caesar, son of the divine Augustus” on one side and “pontifex maximus” or high priest on the other. Which begs the question of why they have these coins!

So what may we learn from how Jesus handles this?

Jesus discerns their intent. He recognizes they are trying to trap him. Now the intent of our politicians is not always evil, but it is good to listen to the intent behind the words. Another word for this may be interests. Around most political issues there are various interests including our own. The question is whether the interest or intent is merely personal advantage for one group or the common good of all. If a political position advantages some at the expense of others, there is evil or unjust intent.

Jesus discerns ways they are trying to manipulate him. They say some very nice things about his integrity, his teaching, and that he will not be swayed by attention-getting. This can happen through flattery, fear or false promises. There may have even been a temptation for Jesus to be an “influencer.” The invitation to be on the inside, to have influence can be intoxicating. Jesus resists it.

Jesus discerns the false and reductive binary they offer him. So much of our political polarization has to do with turning nearly everything into one of these binaries. Do you know that there was a time in the 1960’s and 1970’s when environmental measures were supported by both parties and a Republican president established the EPA? Then the environment was politicized, and you had to choose between being pro-business and pro-environment, which is like saying, you must choose between walking and chewing gum. And so we are either pro 2nd amendment or for government confiscating all our guns. We are pro-life or pro-choice. We must choose between open borders or building the wall.

The reality is that choosing one side of these binaries excludes the interests and concerns of a lot of people. They also oversimplify the world. Real solutions are often both more complex and creative.

Jesus discerns a kingdom alternative that is far richer. Jesus recognizes the reality that there will always be government. His reply is kind of matter of fact. Give Caesar what is his. Caesar made the coin. The Roman empire is just an earthly power, no less no more.

But he also speaks to what ought to be on the heart of every Jewish listener. What belongs to God? Actually, what doesn’t belong to God? He is Creator. He gives life and land, the cattle on a thousand hills are his, his eye is on the sparrow, he knows the number of hairs on our heads. Sure, let Caesar have his pocket change. And let God have all of your life! Embrace all that is God’s! No wonder people left amazed.

Rather than taking sides, might the role of Christians be to work with both sides, whether locally or nationally to find richer alternatives? One local example I think of is the service of Pastor Rich Nathan on the Columbus Civilian Police Review Board, both supporting the work of police and providing civilian accountability for how they police to restore trust between police and the community.

Jesus discerns ultimate allegiances and our only hope. Any government, nation, or political party are ”just” politics, “just” government. They don’t hold a candle to God’s everlasting global kingdom. They only have a limited function under God. They are not unimportant and we should seek the best people we can find to serve in positions of public trust. But if you are a professing Christian, you have sworn absolute allegiance to the king of kings and lord of lords and there is no part of our lives exempt from that allegiance: our money, our time, our possessions, our sexuality, our ambitions, our work, our retirement, and our politics.

He is also the one we trust absolutely for not only our salvation but for our life and health in the world. I wonder if this is so for us. I wonder if some Christians have embraced the politics of right or left with such a religious fervor because they don’t believe that God can save. They don’t believe the gospel’s power.

I suspect all of us here love our country and all of us may have concerns and anxieties about it. The question is, do we trust God implicitly with that or have we placed an inordinate trust in our politics? If I’m anxious about politics, that is a signal that it is time for some kingdom discernment. Will I trust that God really is in charge, that God will always work for the good of those who love him? Nations rise and fall, and this could even be the trajectory of the United States. I don’t like that idea, and I would work against it happening in my generation, but if it comes, I recognize that my real hope is in the everlasting kingdom of the everlasting God.

Conclusion.

  1. Discerning intent
  2. Discerning interest
  3. Discerning false and simplistic binaries
  4. Discerning the richer kingdom alternative
  5. Discerning our ultimate allegiances

These are the things that enable us to live as people of wisdom and peace in our anxious political season. But if you can’t remember all of that, remember the last and pray to always discern your ultimate allegiance. What does God want? What would Jesus do? What has God said in his Word? What does absolute allegiance to Jesus require of me today? For what am I’m anxious that I will trust him, including my anxieties in this political season?

I would suggest two practical tests to help us assess where we are tending toward:

  1. What are we taking in more? Scripture, good Christian reading or excellent writing in general, sermons and podcasts or Fox or CNN, talk radio, and political memes and posts and arguments on social media.
  2. What are we talking about more? God and God’s goodness, and the ways we can live our lives loving God and neighbor, or the latest political news, what we don’t like about a candidate or party?

What we are taking in and what we are talking about most reveals where our heart is. I wrestle with this personally. As I turned the calendar to 2024, I recognized what a fraught year is ahead. I challenged myself with regard to these questions with the simple resolution, more Jesus, less politics! Finally, my wife reminded me that one other way we express our absolute trust and know freedom from anxiety is to live joyful and grateful lives for all the good, true, and beautiful things we see and experience each day. That’s another way of saying, “Our God reigns!”

Wintering

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A wintry night around Christmas of 2022 shot from my front step. © Robert C. Trube

Wintering. I came across this word for the first time today in a book I’m reading, The Spacious Path. The author quoted another work that I think I want to read, Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times by Katherine May. In an interview with Krista Tippett, she described the book like this:

I wanted to make it really clear that, although a lot of Wintering is about my love of winter and my affection for the cold and even the dark, that wintering is a metaphor for those phases in our life when we feel frozen out or unable to make the next step, and that that can come at any time, in any season, in any weather, that it has nothing to do with the physical cold. So it was very useful from a narrative point of view to be able to start with what indeed happened, which was, on an unseasonably sunny day in September, just before my 40th birthday, when my husband fell very suddenly ill.

May describes the significance of wintering both in terms of the rhythm of the meteorological seasons and also the seasons of life. Many creatures hibernate, storing up food. Readers often store up books and find the early sunsets and long evening hours conducive to working through their To Be Read stacks. In cold climates, winter kills off some of the insect population. The processes of dormancy are crucial for both animals and plants–think of all those flowering bulbs!

There is evidence that people need some dormancy as well. Some experts suggest that rather than fight the urge to get extra sleep, we follow it–strengthening our immune systems and catching up from sleep deficits. In a variety of ways, winter can be about rest and slowing down. After cleaning out gardens, fall feedings, composting, and mulching, gardeners use the winter to sharpen and clean tools, to read their garden journals–what did well and what did not and why, and then plan for next year. There is the fun of going through seed catalogues, starting seeds under light, growing in cold frames and getting ready for the right planting time.

Winter is a reminder of our need for healthy rhythms of work and rest. In this, and so many ways, we try to circumvent those rhythms. I know many snowbirds who go south for winter. I won’t criticize that choice but I love the slower rhythms, the respite from outdoor chores (other than shoveling snow!) and watching the world around me both go into dormancy with the beautiful fall colors, and the emergence of renewed life in the riotous burst of spring.

May writes of wintering as a metaphor as well, of the dark seasons we face in life. In the quote above, she mentions the sudden illness that hit her husband, a burst appendix, that was followed by intestinal problems of her own, diagnosed as Crohn’s disease, and then severe emotional problems with her son. May describes winter in this way, as she reads from her book during the Tippett interview:

“It’s a time for reflection and recuperation, for slow replenishment, for putting your house in order. Doing these deeply unfashionable things — slowing down, letting your spare time expand, getting enough sleep, resting — is a radical act now, but it’s essential. ”

The book describes how her family allowed itself to winter in these ways to heal, regroup, and get their son the help he needed. They homeschooled. She describes winter as “not the death of the lifecycle, but its crucible.”

It makes me think about “winter experiences” in our lives. There was no way to get out of them, much as we wished. No way to hop on a plane to warmer climes. Growth seemed to come as we accepted that there was no other way than to go through, to allow the season to do its work on us.

May’s book came out in February of 2020, on the eve of the “long winter” of the pandemic, and for many readers she helped them make sense of what was happening and how they might respond. I think of some of the things we learned:

  • Better self care, rest, food, exercise.
  • We learned to treasure close relationships
  • We leaned more deeply into our faith.
  • I discovered the joy of losing myself in Louise Penny’s Gamache books!
  • We gave more thought to “the nest” and deferred remodeling projects

I can’t think of any of these things I would want to stop–the winter was precious, even as it was hard. While I’m glad we have moved into a different season, I do not want to forget. Nor do I want to make light of the traumas, both physical and emotional, that the pandemic created for others. While we are eager to move on. It is important to remember those for whom it is still winter and allow them the rest and retreat they need.

I’ve grown up with winters all my life and I recognize the rhythms they bring, and the unique joys as well–the animal tracks in the snow, the bright sun after wintry greys, the crisp cold of some days that make one feel uniquely alive with the tingle of the cold on our cheeks. But perhaps it has become ho-hum and the word “wintering” makes me think afresh both of this season in the year but the “wintering” times of our lives.

And like the reader I am, I think I may get that book…

Don’t Be That Person

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Photo by Austin Distel on Unsplash

Most of us have been online in various groups long enough that we’ve learned some basic netiquette…I think. You’ve learned not to type ALL IN CAPS because that is the equivalent of shouting. We know not to troll, spam, or cyberstalk (and if you don’t, the help you need is beyond what I can offer in this post and you probably aren’t interested anyway).

What I’m addressing are some of the more subtle aspects of social media EQ (emotional intelligence). These are some of the things that make you an interesting person to interact with rather than that person to whom no one responds or ends up in an admin’s doghouse or even blocked. Here’s a few tips from five years as a page admin on a social media platform to help you avoid being that person:

  1. Know the group rules and don’t treat them as suggestions for other people. If you don’t like the rules, leave the group and find one whose rules fit you. Don’t argue with admins. Diligent ones are screening for spam and out of line posting, and will probably just block you.
  2. Spend some time in a group before you post to see what its like, and read discussion threads before posting. Otherwise, you’ll say something that’s already been dealt with or “step in” something that you didn’t know was there and wish you could get out.
  3. Some people feel they need to comment on everything. You ask for recommendations for thrillers. There always seem to be the people who feel compelled to tell you they hate thrillers, don’t read thrillers, or are creeped out by thrillers. That’s perfectly fine. Different strokes. But this discussion wasn’t for you but for the people who either love the genre or want to get into it. You just threw a bucket of icewater on the thread.
  4. Then there are the people who like to argue and assume it is OK to engage in disagreements with another person. News flash: not every person likes to do that! Emotional intelligence explores whether others want to discuss their ideas. Ask questions that are open ended, not leading, and are seeking to understand. For example, “would you be willing to discuss how you came to hold this view?” Or if you want to take issue, you might share, “I see things differently. Would you be open to discussing those differences?” Notice how each of those examples ask permission rather than just barging in and unloading what you think.
  5. You also don’t want to hijack a discussion. If the discussion is about what makes a good indie bookstore, people will not like you for talking about your favorite online bookseller.
  6. Don’t post “canned responses” or toss offs (“that’s ‘woke’ “), or worse yet, respond with memes. These are the tools people use to shut down discussion.
  7. Maybe this is a pet peeve. It has become increasingly common to post .gifs as comments. They consume space, they are usually just giant “like” buttons, and depending on a person’s settings might not even render. (Maybe this is an admin peeve, because I monitor comments on each post.)
  8. Disagree about ideas but always affirm people. You want people to assume you have a brain in your head and put some thought into what you say? Treat others the same way.
  9. It helps to actually read what you are commenting on rather than commenting on what you think the person said. Worse yet, someone posts an article and, without reading, the person posts information that is in the article or asks a question that is in the article. For those of us who read (or wrote) the article, you just told us that you didn’t bother to read it or are just showing off your knowledge.
  10. Finally, it is considerate to interact with what others post and not just post your own stuff. Some groups are just competing monologues rather than real discussions. And definitely respond when people comment or ask questions about what you write.

All this suggests participating in an online discussion involves thought and care for others. Often we just dash off comments as we hurriedly scroll through our feeds. Actually, I’m not sure that it is altogether different from in-person conversations, although online conversations lack both verbal and non-verbal cues for which emojis are a poor substitute. I suspect working on these qualities will yield you benefits in both the online and in-person world. And hopefully, we are the same person in both worlds. That is yet another way we don’t want to be that person.

Thanksgiving in Terrible Times

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The Apostle Paul tells us to “give thanks in all circumstances” (1 Thessalonians 5:18).

I find myself wondering in our deeply fraught times how we do this without descending into triteness–a polyannish view of life that ignores or pretends that terrible things don’t exist.

I’m not sure I quite have this figured out but here are a few thoughts on this Thanksgiving Day of 2023.

One part is for us to remember Paul’s previous statement: pray continually. Prayer means taking the troubles we see, whether a swiftly warming planet, mass shootings, the atrocities of warfare, the propensity of our corrosive political discourse to undermine the rule of law and the structures of governance, our nation’s efforts to heal the wounds our seizure of indigenous lands and the various forms of forced subjugation of another people. Add to this our private pains and griefs. There is enough of this to keep us praying continually, for sure–perhaps crying out to God, “how long?”

But the other part of this is what I call the problem of goodness. Amid the evils of the world, goodness endures. A food pantry my church hosts fed three hundred families. I recall when seventy-five was stretch. This was overwheming, yet all were fed. Jesus still multiplies loaves and fishes, including the contributions of neighboring churches and local groceries. Evening walks overwhelmed me at times this fall with the riot of color. A myriad of dedicated caregivers, backed by medical researchers, supported by many who prayed, gave a young boy we know his life back after a rare and aggressive bone cancer. A runner, he just walked a 5K for the first time since his illness. Even the seemingly trite things of family, friends, and food are wonders–exquisitely unique human beings partaking of the fruit of the creation and of other creatures also nourished by that creation. As I write, I’m listening to vintage Simon & Garfunkel singing “Bridge Over Troubled Waters”– a song that spoke comfort and peace into another fraught time of the early 1970’s and I marvel at the good power of musical artistry.

So much goodness that endures, even in our darkest circumstances. I choose to believe that it is a harbinger of the greater goodness of God’s new creation. We pray continually. And we give thanks. It is the holding of these together that prevents thanksgiving from ever becoming trite. There is a deeper magic before the advent of evil in the creation as C.S. Lewis taught us in The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe. As we pray and wait, we express our faith and hope that all evils will be undone and reversed. As we give thanks, we attest that there is a Providence that evil will not defeat. Our delight in goodness is perhaps one of the most subversive things we may do against the power of evil.

As we share the goodness of our tables with others, we defy those who would give despair the last word. Every time we give thanks we proclaim that we know better.

Reflections of a Ten Year Blogger

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A few weeks ago I received this notification from WordPress. It’s hard to believe that this experiment has turned into ten years of writing! I thought I’d share a few of my reflections on blogging, kind of my top ten thoughts (or perhaps the first ten).

10. Apropos, I discovered that people like lists and these have been popular over the years.

9. The “Growing Up in Youngstown” posts were unplanned. I thought I would write my response to a question people could ask to learn things about me they probably didn’t know, which was “what was it like to grow up in working class Youngstown?” When I wrote a second post on food and it went viral, I decided there was something here.

8. I’ve learned that not only our memories but our history in a place are important. I’m convinced schools ought to have a semester on local history so people know the story of their place, and perhaps learn to care more about perpetuating the best and to avoid the mistakes of the past. Youngstown has often been know for rust and the mob. There is so much more and I’ve loved mining the riches of our local culture, people, and history.

7. Writing book reviews are probably the easiest, because I’ve been thinking about them while reading the books. The Youngstown pieces are the hardest–coming up with an idea (especially after nearly ten years), researching it, finding usable images or getting permissions. The writing is the fun part–most of the time, I’m trying to weave all I’ve learned into a story.

6. One of the surprises in all this are the wonderful (for the most part) people I’ve met–people who have helped with information about articles, publicists for book publishers, and authors, in most cases grateful for the time and care you took with their baby. I would especially single out followers, including people I meet who tell me they have been following for years and found some books they really liked. The others are family members of some of the people I’ve written about who write and tell me they are grateful that someone remembered their loved one and the contribution they made in their time. That means so much. Over a lifetime, I’ve become so aware that we all stand on the shoulders of others, yet so often forget to tell their stories.

5. I’ve learned to appreciate the craft of writing reviews and the people who do this for a living (believe it or not, I just do this because I love books, love encouraging others to read, as well as love getting at least some of my books for free in exchange for the review!). It’s a constant challenge to say enough about a book so that people can decide whether or not they want to buy it and not so much that they feel no need to! For some, any plot information is a “spoiler.”

4. I probably did not choose the path to fast blog success. I write a lot about theological books, but also about contemporary novels, poetry, science, other non-fiction including history, biography, and contemporary affairs. I’d probably do better if I stuck to one of these niches, or just wrote about Youngstown. I’m glad, over the years to find other book omnivores who are interested, or tolerate my own omnivorous reading tastes. And that’s without a lot of the provocative fireworks that drive social media engagement at the expense of manipulating emotion.

3. What I have tried to do is just keep showing up, writing a post six days a week (I take Sundays off and re-run a Youngstown post in Youngstown groups). I’ve tried to be consistent. At some point, I may transition to four a week, but will try to maintain a consistent rhythm. People like consistency!

2. I think the blog on the whole is one of the best parts of online media, even though other media have arisen. I’ve found the support by WordPress far superior to other social media sites, many of which you cannot reach for support–even if they have taken some action against you–which has frustrated many of my friends. And by and large, the trolls have been almost non-existent and WordPress uses really good spam-filtering software. They make it easy to do the one thing you came to do–blog!

1. Finally, I’ve touched on this throughout, but you have made this a joy. I so appreciate those who comment and share their own knowledge, which often surpasses mine. Some of you have put me on to books and authors I would not otherwise have looked at. I hope I have returned the favor. Thank you.

And for those who geek out on statistics, here are a few you might enjoy (all are as of this writing):

Total views: 1,647,007

Total visitors: 1,133,063

Number of posts: 3,218

Number of reviews: Approximately 1700

Top post ever: Growing Up in Working Class Youngstown — The Top Ten (about 22,000 views)

Top review post ever: A World of Curiosities by Louise Penny (5600 views)

Number of words written (all time) 2,367,684

With that, I think I’ve said enough. Thanks for joining me on this journey!

A Nation of Renters?

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It’s the nearly daily phone calls, emails, or letters offering to buy my house, often “as is.”

It’s noticing the increasing number of homes in our neighborhood that are rentals.

It’s the story of residents in a nearby municipality fighting the efforts of a company to build a development of homes that all would be for rent only. And this is not affordable housing but homes with rents of $2300 to $2700 a month.

It is the complaint of friends trying to buy homes finding themselves either priced out of a rapidly rising market in neighborhoods they could at one time have bought in, or trying to make offers, often above asking price on homes before they hit the market and coming in second or third in the bidding.

It’s the skyrocketing of home values in our area, evident in the most recent property valuation from our county auditor nearly doubling its value. I’m glad we bought here 33 years ago. I probably couldn’t now.

There are some dynamics that are peculiar to our market. We have a housing shortage in the one part of the state where population is rapidly growing. A number of tech giants are building new plants or data or distribution centers in our community, and this is having a multiplier effect on construction, supporting industries, infrastructure development, and the education sector. It means more jobs, more people, and more needs for housing.

One of the factors contributing to all of this are big investors and corporations buying up homes to rent. Many of these are out of state. American Homes for Rent (AMH) is one such company, one of the major players nationally in this growing trend. They own 2100 homes in our market and 2000 in another major city in our state, They are the company behind the proposed development exclusively consisting of rental homes mentioned above. In our area, home ownership has dropped from 60% in 2005 to 53% in 2019. Our county now has the highest ratio of renters to owners in our state. In 2021, institutional investors bought 33,000 homes in our state, accounting for 21 percent of all sales, double from just the year before. That is how fast this is growing.

All of this is legal, mostly because our laws have not kept up with this trend of institutional home-buying. Legislators are beginning to propose measures to regulate these efforts, remove some tax breaks or even increase taxes on these enterprises. Local municipalities are beginning to resist efforts to create rental only developments. Tonight’s news brought a report that the local community where American Homes for Rent was seeking to build such a development has voted down this development.

Not all that is legal is right. In this case I also believe this is poor public policy.

Neighborhoods with high percentages of home ownership are better maintained and more stable. The transience of rentals leads to less ties among neighborhoods, less looking out for each other.

It has never been demonstrated that absentee landlords care for properties to the same standard as home owners.

Home ownership is one of the most significant factors contributing to intergenerational wealth. We have witnessed a growing disparity between the wealthiest among us and the rest of our country.

Much of the earnings of institutional investors are siphoned away from our communities. At one time, your mortgage lender was a local banker and often a significant part of your payments were cycled back to depositors or lent out to others. Homeowners spent money repairing and improving their homes at local businesses or hired local people to do work on those homes. Homeowners have far more of, and a different stake, in local issues than do institutional investors.

The question we have to face as a society is how much we value home ownership by individuals and families versus big, off-site corporations and financial institutions? There is so much of the “local” that many of our communities have already lost from local restaurants and small businesses. People owning the place in which they live is one of the last redoubts of the local. The more one diminishes the number of people who are stakeholders in a community, the more that community is at the mercy of those with money and power–whether that of impersonal, off-site interests or local gangs and corrupt organizations. The greater the amount of the homes, businesses, and other tangible institutions of a community are controlled by off-site interests, the less there is a fabric of community linking people together.

So what is to be done? I am not an expert in these things but it seems that a starting point is to figure out ways to level the playing field. Big investors often offer to buy homes “as is,” pay cash, pay above market prices, and have greater access about homes coming on the market. That doesn’t sound like a level playing field. I wonder what might be done about that? Might there be ways to assist individual buyers if it is not possible to offset the advantages for institutional investors. Sellers do have the option to not sell to institutional buyers who are not covered as a protected class under Fair Housing Laws. But they might have to accept a lower offer. What if there were offsets, like credits on capital gains taxes, for sellers who make this choice?

One thing is clear. We face a choice about whether we will be a nation of owners or renters.

A Foretaste of Earth’s Future

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I discovered a new use for those left over face masks from the pandemic this summer. It began on an evening in June when I was working in my back yard and I kept coughing and my throat felt raspy. My eyes were burning. And I noticed the haze in the evening sky turning the sun deep crimson. Smoke. From fires in Canada. In the last few days, it has been back for the third time–a plume of smoke that had its origins in western Canada as unprecedented dry conditions have resulted in a summer of fires across Canada. This plume eventually covered all of the northern US, traveling more than 2500 miles just to reach us. Every time our winds come from the north, our air conditions deteriorate. At its worst, our Air Quality Index hit 233, considered very unhealthy for everyone. I go for evening walks. I wore a face mask on a few of the worst evenings. I delayed cutting my lawn to avoid making things any worse.

Until this year, this was something I heard about from friends in the west. Now I wonder if this will be a recurring problem.

My sister lives in Phoenix. They have just surpassed the record for consecutive days in excess of 110 degrees. The ten day forecast suggests there is no relief in sight. Her air conditioning runs constantly. Buying any refrigerated groceries is a challenge. The temperatures there are part of a heat dome that has covered much of the south and southwest this summer.

Triple digit heat domes have hit Europe and China as well. I just heard that the fifteen hottest days on record on Earth have all been in July 2023. And when this happens, people who don’t have access to adequate hydration and places to cool off begin dying. Cooling largely still relies on carbon-based fuels in many parts of the world, so increased cooling means increased emissions of greenhouse gases–a vicious cycle.

Meanwhile, locations as diverse as the Hudson Valley, Vermont, parts of the south, and even the Taj Mahal are facing flooding from record rains. Early this year, after years of drought, the western U.S. was inundated with an “atmospheric river” of repeated rainstorms. In the middle of the country, it has been an active tornado season and, to date, 74 people have died, three times the typical year.

The ocean is experiencing a heat wave as well with temperatures in the Atlantic off Florida in excess of 90 degrees, and similarly in parts of the Gulf of Mexico. Hurricane season hasn’t begun but ocean heat feeds super storms. Meanwhile, the danger is the destruction of coral reefs, and in turn, the aquatic populations that inhabit them.

All of this obscures ongoing processes of melting glaciers, Antarctic and Greenland ice and permafrost melting releasing methane, raising ocean and CO2 levels over the long term.

It feels to me that in the 1980’s and 1990’s, the planet was whispering to us about the changes occurring. In the last two decades, we’ve gone from a whisper to urgent speaking tones. We noticed the milder winters and longer frost-free seasons. This summer, it feels like Earth has begun to shout. Is it saying, “This is the new normal” or “You ain’t seen nothing yet”? I sense that it is probably the latter from all I have read.

It means several things to me. One is that we are going to see rising climate mitigation costs, in the forms of insurance, tax-funded government aid, food production costs and more. If we decide to seriously address carbon-emissions, this will mean rethinking life as we know it. We think tech will fix it but I don’t know any technology that doesn’t require energy. Relying only on wind, solar, hydro, and nuclear raises questions in my mind about whether these can generate enough unless we change the way we live. It makes me wonder about what a life not as reliant on combustion or electricity is like. Perhaps we need to study the Amish.

Earlier this year, I read Stephan Markley’s The Deluge, a prophetic book if there is one. It is a fictional account of the near future exploring the challenges posed to our public and political and international order by accelerating extreme weather events. It’s scary.

At one time I thought it would be our children who would face the consequences of our climate incontinence. Now it seem increasingly likely that we’ll face this with them, with the increased vulnerabilities of age. And so I think about what it will mean to lean into my faith as I face this. For me, Philippians 4:13 comes to mind: “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” Paul speaks of this in times of plenty or want. What it does suggest is that even if life is stripped down to the bare necessities of survival, the love empowered by Christ of God and neighbor and the peace of being in relationship with God remain. It seems to me that now is the time to ask what will spiritually sustain us for the time ahead. Rather than trying to maintain the illusions of normal, of the American dream, we need to ask what will sustain us if times get hard, and the core of our humanity is challenged.

It seems to me that this summer is the Earth’s wake up call, and it is too insistent to hit the snooze button. As we rub our burning eyes, we need to ask how now will we live? How will we live toward God, toward each other, and toward our changing planet? Whether we ask it or not, we are answering this question day by day.

Resolutions for the Next Presidential Election

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Photo by Brett Sayles on Pexels.com

With all the announcements of people who are running for president in 2024. As of this writing, fifteen people have announced candidacies (11 Republicans, 3 Democrats, and 1 third party). The rhetoric is already rancorous and plays on dividing “us” from “them.” I have resolved that I will in no way be a part of this game. I’ve watched friends and families separate. I’ve witnessed the “othering” of various groups–creating “them” versus “us” rather than just “us.” Too many friends, and to be honest, too many fellow followers of Christ are in groups that some would want me to fear or sanction or oppose. I’m not going there. These are family. So here are some things I’ve resolved:

  1. To remind myself daily that Jesus is Lord, and far more important to me than any politician or political party or agenda.
  2. To equally remind myself daily that the global family of God whose first allegiance is to God’s rule is my family and takes precedence over my earthly citizenship, party affiliation, or any other membership. The latter are not unimportant but of lesser importance, penultimate.
  3. I will not discuss political candidates or who I am voting for (and I do believe votes matter) in public, and especially on social media.
  4. I will discuss issues that I care about, and that I think should unite us, even if politicians are trying to use them as a wedge to divide us. To do so means I won’t fit in any of the partisan categories. For example, no party that I know of is consistently pro-life. I believe you cannot be for the lives of some and not for others. Dealing with and limiting the effects of climate change is another. The weather affects all of us.
  5. I will not share memes or stories about politicians and exercise care to ascertain the truthfulness of anything I do share. I will focus on what builds bridges of understanding and work for the common good, not what builds walls.
  6. I will keep scripture and prayer before and above news and monitor the impact of news media on my spirit.
  7. I will remember that politics is “just politics.” Necessary but not the only or most important thing in life. I will not let it take my life captive and as a leader in my congregation, I will resist any attempts to take the church captive to politics.
  8. I will not forget the axiom that “all politics are local.” In our obsession with national politics, we forget that important matters are being weighed by our local school board, our local city council or county commissioners, at our state house.
  9. I will listen to friends who differ with me to understand why other valuable human beings see things so differently. I’ll be glad to talk with others who are similarly curious about me, but not otherwise.
  10. I will focus my life on the Creation Mandates of Genesis 1 and 2, the Great Commandment (Matthew 22:37-40) and the Great Commission (Matthew 28:16-20) and I will work in solidarity with all who share these life-framing commitments of the Christian.

I’ve written here openly about my faith and I realize that not all of you share that faith and that some who share my faith will not share my convictions about how faith should shape one’s approach to the elections. I share this because I don’t want to be caught unawares by another election. If it is helpful for you, all the better. And if not, that’s OK. You are a fellow human being, which is of infinitely greater worth than any political difference.

Blog By ChatBot?

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Photo by Markus Spiske on Pexels.com

One of the most exciting and disturbing developments that has come to light in the last year is the development of highly sophisticated artificial intelligence “chatbots” capable of producing text often indistinguishable from and sometimes superior to that of human beings, across a variety of subjects. The most prominent of these is ChatGPT, developed by OpenAI. ChatGPT stands for Chat Generative Pre-Trained Transformer. It was released in prototype version November 30, 2022, resulting in an explosion of discussion.

ChatGPT will respond to a question or command. For esample, I asked ChatGPT “Who was Louis Bromfield?” ChatGPT responded:

Louis Bromfield was an American author and conservationist, born in Ohio in 1896. He was a successful and popular writer in the 1920s and 1930s, producing a number of novels, including the Pulitzer Prize-winning “Early Autumn” (1926). He was also known for his conservation work and was a pioneer in sustainable agriculture and land management practices.

In the 1930s, Bromfield established an experimental farm in Ohio, known as Malabar Farm, where he implemented his ideas about conservation and sustainable agriculture. He wrote several books about his experiences on the farm, including “Malabar Farm” (1947) and “Pleasant Valley” (1945), which detailed his efforts to preserve the natural environment and promote sustainable farming practices.

Bromfield’s work had a significant impact on the fields of agriculture and conservation, and his legacy continues to influence modern thinking about sustainable land management and environmental protection.

ChatGPT, generated 2/2/2023 at 7:38pm

I subsequently asked it “Say more about his writing and how its works are evaluated.” It produced a response focusing on his novels but says little about his later works which were generally considered inferior, churned out to fund his farming efforts. So, I asked it about his work at Malabar Farm in Mansfield, Ohio, which I have visited several times. It described his pioneering efforts in sustainable agriculture and described the farm as financially successful. The latter is a more dubious claim. Bromfield was constantly trying to raise money from writing and movie deals to make ends meet.

What is concerning to many is that ChatGPT generates responses that are often factual and crisply written, as in the example above. Can you see how this might be used by students pressed for time, or just not that eager to put in the work to write a term paper? There is a good deal of concerned conversation in academic circles about the implications for everything from admissions essays to term papers to academic articles.

It is also being suggested that ChatGPT and other chatbots could put writers out of business in many fields. It can write advertising blurbs and in some genres, especially those with fast turnaround times, novelist are using ChatGPT to at least help produce content.

One the positive side, a case can be made that ChatGPT is another tool, like Wikipedia or Google, to quickly research a subject. People are already talking about the kinds of tasks that could be done by a chatbot. This could improve productivity, although it may mean that many writing jobs may be on the line. It’s probably time for those who write in some form for a living to ask, “can a chatbot do that?”

At the same time, there are problems with blind reliance on chatbots. At its most basic, OpenAI warns, “May occasionally generate incorrect information.” I indicated some instances in the examples above where the responses were questionable. I also asked ChatGPT for citations supporting its responses and it said it could not do that but recommended several works, none of which, as far as I can ascertain, actually exist. This problem has been widely noted as has a tendency of ChatGPT to “hallucinate,” to create totally fanciful responses. ChatGPT also warns:

  • May occasionally produce harmful instructions or biased content
  • Limited knowledge of world and events after 2021

Teachers are already developing assignments that recognize the limitations of ChatGPT and testing those assignments on ChatGPT. Others are assuming its use and integrating it into the composition process. The use of ChatGBT actually offers an interesting exercise in how one verifies the veracity of information. Since the sources on which ChatGBT draws aren’t transparent, the writer will want to look at other reputable sources, and this helps teach discrimination between reputable and questionable sources.

The biggest problem, of course, is plagiarism. To use a ChatGBT product as verbatim, or substantially, without quotation marks or attribution, representing it as one’s own ideas, is plagiarism. TechCrunch reports that OpenAI has even created a tool to detect AI generated, including ChatGPT generated, text. At present, it is only 26 percent effective. Now the interesting question comes, how does one handle works that do cite ChatGPT? I suspect that syllabi and specific assignments will have to address this, as well as the consequences for Chatbot plagiarism.

So, what about blogs by chatbot? I tried this experiment. I asked ChatGPT to review Alex Haley’s Roots. I’ve never written a review of this book. It produced the following:

“Roots: The Saga of an American Family” by Alex Haley is a Pulitzer Prize-winning book and television miniseries that was first published in 1976. It is a historical novel that traces the journey of an African man named Kunta Kinte and seven generations of his descendants, from his capture and enslavement in Africa, to his life in America and the eventual liberation of his descendants. The book was based on Haley’s own genealogical research and oral history from his family, and it was groundbreaking in its depiction of the African American experience. It sparked a renewed interest in genealogy and African American history, and has been widely praised for its impact on American culture and society.

ChatGPT, generated 2/2/2023 at 7:00 pm

That’s a nice, succinct summary, but not nearly long enough for my blog reviews. So I tried this “Review in the style of bobonbooks.com.” ChatGPT produced this:

“Roots: The Saga of an American Family” by Alex Haley is a magnificent piece of literature that tells the story of one African American family’s journey from slavery to freedom. This book is a powerful and emotional read that provides a vivid representation of the horrors of slavery, as well as the resilience of the human spirit.

The narrative follows the life of Kunta Kinte, an African man who is captured and sold into slavery, and traces the experiences of his descendants over several generations. The character development is excellent, with each character being unique and memorable in their own way. Haley’s writing is both descriptive and evocative, painting a vivid picture of the time period and bringing the story to life.

One of the most significant aspects of “Roots” is its depiction of slavery, which is graphic, honest, and heart-wrenching. The book serves as a reminder of the atrocities committed against Africans and African Americans, and it’s a testament to the strength and resilience of the human spirit.

In conclusion, “Roots” is a landmark work of African American literature that should be read by all. Its impact on American culture and society cannot be overstated, and it remains an important and relevant book to this day. Highly recommended!

ChatGPT, generated 2/2/2023 at 7:02 pm

Hmm. That does sound a bit more like what I do–still shorter and less detailed than what I usually write. I rarely use words like “emotional read” or “Highly recommended.” I do like words like “resilience” and “evocative.” It does follow the form of many of my reviews, although it feels more “generic” than what I might write. And I found no typos, which can rarely be said of me. It would be interesting to know what others think.

But I won’t be turning to ChatGPT to write my reviews or other blog posts. Here’s why:

  • Fundamentally, I like crafting my own reviews. I write them to remember what I read.
  • ChatGPT cannot know by itself how I actually engaged with a book–what I thought, how I reacted–it can only summarize the content and mimic my style. There is a serendipitous element to all this–I often discover what I think as I write.
  • For better or worse, my writing cannot help but reflect my life experiences and my deepest values, neither of which are static.
  • Part of the implicit contract with both publisher and public is honesty. Will ChatGPT say that a book just doesn’t cut it?
  • No one needs to visit Bob on Books to know what ChatGBT thinks of a book (and I would have to be honest in attribution).

Chatbots are here to stay. We’ve been using Seri and Alexa for years. We engage them when we seek online support. And the new AI of ChatGBT is becoming increasingly successful at simulating our human neural networks while accessing vast sources of information and articulating its responses in reasonably interesting text. And those mistakes? AI is iterative, which means it learns and corrects those mistakes. I asked ChatGBT about something I’m very familiar with, the history of Youngstown. It was accurate, except it said that John Young was from Pennsylvania, when in fact, he was from Whitestown, New York. I corrected this and then asked where John Young was from and it gave the correct answer. Part of the reason for the free release of this powerful tool was to learn and refine it through user interactions like the ones I’ve recorded here.

But I won’t be using it to write my blog. I’ll keep reading the books, keep writing about things that interest me, and keep researching, checking sources against sources when I can. That doesn’t guarantee that I won’t make mistakes, but they’ll be mine, and part of my own iterative learning process, part of my lifelong formation. I will not delegate that to a chatbot.

The Little Furnace That Can’t

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My 3 1/2 year old furnace with a cracked heat exchanger.

This wasn’t the post I intended to write. But the day kind of went off the rails when our heating tech said something to the effect of “I can’t believe this!” and proceeded to tell me that the heat exchanger on our three and a half year old furnace was cracked. In case you don’t know–this is bad. As in carbon monoxide leaks. His next step was to shut off the gas supply to the furnace, his due diligence to protect his company from liability.

The news got worse. A repair bill in excess of $1000, and that was if they could get the part. I later learned that they probably wouldn’t get it until mid-December–almost two months. So I called the company we bought the furnace from. They are coming to check it tomorrow. They say they can get the part in 2-3 weeks, around the second week in November. The supply chain chickens have come home to roost for us.

I learned from our technician that this particular part is known to crack where ours cracked and that newer models have redesigned the heat exchanger. And he reminded me that replacement parts for furnaces may be like those on cars, not usually as good as OEM parts. So we could well have the problem again, maybe several times during the life of the furnace.

Hmm. It used to be that heat exchangers lasted the life of the furnace. But in this case, the metal is thinner. I’m thinking that maybe this furnace’s life has ended–for us. I don’t want a potential carbon monoxide threat sitting in my utility room. Yes, we have CO detectors, including one by our bedroom. We’d probably feel better being rid of this furnace and to negotiate for a replacement that (hopefully) doesn’t have this problem. Now we’ll have to see what the company we bought the furnace from thinks about that.

Needless to say, I’m not happy. This happens more than I’d like. Crappy compressors in refrigerators are another one of my beefs. Remember those refrigerators that would last 30 years? You might still have one. Now, you are lucky if they last ten. All the while, they boast about energy efficiency. What’s efficient about making and disposing of these major appliances in such a short cycle?

What’s more troubling is that technicians know about these things, which are potentially life threatening. If my furnace were a car, there would probably be a recall. Why is that not the case?

At least it’s not January. That said, the temperatures the next few nights will be in the 30’s. We have no other heat source than an old space heater–will be going out to get another.

We may have to convert to electric one of these days. It would mean some serious rewiring in our mid-80’s house in natural gas land. It may even be a green move when we finally figure out how to generate our electricity from something else besides coal. Maybe we’ll put solar panels on our southern exposure. Cha-ching…

Meanwhile, the house is starting to get a bit chilly…

An Update:

A technician from the company from whom we bought the furnace was out this morning. One thing that impressed me was that he was far more thorough than the previous guy, pulling the blower, looking from below, above, as well as through the front via camera at the location the other tech said there was a crack. He found nothing. He ran CO and combustion tests. Nothing.

So where does that leave us?

For now, we will run the furnace. And, I changed the batteries in one CO detector, and we will add two more per his suggestions. And we may talk to a home inspection guy who is a friend to see if there is a way to get an “impartial” assessment because:

  • We wonder if the first company is really trying to get us to buy another furnace. We’ve dealt with them for a long time, but in recent years, we’ve noticed techs who try to get us to buy more add-ons.
  • We wonder if the second company doesn’t want to lose money on warranty repairs.

I should say, the second company’s tech seemed very thorough, spent a long time on the diagnostics, and didn’t charge us anything.

But all this strikes me as a parable of our “epistemic crisis.” Whose “truth” do we trust? When truth and trustworthiness has become such an expendable commodity in our communal life and everyone claims a right to their own truth, their own facts. When there is no accountability for lies or they are even considered expedient–this seeps into all of life.

Right down to those upon whom our homes and lives depend.

A (hopefully final) update

We did have a third company inspect the heat exchanger. They gave free second opinions if you had an invoice with a diagnosis of a cracked heat exchanger. I showed the tech a picture the first company sent. He said, “That’s not your heat exchanger.” But he checked everything out thoroughly.

We also installed two CO detectors, one on each floor. And a company that has had our business for thirty years has lost it. It appears they were trying to sell us a bill of goods, some of which may be reflected in the first part of this post. It’s disheartening, and left us a bit less confident in the safety of our furnace, even with those second opinions. This is what happens when trust is broken…