Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

Rick hoped that one day he could call her...his girlfriend

Nostalgia:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRln0IEIBFE

Sad News

Christian Skoglund, one of my Wheaton friends and a Blackhawk pilot died today in a crash in Italy. Please pray for his family and his sister who was one of our Wheaties as well. He was my mentor and we shared some great times together in Iraq / Kuwait.

On the other side of things, I just arrived home. My mom is doing a great job at getting me back to health. I am on a variety of medications and drugs and I am just really swollen for the most part.

Spirits in the Material World

Hello friends.

I'm still very unfortunately here in Michigan, where I have had plenty of time for contemplation.

Much of my contemplation has been centered upon trying to figure out how I fit into the world. The more I've thought about it, the more trouble I'm finding picturing fitting in with the normal, expected life that modern society expects.

What ever happened to the"Former T6 family and friends experiemental living commune" [FTFFELC] idea? Weren't we going to go in on a large property somewhere and start an intellectual co-op where we all live off the land and each contribute our unique abilities, all the while contributing professionally to our fields, but on our own terms?

Tha sort of thing is very appealing to me: intentionally living below the poverty line, having a close community, and having plenty of time for artistic pursuits because income wouldn't be as important.

I wish I had a lot of like minded friends willing to give this a try, because I'm at the end of my rope. I just don't think I can lead a "normal" life.

TTFN

Aeijtzschey

Stanley Fish and Theodicy

There are a few of you to whom I owe email responses or other signals that I continue to live and breathe. Especially Adam, who wrote to me before his trip to Italy and is still waiting for a response. Unconscionable, I agree. Alas, I am finishing (read: writing from scratch, or re-writing) the first chapter of my dissertation this week, to be submitted to various members of my committee on Friday, so I won't be communicating much this week. But, by Saturday, I'll be back in action.

In the meantime, you might be interested in reading Stanley Fish's latest blog post on "Suffering, Evil and the Existence of God." The post is actually an extended review of two forthcoming books, Bart D. Ehrman's (a Wheaton and PTS grad) God’s Problem: How the Bible Fails to Answer Our Most Important Question – Why We Suffer and Antony Flew’s (not even close to a Wheaton grad) There Is a God: How the World’s Most Notorious Atheist Changed His Mind.

Both books take up Epicurus's old question: “Is God willing to prevent evil but not able? Then he is impotent. Is he able but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Whence, then, evil.” As you might expect from their titles, they come to different conclusions on the matter. An interesting read.