Yes, that’s right.  You read the title correctly.

The pool has challenges every month.  This month’s is swim the distance from Bahrain to Saudi Arabia (we just call it Saudi) during the month of April.  The distance is 20,000 meters, which is 400 laps.

I signed up today.  Already  I have done 1500 meters.  And that’s just in one day.  I put a ticker on this blog so everyone can keep track of my progress (and help keep me motivated).  Look at the bottom of the sidebar to see the ticker.  Only 18500 meters to go!

Week Four: Love: Day Five

We’re finally there!  The day we’ve been waiting for has finally arrived!  It’s Christmas Day!  Our Savior and our king is here!  The One we’ve been waiting for is here!  Rejoice!  We have Hope and Peace with God!  Rejoice, in His love!  Make a joyful shout to the LORD, all you lands! (Psalm 100:1)  Rejoice!

Galatians 4:4-5

But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.

(You can listen to it here.  The original French is here.  And a more literal English translation is here.  Do check it out.)

He is Born

He is born, the holy Child,
Play the oboe and bagpipes merrily!
He is born, the holy Child,
Sing we all of the Savior mild.

Through long ages of the past,
Prophets have foretold His coming;
Through long ages of the past,
Now the time has come at last!

He is born, the holy Child,
Play the oboe and bagpipes merrily!
He is born, the holy Child,
Sing we all of the Savior mild.

O how lovely, O how pure
Is this perfect Child of heaven;
O how lovely, O how pure
Gracious gift of God to man!

He is born, the holy Child,
Play the oboe and bagpipes merrily!
He is born, the holy Child,
Sing we all of the Savior mild.

Jesus, Lord of all the world,
Coming as a Child among us,
Jesus, Lord of all the world,
Grant to us Thy heavenly peace.

He is born, the holy Child,
Play the oboe and bagpipes merrily!
He is born, the holy Child,
Sing we all of the Savior mild.

Merry Christmas!

I’ve been really stressed at work lately.  Everyone at work has been stressed lately.  Late hours, extra work.  We’re undermanned–about 70% manning just at a guess and have been that way for awhile, so this stress has just been building up.  I’ve found myself being really grumpy the last two days and snapping at people.  Not good.

So today when I got home from work I went swimming.  It’s gotten warm enough I could do that.  I didn’t get off work until 1800 (6:00 p.m.) and it was getting dark and then my battery in my car was dead, so I walked home.  Thankfully I live close enough to walk.  So when I got changed and went up to the top floor (the roof) it was dark.  It was odd swimming in the dark, but at least I didn’t have to worry about sunburn!  I spent half an hour in the pool and was the only one there.  I enjoyed it.  I may make a regular habit of it.  I know I need to do more exercise than what I get in command PT (an hour 3x a week), and I do do tae-kwon-do, which is two hours on Saturday, but I feel I need to do more the rest of the week.  Either that or cut back on the junk food.  And I don’t like running; so swimming may be something I can do.  We’ll see.

The main reason I went because “they” say that exercise is a good stress-release.  I’ve always found exercise to be stressful, so I don’t like to do it.  But maybe that’s because I don’t do a kind of exercise I like.  So tonight I did a kind I like.  So we’ll see if tomorrow I feel less stressed.  I know it will be just as busy as today and yesterday, and even though it is supposed to be a short day (Thursday is like your Friday–the last day of the work week), I know it won’t be.  So we’ll see if “they” are right.

Don’t be surprised if posts are erratic in the near future.  I may not have much time to write posts.  So bear with me.

And swimming is fun even though I’m not very good at it.  Maybe I can develop this “culture of fitness” the CNO wants all sailors to have, yet.

I want to talk about a website I think is a very worthy website.  I found it through somebody else’s blog, but I don’t remember whose, so I’m sorry I can’t provide a link to give credit where credit is due.

This website is called freerice.com.  It is a website that is at once a game and a donation site for combatting world hunger.  Here’s how it works: On the main page you will see a vocabulary question with four choices like this:

liable means:
traumatic
slightly open
insubstantial
responsible

What you do is you click on the correct definition.  If you get it right, it gives you another word and puts twenty grains of rice into your “bowl” at the side of the screen.  As you get words right you can watch your bowl of rice fill up.  These grains of rice aren’t completely virtual.  They represent real grains of rice that you are “earning” as you answer vocabulary questions.  For every question you get right, the site proclaims in a banner across the top, they will donate 20 grains of rice through the UN World Food Program to help end world hunger.

This is a very fun and addictive website.  Ok, let me clarify.  It is fun and addictive if you’re the kind of person who likes geeky and intellectual games, or if you’re easily amused (like I am).  The website keeps track of your right answers versus wrong answers and gives you harder or easier words based on how you do.  It also gives you a vocabulary score.  On the FAQ page it says there are 55 levels in all, but that it is rare for people to get above level 48.  I have gotten to level 43 and at that level it was words I’d never heard of or seen before.   If you want to know more I suggest reading their FAQ page.

Anyone think they can beat me?  Can you beat level 43?  If so, let me know in comments.  It also might be fun to put in comments the most interesting word you ran across.

If you remember from the Peanuts cartoons, Snoopy was always starting a novel with the words, “It was a dark and stormy night.” I found the complete text of Snoopy’s novel. If you like Peanuts and especially if you like Snoopy, go check it out. Also see the background of this phrase, and Snoopy’s Wikipedia biography .

I’ve been thinking about this lately.  This is something I’ve thought about off and on for a long time (thinking about stuff is one of my hobbies).  And recently Betsy’s post about patriotism has provided fodder for this thought topic as has some religious observations I’ve made since coming here and musings about the devotional duties of Christians.  This last to whit, around here it’s considered normal to believe in God.  And if you want to talk about God that’s ok too.  But don’t mention Jesus. That is offensive.  And yet the essence of Christianity is Jesus.  And so to deny Jesus would be to stop being a Christian.

And so I’ve been thinking about this.

First, a definition.  Click on the link to go to my source for this.  Second, some questions, and third some observations.

de·vo·tion

1. profound dedication; consecration.
2. earnest attachment to a cause, person, etc.
3. an assignment or appropriation to any purpose, cause, etc.: the devotion of one’s wealth and time to scientific advancement.
4. Often, devotions. Ecclesiastical. religious observance or worship; a form of prayer or worship for special use.

Etymology:

c.1225, from O.Fr. devocion, from L. devotionem, noun of action from devovere “dedicate by a vow,” from de- “down, away” + vovere “to vow,” from votum “vow” (see vow). In ancient L., “act of consecrating by a vow,” also “loyalty, fealty, allegiance;” in Church L., “devotion to God, piety.” This was the original sense in Eng.; the etymological sense, including secular situations, returned 16c. via It. and Fr. Devote is from 1586, from L. devotus, pp. of devovere. Devotee is from 1645, perhaps on model of assignee.

The definitions I’m concerned with are definitions 1 and 2, although 3 and 4 are definitely a part of 1 and 2.

Some questions:

• Is devotion a good thing?
• Is it appropriate to be devoted to a thing or entity or idea?
• Is it ever wrong?
• To what extent should a person be devoted?
• What if the person or cause you’re devoted to almost gets you killed?  What then?  Do you stay devoted or do you quit or change loyalties?
• If you do stay devoted are you stupid or a fool?
• Or is that a really honorable thing?
• Should you only be devoted to someone if they deserve it or earn it?
• What if they don’t?
• What if the person or cause you’re devoted to betrays you?  What then?
• So should you value devotion and loyalty more than your reputation, more than your very self?
• If you were to hear of someone with that kind of strong loyalty/devotion how would you think of this person?  A dupe?  Or someone of strong principles?

These are just some questions to get started.  I’m sure I could think of more if I tried.

The above can be summarized in these main two:

• What or who should you give your devotion to?
• To what extent?  I.e., when is the cost too great?  At what point do you quit or change loyalties?  When is it too much?  Never?

There are many kinds of devotion:

• Devotion to family.  The devotion of mothers to their offspring is legendary, as is the devotion of husbands to wives or men to their sweethearts.
• Devotion to one’s people.  This is ethnic devotion and also cultural devotion.  It can be as broad as being devoted to the human race (the species) or as narrow as being devoted to a small sub-ethnic group.  Unfortunately wars have often been fought over conflicting devotions of this type.
• Devotion to country.  This is called patriotism.  In extreme form it is called nationalism. (My country right or wrong.)  Note: this can be the same as the above mentioned type but is not necessarily so.
• Devotion to a political leader.  This would be the “king” part of “fighting for king and country.”  This is a feudal idea but still exists to this day–loyalty to party bosses, loyalty to a dictator, etc.
• Devotion to a religion or deity.  This is called piety or zeal.  Devotees are often called zealots.  Sometimes they can also be called fanatics or extremists.  This of course would be an extreme in-your-face-and-down-your-throat form of this kind of devotion.
• Devotion to a religious leader.  This is over and above and perhaps even separate from the devotion to the religion the man represents.  One’s devotion is to an actual person rather than an idea or creed.
• Devotion to an idea or beliefs.  This is called ideology.
• Devotion to a cause.  This is a practical application of a person’s beliefs.  These can be philanthropists, “crusaders” (as in “save the whales”), the military (as in the cause of defending freedom), or even terrorists.
• Devotion to a symbol.  This is very similar to the devotion to an idea or devotion to a cause, but in this case the symbol stands in for the idea or cause and can have a broad meaning and significance.  Examples would include devotion to the flag or devotion to the Constitution (the latter is required in the oaths taken by all members of the military).  Both are symbols for patriotism, but the latter encompasses more than just that.  It also includes the devotion to an idea (rule of law, representative government, democracy, etc.) and devotion to a cause (keeping our form of government intact and defending freedom).
• Devotion to a friend.  This is devotion born out of love for another.  There are many stories told of soldiers’ fierce devotion to their comrades and even dying for them.  It has been said that soldiers don’t die for freedom or any other idea or creed–they die for the buddy next to them in the trench.  Even to this day, that saying is true.  This is a very powerful and strong kind of devotion.

These are just ten kinds I could think of.  There may be more.  They tend to fall into two categories based on the object of devotion: either to a thing or to a person.  And within each kind are different levels of devotion–all the way from giving the object some time and effort and emotional energy to giving one’s whole life in service and to actually dying for it.  It’s a wide range.  I think we can all identify categories where we feel a certain devotion to a thing or person and can identify to what level we feel that devotion.  And that may or may not involve being willing to die for something or someone.  And that may or may not be appropriate.  I think also whether the devotion is “good” or “bad” depends on the object of that devotion.  Someone devoted to a “Jack the Ripper” is very different than someone devoted to seeing that his daughter has the best in life.  Although that last kind of devotion could also be bad depending on how that person went about doing it.

You notice I haven’t really answered any of the questions I raised.  I did not do so on purpose.  For one thing this post is already really long.  Answering them would take a lot longer–it’s really outside the scope of this blog post (you could actually write a book on this subject, and I’m sure people have before).  And another thing, I don’t have all the answers.  As I mentioned before, thinking is a hobby of mine, and I’ll be exploring this subject in my mind and thinking of what the answers might be–along with all the other things I think about.  One way I’ll be exploring it is through fiction.  I really like that medium for examining the human condition.

I posted this because I’m interested in what you have to say.  How might you answer these questions?  What do you think about this subject?  I’m very interested to know.  Sometimes other people’s perspectives can help you think more clearly about your own, or even reveal faulty thinking and get you to change your mind.  So if you’d like to dialogue with me on this, please leave a comment.  Or send an email.  I look forward to hearing from you.