Being bitter is drinking poison and hoping someone else will die
- seen on the posts of Slashdot user LarsWestergren.

Choice is a tricky beast, partly because it is a holistic process. The Nature vs Nurture camps can debate all they want but as far as I’m concerned the issue is settled, neither nature nor nurture can be said to reign supreme in shaping our lives (though Proverbs 22:6 does give a big nod to the effectiveness of appropriate nurture). We are as far as I can tell composite creatures, shaped by father Adam’s sin and the sin of our immediate fathers, shaped by upbringing, by knowledge and by experience, by things both physical and spiritual. We are shaped by all of these things, and coupled with the specific circumstances from moment to moment we approach every decision in our lives. And we do not possess the ability to separate these things from who we are and how we choose.

The problem is, if you accept this, then God must walk a very careful line of interacting with us, lest He tip our scales one way or another. In fact, if one were to take this seriously, the list of areas where God would not be allowed to exert His will would be incredibly large. And if He did choose to act, He would have to nudge us back towards perdition every time He did something that pushed us in the direction of redemption, lest He be accused of making our choices for us.

And this leads us to the problem of understanding the nature of choosing. How much chance has to exist that a person will choose either option for it to be properly called a choice? We know that all decisions aren’t 50/50. We know that there are many days that given the choice to live or die (and don’t we almost always have that option) there would be no thought involved, our choice is already made. “But I could have chosen death,” you say, “if I had really wanted to.” But isn’t that part of a choice? Yes, we choose what we want, but many little somethings have gone into making us into the sort of person that wants some specific thing. And how many of those little somethings bear the mark of the work of God? None? One or two? All of them?

I’m not trying to say there is no such thing as free will. I’m trying to say that we have defined it in such a way that it cannot exist with a God who wants to do any specific thing. It cannot co-exist the way we have defined it with a passage such as Romans 9.

Does that make sense?

Some of the things that stood out to me about Ron Paul:

• He is strongly pro life (something very few presidential candidates can claim in this election)
• He has never voted for a tax increase.
• He has never voted for a congressional pay raise.
• He does not participate in the Congressional pension (calling it immoral).
• He sometimes spends three to four days a week in his district addressing constituents’ concerns, often accompanied by one of his 17 grandchildren.
• Paul’s Congressional office returns money to the government each year; in 2000, the sum returned was $50,000

So, if you haven’t done so, it may be time for you to take a look at Ron Paul, because he’s running for President, and so far, he has my vote.

Ten Top Trivia Tips about Charles Churchill!

1. Charles Churchillicide is the killing of Charles Churchill.
2. Some people in Malaysia bathe their babies in beer to protect them from Charles Churchill.
3. The condominium – originally made from Charles Churchill – was invented in the early 1500s!
4. More people are killed by Charles Churchill each year than die in aeroplane accidents!
5. It takes more than 500 peanuts to make Charles Churchill.
6. Britain’s Millennium Dome is more than double the size of Charles Churchill.
7. The only planet that rotates on its side is Charles Churchill.
8. Never store Charles Churchill at room temperature.
9. Charles Churchill is actually a vegetable, not a fruit!
10. Dolphins sleep at night just below the surface of Charles Churchill, and frequently rise to the surface for air.

* Not to be mistaken with the word “facts” (notice the lack of asterisk) Facts* are quite tricky and are typically not facts at all. See Truthiness, also Honesty*

Here’s what went down.

Ok, first of all, you’re going to have to spell her name right. It’s Mary Ann, hands down.

2. What is the one place you must visit before you die?

This is such a good question that I wish I had a great answer. Unfortunately, I am not one of those people who just “have” to see the world. But having said that, there are places that I wouldn’t mind seeing: the Alps, the Irish countryside, the Scottish Highlands, Stonehenge, the Louvre, Petra, Rome. Really I’m fine with anything anywhere, so long as I’m with friends.

3. The President, the bipartisan leadership of Congress and the Supreme Court are summoned to listen to you for five minutes. What is your topic and thesis sentence?

I have a couple of thoughts here:

• I could perform John Cage’s 4’33″ and then follow it with my own composition “27 seconds of inexpertly played hand bells accompanied by enthusiastic humming.”
• Staring contest. No talking, no blinking.
• As I would most certainly suspect a trap, I would construct a completely life-like automaton of myself and observe from a safe distance while my mechanical friend thrilled them with feats of legerdemain and verbal frippery. Toward the end, I would pelt them with olives.

More seriously, I have no idea what I would say to these men and women. It’s too tied up in why they are listening to me, in the setting and the nature of our meeting, in the millions of reasons that have brought us face to face. Though based on my thoughts right now, I imagine the theme would be something along the lines of, “The Federal Government is not God”, and toward the end… I would pelt them with olives.

4. You’re driving across the Great Plains on a long road trip and can only take six CD’s for the changer in your car. What are they?

Uhm, gee Randall, a CD is “an optical disc used to store digital data, originally developed for storing digital audio” Shah. I thought you’d know that.

Sound of Charles’ wife whispering in his ear, explaining, then speaking even slower, repeating it a second time…

Oh, which CD’s… Can’t I just take my iPod?

More whispering, slightly more stern, slightly exasperated.

Fine, fine, I get it. It’s an exercise. Six CD’s, in no particular order.

• Rushmore: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
• Patch the Pirate: The Misterslippi River Race (Big Toe just cracks me up…)
• Pachelbel’s Greatest Hit: The Ultimate Canon
• Shoes For Industry! The Best Of The Firesign Theatre
• The Princess Bride: narrated by Rob Reiner
• Beautiful Hollywood

Now, someone might argue that some of these are multi-CD collections and that, as a result, this is more than six CD’s, but luckily for me, I purchased a six-title CD changer, so it’s ok.

5. You find H.G. Wells’ time machine, but you can use it only once. Do you go to the past or to the future? Why?

I’d sell it on Craigslist.

Why? Because I’d figure that God would never let me get away with going 50 years into the future and buying a copy of The History of Sports, back copies of investing magazines, book and movie reviews and then coming back and… that’s right… predicting it all on my blog.

More whispering, bordering on shouting, angry gesticulation

I mean, making gobs and gobs of money… from my blog revenue…

Thwack!

Ouch.

The Internet is a vast and virtual expanse of wasteland filled predominantly with web sites of little or no interest to anyone. It is a dark place. A bleak place. A place where, if you will pardon the expression, happy flowers do not grow.

But there are oases.

The problem is finding them. This is where The Preacher comes in. Poised between the Internet and the oases, like a magnifying glass between the sun and an anthill, this website, and in particular the Blog of the Week feature, serves to magnify those sites of quality which are oh-so-difficult to find.

But there is a downside. Much like the magnifying glass, the unfiltered gaze of The Preacher can prove unbearable. The strain produced by the flood of new visitors has been known¹ to bring even the largest web site to its knees. In short, such power brings with it a terrible responsibility.

Which brings me to my announcement: Bittersweet Life will remain the Blog of the Week for one week more. You are shocked. Believe me: I understand your shock. You are amazed. Know this: I can empathize.

Never, not even once, in the two-week history of Blog of the Week has a blog remained as King of the List for such a span of time. But quality demands such a concession. For such a site as this, there is no other choice²

¹ “known” in a figurative sense. Loosely known, as in “not really” or as in “I’m making this up” see fiction

² Also, I am going out of town for a few days, and it is going to be super busy.

This is a love story. There is a girl. There is a boy. It is traditional.
I should warn you though, you have already been lied to.

She is twenty-one and she is beautiful. This is necessary.
Eighteen is no good, it’s too young, twenty-five is a bit too old.
She could be twenty-three, and things would probably end the same,
but even then, she would be less than perfectly prepared for what will happen to her.

She is unnoticed.
I said that she is beautiful, and that is true. She is fairy tale beautiful.
She is pale and thin with soft dark eyes,
and her black hair falls in what a poet could not fail to call “raven tresses”.
How could she be so beautiful and go unnoticed, you ask? A good question.
Ask the city. Ask the world. Ask yourself.
There are girls more beautiful than she in your own town.

Her apartment is tiny. Her walls are white and bare.
She lives alone – no pets, no friends. She calls her mother once a week and leaves a message on her answering machine. Her father is dead.
She has not cried since she was ten.

She has one pleasure in her life. She reads. Classics mainly, but contemporary works as well. She goes to the library every day at lunch, and most days after work.
She sits in an empty alcove and reads until closing time. She goes home. She falls asleep with a book on her chest.

Her story begins here, written in flaming letters and spoken with a tongue of fire.

What happens next. Where goes the tale?
Ask the city. Ask the world. Ask yourself.
There are girls more beautiful than she in your own town.

I do have some posts brewing though, and hopefully, I’ll get around to posting them later on this week.

¹I don’t really take seventeen aspirin. I almost never take aspirin, but when I am feeling really lousy, I usually take three regular strength aspirin, twice a day².
²This is the type of hard hitting triviality that you can expect from this site. Aspirin quantities, irrelevant footnotes, fever induced rambling. You have been warned