Guess I’ll See You At The 9th Hour

If anyone is devout and a lover of God, let him enjoy this beautiful and radiant festival.  If anyone is a wise servant, let him, rejoicing, enter into the joy of his Lord.  If anyone has wearied himself in fasting, let him now receive his recompense.  If anyone has labored from the first hour, let him today receive his just reward. If anyone has come at the third hour, with thanksgiving let him keep the feast. If anyone has arrived at the sixth hour, let him have no misgivings; for he shall suffer no loss. If anyone has delayed until the ninth hour, let him draw near without hesitation. If anyone has arrived even at the eleventh hour, let him not fear on account of his delay. For the Master is gracious and receives the last, even as the first; he gives rest to him that comes at the eleventh hour, just as to him who has labored from the first. He has mercy upon the last and cares for the first; to the one he gives, and to the other he is gracious. He both honors the work and praises the intention ...  Read More

So begins the stirring Paschal homily of St John Chrysostom read in every Orthodox Church on the great Feast of Pascha (Easter). Every year it seems Great Lent comes with high hopes and expectations that somehow this one will be special, more focused and spiritually profitable than in years past.  Promises made, goals set, all seem to quickly fade into the din of daily life. 

For the non-Orthodox reader, Pascha or Easter is considered the greatest holiday or feastday of the year for the Orthodox Christian.  The 40 days prior to Pascha comprises Great Lent a preparatory period with very clearly proscribed behavioral and spiritual guidelines.  Fasting from meat, fish and dairy is a major component along with many additional church services, particularly the beautiful Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts (composed interestingly enough by Pope Gregory the Dialogist).  Abstinence from a variety of other pleasures is also the expectation. 

Orthodox view Lent very differently from Western Christians.  We see Great Lent as a time of repentance, as a “podvig”, a spiritual struggle whereby one is gradually transformed and open to the spiritual banquet of Pascha.  Lent is by design a therapeutic regime, a well conceived plan of spiritual transformation available to all who wish to partake; it really is quite remarkable, but never easy.

The Lenten worship is…a school of repentance. It teaches us what is repentance and how to acquire the spirit of repentance. It prepares us for and leads us to the spiritual regeneration without which ‘absolution’ remains meaningless. It is, in short, both teaching about repentance and the way of repentance. And since there can be no real Christian life without repentance, without this constant ‘re-evaluation’ of life, the Lenten worship is an essential part of the liturgical tradition of the Church.”
Protopresbyter Alexander Schmemann

Like many Orthodox in America, I move in a non-Orthodox world.  None of my coworkers is Orthodox, most of my friends are not Orthodox or even religious for that matter.  Few have a clue what Lent is and most could really care less and perhaps only further confirms that I’m a bit cooky as I eat the salad while they dine on steak.  Work and social demands all continue unabated.  Keeping the Lenten fast on the go, is always a challenge.  Now I’m not making excuses or being judgmental, just stating a few facts.  All push and pull at the struggling pilgrim on his lenten journey.  Yet, no matter how meager my efforts, how many times I fail to live up to my own lenten expectations I take solice in the words of the great saint… “He has mercy upon the last and cares for the first; to the one he gives, and to the other he is gracious. He both honors the work and praises the intention”  and remain mindful that next year I get another chance to do it all over again. 

Thy resurrection, O Christ Savior, the angels in heaven sing. Do thou enable us on earth to glorify thee with pure hearts.
from Paschal Matins

 

My First Computer

I have fond memories of my first computer, a KayPro II. Purchased in 1985 for $1800; it had 64kb of memory, CPM OS,  sported two 5 1/4 floppy drives, and a 9in monochrome amber text screen.  It came with Wordstar for word processing and several other programs.  To run a program you had to put the program floppy disk in one drive while saving work to the other drive since there was no hard drive.  When the drives engaged they made a loud mechanical sound.

  At The Kaypro 1986 For those of us who grew up using typewriters, even this simple machine was a huge breakthrough.  You could turn out perfect documents (well as perfect as dot matrix printers could make them!), do things like find and replace words, among many other time saving tasks impossible with a typewriter.  To make bold or italics text, you would have to insert formatting tags much like you do with html today. 
I still have floppy disks with documents I’d written on them, unfortunately I have no way to read them since Kaypro went bust in the late 80’s and I gave my KayPro to a local thrift store.

Find Out More About Kaypro Computers
  Read A Review From Byte Magazine 1983
Obsolete Computer Museum
Old Computers.com they are currently working on a personal computer timeline

A Little Perspective

My son’s high school basketball team placed 3rd in the WA State 2A B-Ball Tournament.  I was inspired to write this commentary which was published in our local paper.

Ok, I’ll admit it; it has been almost a week and I’m going through basketball withdrawal.  Over the course of the last three weeks I’ve felt physically sick, euphoric, anxious, frustrated and that’s just on the way to the games.  Does this mean I’m hooked? The whirlwind ending of high school basketball culminating in the State tournament is an unforgettable experience.  There is a level of intimacy and immediacy in the confines of the basketball court that’s electrifying. You can’t help but become involved in the game when you can almost reach out and touch the players, see the sweat, hear the hard foul, hum along with timeless fight songs and cheers, and feel the excitement of the crowd in the ebb and flow of the game.  As a parent you’re helpless, there is nothing you can do but be a spectator and go along for the wild ride, one game after another.  The farther they go, the more nerve-wracking it becomes as the possibility of going all the way comes into view.  Of course, there is always plenty of opportunity to vent anxiety and frustration by second guessing the referees, coaches or players’ actions; it is all part of the experience.

Like many parents these days I’ve hauled my three children to practices, stood on muddy sidelines in horrible weather, coached the seemingly uncoachable,  waited in endless ferry lines , and been to every out-of-the way field, gym ,Taco Bell and Subway in the Puget Sound region.  I have to be honest; I haven’t always been a good sport about it.  On many an occasion I found myself thinking, “Why am I doing this?”, “What are we doing here?”, or worse “why doesn’t that idiot with the big mouth shut up”.  Yet, a comment by a longtime VHS basketball fan at the end of the last game at State brought the past 20 years or so into perspective; with tears welling up in his eyes he said “It doesn’t get any better than this… this is what its all about”.

By all counts this is perhaps the best basketball team in school history.  Certainly there have been other good teams and great individual players, but collectively this is an extraordinary group of young men not simply because they were winners but because they were a TEAM.  In all my years of participating in and watching sports I have never seen a group so collectively committed to the true spirit of team play.

Watching this group in action I am reminded of the bigger picture, the part of the sports experience that is not about winning but about deeper lessons of life… no, not just life lessons for our kids, lessons for us parents as well.  Although we immerse ourselves and our families in all kinds of activities for the good of our kids there is a part of us that hopes that through our efforts they will excel, be on a winning team, maybe even be a standout, a star with a chance to earn recognition or even a scholarship.  Don’t get me wrong, winning is great, but winning is the easy part.  Putting team ahead of self, that’s the challenge.  Somehow this group got that message, took it to heart and lived it.

One of the most memorable moments in my own son’s play came in a mid-season game.  Driving full speed toward the basket on a 2-on-1 fast break, the obvious choice was to take the shot himself, yet he chose to draw out the lone defender and make a short pass to an open teammate.  A split second decision in the heat of a game, a profound reflection on who he is as a person and teammate.  Of all the other great plays he has made in the many sports he has played over the years (he has been to a State tournament 5 times in 3 sports and placed 1st twice) I’ll never forget that moment…  I could not have been more proud. 

You are right Terry; it doesn’t get any better than that… that is what it is all about.

Watch a 5 minute movie with audio of still images of the tournament
WMW
Flash

 

Here Comes the Judge.. There Goes the Blog

My dear wife was recently appointed a judge and we decided it was best to be more circumspect about our family and what is publicly available for the world to see.  While this site has evolved rather organically it does convey a fair amount about us.  Its beginning was my trip to Mt Athos.  Over the last year I’ve written about a number of things of interest to me most entries with little advanced planning or thought.  I plan to keep my Athos material available since that area actually gets a fair amount of traffic.  Still committed to blogging and with plenty of other web projects underway you’ll find me dabbling online elsewhere. 
Thanks for dropping by.