The Blessing of our Curse

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I wanted to share something I'd just shared with Michelle Estes-Tittle: something that pained me and I continually pray we can all overcome that your friend and my brother in this life, frater meus in Christo, Mason, made me think more and more about (and thus I see his reactions that will forever be available online in my evernote I posted for us to share–



I see his anger and frustration toward me as a positive if it inspires me to pain and to take up the cause in how we are SO Lucky to be born and have any experience of this life at all–that to take it for granted that WE were born rather than someone else who didn't have the opportunity to be born, and experience the beauty of happiness, the pain of sorrow, the stress of anxiety–to experience anything since they weren't born–that we can take it so for granted that we fight amongst ourselves q:*(



I cry for Him who gave up His everything and life for us, that we don't stop to smell the roses enough–and that is why I'll never fight with anyone, because I love everyone truly hun q:*)



The quote:



Robin L. M. Cheung Cool–I am guessing that ecumenism and the goal that all of us in Christ one day reunite, that there is enough conflict in the world that we ought not to fight amongst ourselves, is often on your mind and in your prayers?



(and the other thing that I cry for Him who gave up all of His self for us about is that we are so lucky that we are even given as long as we are, that we were born at all and have this short time to experience this life, and yet we take it so much for granted that we justify fighting amongst ourselves about so many things q:*(

It's a worldwide problem that I breakdown and cry each morning at Mass about nearly every day–in a way, it *is* literally praying for world peace, but in a much expanded sense of peace in terms of … not even harbouring animosity or hostility toward each other all of us being so lucky even to be born and experience any life–this, Tammibear, I know hits home to you, cuz you know what it is to almost be a mother to a child who will never see the beauty, feel the pain, feel the joy, feel anything, in this life–that we take it so much for granted…



And soon, I hope you will, as I do, embrace struggly and difficulty and challenge in life, for how we learn and get stronger from them–I genuinely wouldn't be happy if I weren't struggling through something in life because it would mean I gave up trying, in a literal sense q:*)

“Just as every crisis is an opportunity, so too is the flipside of every curse a blessing.”

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‎"Just as every crisis is an opportunity, so too is the flipside of every curse a blessing."





Today's epiphany–thanks mom (Kathy Cheng for inspiring me to think it!). Now, this is another truism, but we take it so for granted that it didn't hit me until tonight! — with Kathy Cheng at ipv6.RobinCheung.ca.

On Being a Scientist: On being accountable

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My current quarter's SBSF-7100 (Research Forum) Required Week 9 Discussion question:
 
Javier Fadul 24 Nov 11  10:45 AM MST  Influential book
What scholarly book or (substantial) journal article has been especially useful
to you in your Walden studies? Please provide full citation

 and indicate briefly the 
way(s) in which you have used this source. (Daniel Salter)
 
Though the required Discussion won't be due (and the required responses to others' contributions won't be possible) for another couple of weeks, I can't think of any reference more apt than a short but profound required reading from RSCH-8100 Research Theory & Design: On Being a Scientist (which you can read, for free, at http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=4917)
 
In the sciences, whether pure, applied, social, behavioural, medical–any systematic inquiry we undertake as researchers, must necessarily be cognizant not only of the "nuts and bolts" of research design, methodology, analysis–even epistemology and the philosophy of science. These are the deterministically-easy parts that if we just put our heads down and hammer them in, we can apply them fastidiously and rigorously to produce "good science."
 
The less clear-cut and arguably more important things to consider, then, are issues like, "As researchers, we're arguably charged with the power to add to, remove from, modify humanity's knowledge-base going forward; commensurately with, as Spiderman reminds us, "great power comes great responsibility."  This part is qute obvious, too.  
 
But how, as researchers in our respective fields, are we to operationalize this?
 
What delineates responsibility and where is this line that we ought not to cross?  Sure, some easy value judgements that almost everyone would likely agree to (let's we not use our knowledge and abilities in molecular genetics, for example–my previous world–as a basis to exclude or preferentially include opportunities based on intrinsic attributes; let's we not commercialize or promulgate what we believe to be true but has not undergone the process we have come to rely on to ensure the systematic, rigorous, and minimally-biased evaluation of all aspects of our applicable extant theoretical frameworks. 
 
And let's we not forget that science is built on the "scientific" extension of accepted–which may or may not accurately reflect what we believe to be the underlying phenomena, but has been vetted by our rigorous failsafes and tests of scholarliness, such as peer review, confirmatory studies, critically evaluated in summative studies–and not allow our emotion or personal or social bias to confuse science with pseudoscience (this is often not as easy as some of the more retardedly-sublime examples the popular media would have us consume, either :p); see http://ipv6.RobinCheung.ca/the-problem-with-medical-science for an example of this, institutionalized, to our detriment….
 
Ponds and Fleischmann's (1989) modern-day Icarus-inspired paper ought to serve as a reminder for generations to come how science, to date, is not only still characterized by glory-seeking, but arguably the model of how science works–relying on the inextricably-competitive, sometimes adversarial expertise of peers in our fields to critique–and potentially block or propel developments with grounds only other peers in the field may know to be of questionable validity.  
 
That Social Networking as a concept has been hijacked, arguably for ultimate commercially-motivated ends is unfortunate; for it alone thus far stands out as a robust mechanism that has the potential to shift the paradigm (and I use this aphorism without intended or unintended exaggeration that it has come to connote) of science from one that is based on and perpetuates the personal quest for glory and fame to one that seeks truth in reality.  
 
How? 
 
If you recall, two years ago (at the time embroiled in a side task reviewing and editing a social media marketing for non-profits text, I had reasoned out this framework systematically at some point, so it isn't all rhetoric :p) what I recapitulated, that people might begin to appreciate fully the profound potential that Farcebook and Twatter have unfortunately hidden as we turn away from the concept with a groan: http://ipv6.RobinCheung.ca/mendeley-redux  
 
Social Networking, in its purest mathematical form, has the potential, then, to identify potentially-related research automatically, removing or mitigating the ability for methodical researchers to repudate potentially-related research based on prestige metrics, such as Impact Factor, that once were excusable, owing to the myriad potential scientific peer-reviewed publications, an unknown proportion of which might be related to our own research within context.  
 
Just as a Social Media feed is diametrically opposite in concept to an RSS/Atom or mailing list feed in that subscription-based feeds require us to know ahead of time that we might be interested in some of its content, a social media feed, in conjunction with analytics and–yes, the inductive-based reasoning approach that the natural sciences continues to view with disdain–even in contexts where it is arguably the only realistically-feasible approach to inquiry, such as is common in the social sciences–can and will be able to hold accountable researchers to evaluate possibly-related citations on their own actual merits, no longer able to sweep related but meritorious research that contradicts a researcher's lifelong work under the proverbial carpet, simply because it is published in a lower-tier journal with a low impact factor.
 
And I can with confidence assert that without having internalized, tested and contested, and embraced the values and principles that On Being a Scientist has encapsulated and promulgated, I would not have been inspired to hold so dear and central the underlying meta-inquiry that demands we hold ourselves to increasingly-higher accountability, to produce increasingly better contributions to knowledge, through increasingly better science.
 
References
Fleischmann, Martin; Pons, Stanley (1989), "Electrochemically induced nuclear fusion of deuterium", Journal of Electroanalytical Chemistry 261 (2A): 301–308, doi:10.1016/0022-0728(89)80006-3
 
National Academy Press. (2009). On being a scientist: Responsible conduct in research (3rd ed.). Washington, DC: Author.
 

 

I chose…wrongly

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Oh noes; I realize now I chose entirely the wrong Saint, back in 2000. And I even know why. Had I done as I should, I would have chosen St. Augustine, Ndati Agapitus, not shared your brother's. For in ways as superficial as sharing conversion and sinful youth to coming to realize several things in parallel at nearly the same age, and finally–and here's the one that sold me (a little late q:()–this ONE statement that sums up two things I most identify with that are most unlikely to find in anyone (still hoping, though…):





"If you would obtain what you are not yet, you must always be displeased by what you are. For when you are pleased with yourself, there you have remained."





1. As a CBC, that I am never good enough is well-enough in-grained from parents who, an "opportunity for improvement" once identified, would institute a structured daily time to work on it, left me with the feeling that, "Well, it obviously didn't kill me (or even really close to killing me), since I'm here now and in reasonably good health*; so, if I'd tried just that iota harder, it would have been possible to do bettar."; and



2. Many of you have become familiar with how I point out that pretty much everything that people take for granted to be "classical wisdom," to me is not only wrong and arguably popular because it rationalizes something easier than the opposite, but just that–diametrically opposite. For example, usually, when people say they want to have their cake and eat it too, I am pretty sure they really mean they want to "have their cake and eat it and not eat it, too" if they really think about it. 



"I tried my best," and its associated "You tried your best" can serve only to make someone feel better about an outcome, which removes any perceived impetus to improve. 



Thus, another @$$-backwards "real opiate of the masses" is the common, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it," which I *cannot* for the life of me understand how people don't see the potential: "If it ain't broke, YOURE LUCKY so count your blessings, and move forward even FARTHER than if it were broke and you had to fix it, first!"



There are various lesser degrees of this, such as instead of "glass is half full/half empty" that I really strongly prefer to see as "glass is 1/4 full" to emphasize that sure, it also applies to situations that don't look equally-good. 



Some of you will even look beyond that to the meta-knowledge about St.Augustine and remark in how his autobiographical account is considered the most complete record of any single person in his centuries–and those of you familiar with how I'm, in general, constantly connected to my servers, streaming to and from, I'm pretty sure it's a couple orders of magnitude more complete than what most people had in mind…



Even when I reviewed conference papers for the Academy of Management 2010 on the Strategic Price Signalling theme did I not realize, until it came to seeing you or not seeing you but realizing we'd never have these moments back, did I learn, because the letter of the law is not always applied fairly (and not to expect the world to have any natural law that says things must be fair, but to fight for fairness without compromise) that a strong strategy must be strong intrinsically and not depend on information asymmetry or other "out of bounds" eventuality; in fact, this will be the @$$-backwards application of the "glass is 1/4 full" with the adage about "underpromise and overdeliver"; 

For in the case of "promise lots, deliver [maybe] lots," the best case is literally "met expectations," with the worst case 



In any case, that I felt it necessary to point this out in the first place as evidence of just how little thought I put into my actual choice of St. Charles Borromeo, and for the record, that my daughter might know her father during the years that the scarce few hours with her taught me not to take anything, anyone for granted.

Standing Confusion: When to stand in Mass (Before or After the Orate frater?)

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Having recently found out how close St.Lawrence Martyr was to my home, I couldn't not begin attending there–I knew I'd find a use for the 5 Latin courses I took back in Ottawa a lifetime ago!

 

However, because I have been spending Sundays in Niagara region to take my daughter to her local Church, I am never around Sundays, and weekday 11am Masses are the Low Mass.

 

Don't get me wrong–I have come to love it not only for its unrushed richness and how I feel it has commanded–and receives–a wholly-greater level of solemn respect than I've found elsewhere. Without exception, for example, I see people rising (or not rising) during all manner of the Novus Ordo, which leaves me to wonder, for example:

 

In the "Orate fratres," the pre-November 2011 Novus Ordo had people rise *after* the "May the Lord accept…," and given the monumental task of change management for an organisation that transcends all social, economic, cultural groups–unlike any managerial context would ever be–combined with the small number of Masses most people would have yet, it's still common to see anything from hesitation to refusal to stand until that portion is recited. The problem had been, for the first few weeks, people who had only attended Sunday obligation Masses as well as some who attended daily, but hadn't been comprehensively introduced to the New Roman Missal changes might think that some of us who were rising directly after the "May the Lord accept the sacrifice…" were actually the ones who have it wrong.

 

"Does one rise *whilst* the celebrant is reciting or after the "Pray, brethren…"? To me, there is a subtle difference in the interpretation of someone standing prior to being what to pray for, and standing in response having heard and answering.

 

Well, this might be a moot point in the Latin Low Masses that I'm used to, since we aren't even responding to it vocally anyway–but the the answer to this detail requires returning to the Latin text of the 2002 Roman Missal (the very reason I wanted to begin attending the Latin Masses–to understand so many of the things nobody seems to know for certain in the Novus Ordo…); in fact, JL Lilburne (2002) already had identified this issue of confusion and had begun calling for better education of it. He recommends: So this my attempt to encourage people in Catholic communities to faithfully follow the Roman Missal and stand earlier than others, when the priest finishes saying: "Pray, brethen, that our sacrifice may be acceptable to God, the almighty Father."

 

Why, then did nobody know about this? I believe that the interleaved revisions to the Order of Mass and the Roman Missal.

 

From 2002 to 2011, the 1973 translation of the Order of Mass was used in English, but the explicit instruction, in Latin, was already contained in the General Instruction of the Roman Missal:

 

29. Stans postea in medio altaris, versus ad populum, extendens et iungens manus, dicit:

Orate, fratres: ut meum ac vestrum sacrificium acceptabile fiat apud Deum Patrem omnipotentem.

Populus surgit et respondet:

Suscipiat Dominus sacrificium de manibus tuis …

 

The "populus surgit" makes clear that people should stand after the invitation to pray, which only really makes sense or can be a meaningful (I'd go as far as to say outright disingenuous if one were to answer a call to prayer with a positive sign before hearing the complete request…) if people stood after hearing and consenting to the request.

 

This was back in 2002, when the Latin Sacramentary had been updated, but we were using the 1973 translation in English.

 

Now having experienced the Latin Low Masses at St. Lawrence Martyr for a few weeks–and thanks to Fr. Steven, who found an old Latin Missal for me to follow, which I could otherwise not afford!–I found what I was looking for in the first place–ever-increasing understanding of why we see and do what we do in the Novus Ordo that nobody seems to remember–in fact, my ex-wife's mother, who had been raised first with the Latin Mass, then transitioned to the English and for the past decades been saying, "Lord, I am not worthy to receive You" did not understand why the new translation introduced "under my roof"; she thought it evoked images of sticking to the roof of her mouth; it is only after examining the Latin Missal that it becomes clear that it refers to the Centurion in Luke 7:1-10 and Matthew 8:5-13.

What appeared to be a gratuitous piece of over-flowery language in the English 2010 translation is now not only shown to be not only more faithful to the 1962 Latin text, but also makes it much, much more appropriate and profound–yet many for whom it has been decades since any formation in a structured programme and only have a once-weekly relationship with it may even further benefit by a better understanding of the Mass.

New Roman Missal (2011) changes and my experience with the Extraordinary Form (1962)

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There are a couple things that people are either still not clear about regarding the chages to the New Roman Missal that were brought into effect for English-speaking Catholics this past Advent-itious 27 November, 2011: here, I describe how my experience with the Latin Mass (Extraordinary Form, Low Masses daily primarily, since I'm never in Toronto on Sundays since I take my daughter to her parish on Sundays, in general…); and another one that even my daughter's nana had not known to be part of the Latin Mass (but was) and the why the Orate Fratres and Secrets portion of the Mass of the Faithful now reverts to include "Not worthy that you should enter under my roof," (note that ut intres is the subjunctive form of intro, intrare–which is correctly translated in English now as "..that you should enter under my …")

I have enough troubles, without custody of my daughtar, but being her only parent remaining a practising Catholic (and ironically having been a Catholic only a few years longer than she :p) ensuring that she either makes the sacrifice (which is really not that much of a sacrifice, if you think about how much TV people watch or..) of making her Sunday Obligation; but it pained me to know that I wasn't even able to impart to her mother, who took her neither to Midnight Mass on Christ mas Eve, nor the Christmas Day Obligation; and then even more flying in the face of what she need do by taking her to a "German Christ mas" at her mother's live-in bf's mother's; yet, they all still value her partial Catholic education at St. Martins parish.

(and neither my ex's elder brother, her Godfather, nor his ex-wife, her Godmother apparently are doing their duty–so yes, every weekend it falls to me (gladly) to do the 300+km journey to make sure she at least makes her Sunday Obligation–which actually led to some really, really beautiful things–and being Godparents, I hope Tina and Julie share in this:
- In order to ensure that I'm not under undue pressure about missing my own Sunday obligation (though I generally will have attended my own parish's Saturday morning (Saturday) and Saturday evening (Sunday) Mass beforehand, I don't really count that–technically, you oughtn't use the Saturday evening Mass to substitute for making an effort and sacrifice anyway right.. I began to attend the 9am Mass and then whenever she wanted to attend the 11am, I was very, very happy to take her back.

This led to several other beautiful things:


1. I was invited to join the KofC council in my daughter's parish, with whom I remain active; the Deputy GK's wife being the Office secretary I was able to learn they had issues with their website and I subsequently donated at least a WordPress site for them on one of my server clusters (I'm trying to explain how I can also add functionality like SMS reminders for feast days or wifi presence subscription notifications for missals, etc. but that I know is a bit above most of their heads atm… As we're constantly remound, though, that we oughtnt think we know bettar than His schedule, anyway…

2. Having become quite accustomed to the two Masses on Saturday and Sunday from this, and for a long time have made sure that I attend morning Mass every day if I'm going to say "Give us this day our DAILY bread…," something further beautiful! I found the Latin Mass, which I became interested in from the 27 November Roman Missal changes, was located third-closest parish to my home! And I'd taken 5 years of Latin before becoming a Catholic (as St. Augustine said, though–that Our God is a God of surprises–and wow this was definitely one, the way that my pre-preparation in Latin, combined with my love for the Blessed Sacrament, allowed me to integrate the daily Latin Mass before lunch each day–

Most of the attendees at the daily Extraordinary Form, though, I found to be strict purists. Beyond the veils and rosaries during Mass (which I already had adopted some time ago anyway), they, like I (though much more militantly) believed that many of the Vatican II changes were compromises (some of them use the term "abuses," but then, as a bad Catholic always trying to be a better one, I can't bring myself to say anything promulgated by a genuniey-apostolic Pope to be anything other than better-informed than I (humility is, one of my top values Catholicism has instilled and continually keeps conscious in my mind…)

Thus, I began to see another role (I couldn't believe yesterday during our January 1 Obligation for the Solemnity of the Mother of God, over a month after the official transition to the New Roman Missal, how I remain one of .. maybe 3-4 people that stand at the right time before the "May the Lord accept the sacrifice at your hands…"

The problem with this, of course, is that when there are this few of us–we appear to be the ones that have it wrong, and it takes even longer to happen. I had the opportunity to go to the evening Mass last week at St. Michael's Cathedral in downtown Toronto, where I used to go at lunches when I worked in the financial district, and I smiled inwardly and outwardly how I didn't note a single person either saying "And also with you[r spirit, which happens when half and half change :D ]," nor a single person fail to stand at the right time during the Orate Fratres and Secrets in the Third part of the Ordinary, in the Mass of the Faithful (in the Extraordinary Form, it is

suscipiat Dominus sacrificium de manibus tuis,
ad laudem, et gloriam nominis sui
ad utilitatem quoque nostram,
totiusque Ecclesiae suae sanctae.

(Incidentally, during my daughter's Christ mas Concert back before Christ mas, I found that her nana, who had been raised in the time of pre-Vatican II, but had since become accustomed to the Novus Ordo's "Lord, I am not worthy to receive You, but only say the Word…"

In the 27 November, 2011 New Roman Missal, this of course became (reverted, actually) to

"Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof…"

She didn't know why the change was necessary, feeling that the flowery language made her think of the roof of her mouth.

Those of you who have a Missal for the 1962 Extraordinary Form may recall, after the agnus dei the prayers in preparation for Communion, specifically:

Domine, non sum dignus ut intres sub tectum meum,
sed tantum dic verbo et sanabitur anima mea.

I hadn't learnt until Fr. Steven at St. Lawrence Martyr gave me a proper Latin Missal for the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite that this actually is right and just more so than the Novus Ordo had been for the past decades–it refers not to simply flowery language–it refers to the Centurion in the Gospels (and recall the Extraordinary Form, 1962 contains multiple Gospels in the Masses…)

Anyways, I hope you none of you feel pressured to read any or all of that, but that Social Media feeds are different to RSS/Atom in that they needn't be subscribed to explicitly to be shown, and yet they have permanence as well.. (The second reason I do is because we ll need to be less sanctimonious and acrimonious about things outside our sphere of influence, particularly when they are asking of us to step up to a new paradigm–for this case, it's about managing and using large amounts of information–something we were not accustomed to pre-Y2K…

semper Dominus paxque Christi vobiscum sit

 

What I wish upon us all this coming New Year 2012

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I would that everyone everywhere who wishes to, and is permitted to (a notable segment of our own communities that generally recommends/urges not/forbids celebrating the 31 December/1 January NYE celebrations are our Muslim brothers and sisters–I wasn't simply being gratuitous or an*l..) have an inspiring new year that brings renewed passion, experiences, and reveals yet more of the fullness of the beauty that is our universe, that we might commensurately increase our appreciation of it and decrease likewise the importance we estsablish on our own comforts, desires.

(One fundamental realisation that most helped me not only *know* the values promulgated by that famous parable about the Landowner who paid every one of His workers the same daily take-home–that over and above the basics, which Providence refers to, generosity MUST ought not beget envy, jealousy, and enmity!

The corollary to this was my realisation that I will fight to the death in the cause for the disadvantaged and, even more importantly, the marginalised. Fully am I empowered by my epiphany that while we all would have equality to all on earth, we cling to it sanctimoniously when we feel sleighted, as if the universe came with a "100% equitability guarantee," or even if it did, had no mechanism to promulgate and enforce it…

Some of you notice that over time, this conditional has incrementally but inexoraly begun to march towards "will fight to the death for the marginalised of the world" in a simple future tense sense; the more I see of how we will fight for the protection of our excess (that I'd argue we deserve least) from those who, by virtue of their knowing the value of what they have not (and ironically, perversely, thus deserve most) –and particularly, of those right here in our communities that we oft want to pretend do not exist or that our inability to present the same opportunities of abundance we were somehow afforded, had no part in their poverty. I "fear" towards –as time progresses and I see just how much we prefer to fight for our excess than even to cry over injustices–

The corollary that allows me to keep my head down and not at all see the licence to allow the envy of others to mitigate our desire and motivation to do our best–we would not consider envy our licence to not, in a race to the lowest common denominator, would we?!? HERE the incremental value of operationalising Philippians 2:14 "Do all things without grumbling" over its "low-hanging fruit" value

(the easy-to-identify low-hanging fruit value of Philippians 2:14 I believe to be its self-directed rewards of improved self efficacy, motivation, and self-actualisation; the more profound values be that living it can truly free us from being slaves to our possessions, slaves to our envy, and slaves to resenting what we ought appreciate, let alone that it be in surplus–can anyone but see the perversion in perceiving overabundance, when considered relatively to others', as insufficient, when even as I write, and later, you read, people who could have been saved but never will have the chance now, have died.

Yet, as soon as those who worked the entire day in the beatingly hot sun saw those who worked but a few minutes get paid this same amount–which is arguably not only generosity but quite simply, a miracle–if we can for a moment realise that what we take for granted, for a large number of people on the earth will die today for lack of; the Landowner needed not the surplus workforce, and certainly did not need to pay them the whole day's wage. He kept His agreement with all workers–including those who just hours before were overjoyed to get paid so much to work the whole day.

Why, then has the world not only allowed some of us to agree with, even feel for, those who worked the whole day and were paid a premium over any other opportunity similarly would have, simply because the Landowner was compassionate to hire unneeded workers, just so He could pay them the fair day's wages necessary for the fair day's food and provisions, while emphasizing the Catholic value of not only paying a fair day's wages for a fair day's work, but also giving a fair effort to receive it.

The point of this Matthew 20:1-16 parable, though, is really that we ought appreciate what we arguably have been blessed with in excess, with full knowledge that at the very time we eat any one more bite of staple rice or otherwise, real humans–everywhere across the earth, will die for want of that we were lucky to have enough to consume past our needs.

pax Christi omnibus
 

Being Erica pulls a Precious-Blood-style predicted theme of the day homily-style thing!

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I didn't see the whole thing, but whoa man it's really about cross-generations how they're not passing down traditions no more, and ALSO how, and Dr. Tom JUST said this less than 2 minutes ago, "We all of us tend to see the world through the prism of our own eyes….."
 
 

 
He was referring to that whole applying a framework of what we think something is to the universe around us–including to what is like the emergent synergy of the universe–to the perceptions of others, which is even more what I try to keep reminding you or pointing out when you do (and when I do, but it's harder for me to notice, since remember I keep saying that we're all always in our bubbles–and we can only see the outside through and from our Bubble; so I can observe the differntial outside as my Bubble changes, but when that changes, again, the degrees of freedom involved make it impossible to pinpoint how much of the change is truly perceptual or peceptual bias on our perception differential–either way–my point was about the Being Erica pulling a Mass–how the Masses I attend (and you can hear this if you listen to them in the EVernotes–it's not my imagination!)–and the readings were predetermined .. years ago, thus predetermining the theme of the day's sermon in the homily (though no the content, just the theme–with the probable exception of the Homilies I heard Saturday evening and Sunday morning at St. Monica's–a church less than a block away from Peter's where I was hanging out the past weekend–and devoured delicious dishes, thanks be to him and his fiancee, Sarah–because that priest must most likely use the same homily every second Sunday of Advent (since it's heavily-Christmas commercialism rant "saccharin coated… and all" but the next morning I heard it nearly Verbatim (he didn't stumble on this one phrase–you can hear after I upload the second one, and compare the two :D). I mean it was literarily a work of art, delivered as if they held weekly Toastmaster meetings in the Church basement, and that his office were in the Church hall. oh and that his office hours were concurrent with the Toastmaster meetings.. or something