Passing-Thought

Gotta love evolutionists

Today, I was reading the chapter "Falling in Love" in a book called The Five Love Languages. In it Chapman quotes Dr. M. Scott Peck to support his thesis that "falling in love" is not true love:

[falling in love] is a genetically determined instinctual component of mating behavior. In other words, the temporary collapse of ego boundaries that constitutes falling in love is a stereotypic response of human beings to a configuration of internal sexual drives and external sexual stimuli, which serves to increase the probability of sexual pairing and bonding so as to enhance the survival of the species.

The irony of social vs. scientific discourse. Talk like that is a sure way to reduce a man's probability of "sexual pairing and bonding", and consequently the survival of evolutionist species.

palindromonoma and signatures

I wish my name were a palindrome, like Bob or Anna. Then if I were dyslexic, I wouldn't have to worry about whether I was spelling my name backwards! My name is a translingual phonemic palindrome. Eric is ancient Norse for "complete ruler." Pronounced in reverse, Eric approximates "Kyrie" which is Latin/Greek for "lord."

Speaking of names. I've been having an unusual difficulty signing my name recently. Is that symptomatic of struggle with identity? I've been particularly messing up on my 'y''. Why? Shouldn't my own signature be second nature? Every time I sign one of those electronic signature pads, like at Wal-Mart, I imagine the image being sent digitally to some centralized image processing server, matching against a history of previous signature patterns, and returning "Authentication Passed" a second later.

It's hard for me to think that messing up on my signature doesn't matter. But isn't it most important that *I* am the one who is signing, not that an image can be matched to some approximation? Someone, afterall, not myself could "fake" my signature. I should be free to sign my name anyway I feel, right? But how am I expected to communicate that I am myself to others? There is something about a person's signature that seems binding for the future, as if to change it would be to break some kind of covenant agreement with society. What implications might this have, if we view man as God's personal signature?

Wisdom teeth

Why are "wisdom" teeth called so? Is just because they typically arrive in adulthood, after the naivity of childhood? Perhaps instead they are teeth for kings. The sleep-suffering experience through which we must be subjected to have them extracted bears wisdom in some cosmic existential sense. A sacramental surgery in which the four outermost teeth correspond to the four corners of the earth. Four corners were given to man, the territorial boundaries "good for food" in the realization of his image-bearing great commission project (Gen 1:28ff). Thus, man was not only called upon to put all things under his feet, but in the maturation of that kingdom-glory expansion, to enjoy all that the earth would yeild for him to eat.

The Garden was man's throne room from which he would rule the world under God's royal banner. The tree of knowledge of good and evil in its midst was to make one wise. Why would God call man to fast from the very fruit which would empower him to extend kingdom rule beyond the Garden to the ends of the earth? The serpent says, "take & eat. finish what you were called to be, God-likeness in all its fulness can be yours now. Death isn't necessary."

Extracting wisdom teeth is a rehearsal of Adam's exile from the Garden. God likeness is for God's giving. Even if it means accepting wisdom through death. We give up our perogative to enjoy the final fruits of ends of the earth according to the time table of our own stomachs and the lust of our eyes to own its glory. Eschatalogical communion and dominion must come through fasting before it can come through complete consumption.

Existential Escapism

When you step away from a toilet with a motion sensor and it doesn't automatically flush, do you ever wonder if you are really there?

do you water your toothbrush?

Is there any advantage to watering the toothpaste on your toothbrush before you brush your teeth? More than one person has asked me why I don't water mine. When I was little, I used to do it, partly because that's the way other people did it, and partly because it seemed to water down the flavor of toothpaste which I never cared for too much. But it also seemed that adding water tended make it harder to keep the toothpaste in my mouth, so I stopped watering my toothpaste.

Am I the only person who doesn't water their toothbrush?
Can anyone please show me where the toothpaste directions say, "Add water"?

ericius

[A friend of mine forwarded some hair raising links poking fun at the etymology of my first name...]

Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

Ericius \E*ri"ci*us\, n. [L., a hedgehog.]

The Vulgate rendering of the Hebrew word qip[=o]d, which in
the ``Authorized Version'' is translated bittern, and in the
Revised Version, porcupine.

I will make it [Babylon] a possession for the ericius
and pools of waters. --Is. xiv. 23
(Douay
version).

http://dict.die.net/ericius/
http://mcornwell.typepad.com/words/
http://www.franciscan-archive.org/antonius/opera/ant-hd04.html

If that is not convincing, the mugshot of this hedgehog should settle the matter beyond dispute:

http://www.geocities.com/atlantishedgehogs/ericius4wm.jpg

Extroverts and Introverts

Introverts are more likely to think before they act, but less likely to act. Vice-versa extroverts.

Easter Dinner?

Would anyone be offended if a plump, roasted rabbit was served to you for Easter dinner in a baby blue wicker basket ornamented with deviled eggs and a glass of pastel pink vinegar?