You Keep Using That Word, I Do Not Think It Means What You Think It Means

EX-ENRON BOSSES CLOSER TO PRISON
More than four years after the collapse of their company stunned a city and sent shockwaves through corporate boardrooms across the country, former Enron executives Ken Lay and Jeff Skilling failed one last time: to convince a jury that it was not their fault.

"Certainly we're surprised, more appropriately to say we're shocked ... I firmly believe I'm innocent of the charges against me," said Lay. He noted that he's still a blessed man because of his family and friends. "We believe God is in fact in control and indeed he does work all things for good for those who love the Lord."

Houston Chronicle

I understand the umbrage people take at Ken Lay's proclamation of his innocence and even more at his statement that it's all good 'cos he loves the Lord. For some it may sound like, no matter what a court says, everything he did is okay. A jury seems to think what he did was criminal, and from A Conspiracy of Fools one gets the impression that a whole lot of pride, selfishness, chest-beating and disregard for ethics played a huge role in the collapse of the company, the loss of so many people's savings, and the general assault on capitalism- so the "it's all good" sentiment seems a bit indelicate. But the resentment against his words doesn't mean that what he's said doesn't in some way resonate as true. It just may be that the good he thinks there may be may not be what he wants or expects it to be...
It may be that the good God works through those who love Him is very much not like the good we expect or would find easiest to swallow.

I find it interesting (read inane and revealing of how little is understood) when people say the Biblical king David was A Man After God's Own Heart and by that mean, "It's all good." Pardon my French, but if you read his story you see David was a bit of a trou de cul. The Bible saying David was a man after God's own heart does not necessarily justify or even excuse what David did. It might make it worse. It might mean that even a "man after God's heart" can't handle being a king. It might mean being earnest for God does not guarantee you do things well or that you are good at being good. I don't think the stories of David's adultery, dead babies, civil war, pestilence, and no temple building bloody hands are so easily glossed over or meant to be seen as good things because David was a man after God's own heart. Although that is an easier approach.

It may be that David could be horribly wrong, corrupted by power, susceptible to lust and violence and come to a point where he says something like, "Holy crap I suck." I don't know... I tend to think being a person after God's heart doesn't mean you're great and can do no wrong. Maybe it means something more like you are able to say, "I have sinned greatly in what I have done. But now, O LORD, I pray thee, take away the iniquity of thy servant; for I have done very foolishly." And strangely enough, that seems to be its own kind of greatness.

So Ken Lay says he loves the Lord and is expecting good because of it. I don't know what he means by that. I kind of get the impression he means something like, "Ain't no haters can take us, ya heard me?! Only God can judge me." But maybe he means something else. Maybe he anticipates the good he expects God to work will come through being devastated. I don't know. But he's still right... sort of.

Playing Through the Alphabet: B Can Barely Bother
I Miss You- Bjork
Cover Me- Bjork
Headphones- Bjork
The Wiizard- Black Sabbath
Paranoid- Black Sabbath
War Pigs- Black Sabbath
Iron Man- Black Sabbath
Fairies Wear Boots- Black Sabbath
Changes- Black Sabbath
Sweet Leaf- Black Sabbath
sky is falling- Blackalicious
My Pen and Pad- Blackalicious
Chemical Calisthenics- Blackalicious

Frequently Feingold

I couldn't do it; I couldn't keep calling this the Daily Feingold. Anyway...

"Senator Feingold has pledged to hold listening sessions in all of Wisconsin’s 72 counties each year of his six-year term and this will be the Senator’s 14th year of holding listening sessions. These sessions will mark the 31st and 32nd listening sessions of 2006, and the 967th and 968th since 1993. Feingold will hold his 1000th listening session at the end of 2006."

Isn't that nice?

If you happen to find yourself in Oneida County, Wisconsin on May 30 you can meet and speak to Russ Feingold. What a charming way to show personal interest in your constituency.

All my senator ever did was lessen my friend's prison sentence because he was serving time in a condemned federal prison... I guess that's pretty good.

Phoning It In

FEINGOLD-BACKED BILL SUPPORTING GREAT LAKES RESTORATION PASSES SENATE COMMITTEE

Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Russ Feingold has announced that a bill he cosponsored to strengthen Great Lakes restoration efforts, has been approved by the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee.

Senate Press Release

I remain committed to the Daily Feingold and in this commitment I'm learning something very important. No, not things about Russ Feingold, that's just incidental. More important, I seem to be learning how words don't have to mean anything. That's been a hang up of mine for some time. I think words can suggest different things in different settings and that definitions can change over time, but when meaning changes it shows that our larger concepts have changed. Even though they change they are stable and rooted in a particular setting. Words mean something. I'm beginning to see how silly that is.
Hence the Daily Feingold is not offered everyday, even though the word daily suggests it would be. Daily means everyday. From the beginning I wasn't doing it on most weekends so already Daily meant something else. And now, I'm missing weekdays, but still I call it the Daily Feingold. It's really more The Frequent Feingold or The Somewhat Regular Feingold.
Whoops, that's not the direction I should go.


-When I use a word, it means just what I choose it to mean - neither more nor less.
-The question is, whether you can make words mean so many different things.
-The question is: which is to be master - that's all.

What wonderful insight, Humpty Dumpty. Especially considering the political relations the Daily Feingold has, I better put this nonsense about the meaning of words behind me.

Gosh, We're All Really Impressed Down Here

Duke was sprayed by a skunk yesterday. This means I got skunk stink on me too. This is spring.



I'm not complaining at all. I love it. Not the stink itself, that's stinky, but I don't mind being confronted with some of the more unpleasant aspects of nature- like skunk stink, bug bites, itching, sneezing, near death and what not. It's there year round, but spring seems extra itchy and so extra "other" for me. I've had the pleasure of seeing coyotes playing from across a canyon, views from what seems like the top of the world. I know the dessert can be more than a drab olive green; that when it's in bloom it looks like the earth has been dusted with yellows, pinks, blues, and purples. I've been feet from bears, stared at the intricacy and detail of bugs, the patterns on lizards, and been wowed by the size of trees, I've seen rattlesnakes doing it. It's all great. I love it. But I'm not the guy that looks at it all and thinks "harmony." Maybe I think "counterpoint," or "still tuning." I'm not sure. I'm impressed, I'm filled with awe and wonder and all that. But I've never felt "at one with nature." Or, if I do, it's a oneness that makes me feel, not only very meek, but vulnerable and dependent.

I've been held under by hurricane swells that convinced me I was going to die. I've been covered from ankle to forehead with poison "itch." I've come away from a day of climbing with over 150 mosquito bites on my back and shoulders that made me sick. I've listened to coyotes cheer over a kill in the early evening. I've had my tent blown out of the ground. Just like in cartoons, I've come across sun-bleached cattle skulls in the desert. And this is from privileged bourgeois frivolity. People who have done nothing to be less fortunate than me live without needing a reminder of the closeness of death or discord all around them.

So what's this for? I don't know. I'm eating lunch and rambling. Maybe come Friday, when I turn in my last paper, I'll go get more insight into how I fit into nature and why the more suited my dog is to life with me the less he is suited for much else.

This Is What It's Comes To

Russ Feingold is getting ready for a pretty big play, when that time comes, I'll be here to let you know what it is with the Daily Feingold. Until then, this is what I offer:
Conan O'Brien is stealing my jokes.
To Wit-
Conan O’Brien: “Senator Arlen Specter and Senator Russ Feingold got into a shouting match over the issue of gay marriage. They were screaming at each other, yeah. As a result, Specter and Feingold have cancelled their wedding in the Florida Keys.

You might say that my post about Russ and Arlen's spat is not the same as Conan's because it is not a word for word copy. I say the similarities come from the suggestion of a relationship between Russ and Arlen. I know that was easy and hardly missed by most anyone who read the story, so you could say that Conan (or Conan's writers) simply copied life and not me (or the countless other people that made the same joke) but bear this in mind: I think the subtlety with which I approached the joke and the suggested punchline makes it a superior joke. Since my joke is better, nay the best, any other joke is a corrupted copy of the ideal joke- mine. How's that for medieval wonk?

But really, it was a terribly easy, lame joke, what is Conan paying his writers for?

2nd Guess

People hate it when I deconstruct my jokes. To them I say two things:
1. Sometimes the deconstruction of a joke is a joke in itself
2. Sometimes it's necessary

I thought I could express the silliness of a "gay" channel and the absurdity of expressing identity via reified actions in my last post. I don't think I did... well I don't think I did it successfully. Instead, I think I came across kind of jerky.

I'm not going to begin the practice of deleting posts; that would kind of go against what I think words are and what they can do. But I have to admit, I am often not as clever as I think I am. But then again, sometimes I am more clever than I think I am. So I guess it all balances out. I mean, if you're feet are frozen and your head's on fire, everything's okay right?

How Rude

I watched a Morrissey concert on LOGO the other day. That, along with this comment from Chris Frazier brings this joke to mind:

What's the difference between a gay and a straight Mexican?

This Is Why We Throw Things Away (Hypothetically)

Skybalon (loudly to other room)- Is this buttermilk still good?
Skybalon's Wife (from other room)- Yes
Skybalon-(still yelling)- Are you sure?
Skybalon's Wife (yelling still)- I just used it in the pancakes
Skybalon (to self)- Really... how long does buttermilk last?
Skybalon's Wife- ...
Skybalon (loudly)- Are you sure, it smells awful?
Skybalon's Wife (loudly)- That's how buttermilk smells.
Skybalon- Okay

I Hope The Spinal Taps Don't Play Too Loud

Which is coolest, band names that are simply an article and a singular noun- The Cure, the same thing but a plural noun- The Beastie Boys, band names that are the name of someone followed by the preceding construct-Buddy Holley and The Crickets, some person's name- Beck, just a word without an article- Devo, or some obscure acronym- KMFDM?

After that's settled we can narrow things futher, like which language is the best, are animal names better than car names, etc...

You really should take the time to answer, or even suggest name types I forgot. From this we will determine what is the coolest band name.

Like This is News to You

In my pursuit of a story on Russ Feingold for the Daily Feingold I came across this. It's from Gallup on attitudes about about gay marriage and a marriage defining amendment. Arlen Specter and Russ Feingold exchanged heated words last week over the forum and nature of the debate about this very topic. So I guess this will have to do for the Daily Feingold.

Here is everything you need to know from the Gallup survey. But what does this mean for you? Women are gay.

I know some people say statistics can be manipulated to say anything. "Knowing" this does not mean statistics can never be trusted. You just have to know what you're being told and how they came to that conclusion. Much like you need to know what the good folks at Excedrin mean when they say no medicine works faster to reduce headaches- it doesn't mean they are the fastest, only that no competitor is faster. Anyway, if you check out the survey results, you will clearly see that the majority of women aged 18-49 are gay. You can't argue with facts.

eHarmony: Defending Marriage

I'm a heel. You may (or may not) remember my adventure to see if Cyndi and I are compatible. We completed the free eHarmony profile survey to see what type of match we would be. It turns out we're not any type of match. No matter how narrow the geographic search criteria, we did not show up as a compatible match for each other according to their other profile points. She says it's because the computer can't tell how funny and mean she is and that I need funny and mean. Maybe.

What their match points supposedly can tell is who would be a better match for us. So now, when I do something awful, Cyndi can hold Sheldon from San Diego over my head. I still have Bear Wife,* who, I am sure, could kill Sheldon so I don't worry about him. I do worry though, that I can no longer go to "my" Starbucks.

As Cyndi (and good sense) says, I have no way of knowing who any of the people offered to me as matches really are (you have to pay to see them), but I am willing to bet that I know one of the people that came up as a match for me. I suspect she is a regular customer from Starbucks I used to chat with. It's all fun and games until you realize you're messing around with people looking for real relationships. Cyndi thinks, even if it is her, she would have no way of knowing that I did this. She's probably right, but I still feel pretty foolish... and mean. It was just a video game until I was forced to recognize the people attached to the names. Nothing brings the consequence of your antics to light quite like the lives of real people. So I haven't been back to "my" Starbucks in a while. Like I said, I'm a heel.

But now, setting aside the moral implications of my research as any good social scientist should, I wonder how many eHarmony marriages will end in divorce. It would be interesting in the long run to compare the endurance of eHarmony marriages with others. I don't know what I think of compatibility as a possible measure of future success. I suppose the more you have in common with someone in key areas the more you will enjoy spending time with them, or possibly, the more potential there is for finding things you may enjoy doing with each other. But people seem to change over time, circumstances change, experiences alter people, anything can happen to make a couple that seems compatible now, incompatible in the future. It may be that people are looking for something to keep them together and the idea of "compatibility" as some objective measure might be that. Maybe I can't speak to this because Cyndi and I apparently aren't compatible, but I wonder if the idea of compatibility, even if it's an illusion, can serve as a "glue" through those times when a couple might otherwise want to call it quits. It may be that the idea of compatibility is generally more binding than the idea of commitment for the spirit of our age. We may stick together, not because we decided to do so no matter what, but because it is proven that our partner can make us happy; maybe we're willing to work through these temporary obstacles or over the bumps in the road to that end. Like I said, maybe.

I tend to think people don't have what it takes to be married until they decide to stick it out and at the end of it all, have developed more fully what was necessary to have a good marriage. But I tend to view a lot of life that way. How unromantic- relationships as character development. I guess it's a little romantic- a la the Tin Woodsmen. We'll see how it turns out.

I Love You Sweetleaf
One More Saturday Night- Grateful Dead
The Harder They Come- Jimmy Cliff
Holiday- Weezer
Mike Mills- Air
Go With the Flow- Queens of the Stone Age
Silver- Pixies
In The Summertime- Mungo Jerry
Flamenco Sketches- Miles Davis

*Bear Wife is just that; she's a wife that is a bear. There isn't time for more exposition than that.

Another Thing Russ Feingold and I Have in Common

Feingold forgoes salary increase this year
WASHINGTON-Wisconsin's Democratic Senators Russ Feingold and Herb Kohl are returning this year's pay raise.
Feingold accepted his first pay raise since 1999 last year.

Feingold has a policy of accepting pay raises only at the beginning of his Senate term. He saw a big jump in salary in 2005, from nearly 137-thousand dollars to more than 162-thousand dollars.

AP via ABC News

There's no excuse for missing the Daily Feingold. No excuse.

For those of you who are getting tired of the Daily Feingold (or have been tired of it for some time) or sympathize with my struggle to bring you news of Russ Feingold everyday, here's what you can do:

Contact Russ Feingold's office. While you're letting him know you think he's doing a pretty good job and look forward to his presidency, ask him if he could get the staffer that keeps checking out the blog to leave a comment.

OR if you can somehow fake the DC or Wisconsin based domain, leave a comment as a staffer and the Daily Feingold's end. Other than that we're staying the course.

Longer Days Can be Shorter

The truly astue reader of this blog may notice a change in when I post. Well, I've been busy.

In any case, while I don't want to get too video heavy, I found something else worth sharing.

Blame You Tube for making it so easy to embed videos.

I've Been Left Behind

I'll be teaching a class called Contemporary Christian Thought next semester at an Evangelical college. It's basically just theology of the modern era, I think I can handle that but I'm afraid I will fail the children... young adults I guess, in one key area. I will have nothing, or very little, to say to them about eschatology.

I grew up in a Catholic environment, and only very recently, in geological terms, became a part of an Evangelical culture. How Evangelical is debatable since I think Quakers don't exactly fit with contemporary Evangelicalism, but Evangelical nonetheless. Or perhaps all the more considering certain changes. To wit- Quakers used to call the large meetings they held every year, guess... any idea- Yearly Meetings. They used this term to identify the larger administrative body. So we used to be California Yearly Meeting because we got together once a year and were from California (mostly). Now we're Evangelical Friends Church Southwest, that's EFCSW to help it roll off the tongue a bit easier. And even though we still have our big Yearly Meeting, we call it "Annual Conference." (To be honest, I don't call it that so it may be wrong to say "we.") These changes aren't really that a big deal- it's just to show that there is a whole lot that we're embarrassed about and we really want to be Methodists but don't want to lose our buildings. It's cool.

What was I saying? Oh right- eschatology.

So like I said, I grew up Catholic and eventually came to understand things Quakerly. But all during that time I didn't do much with eschatology. When I was a kid I would read through Revelation and think it was weird. I would read the Bible when I was supposed to be doing other things at school; I would read it during detention, I would read it during interminable music practices in church, "quiet times" in class, and whenever else I might have been bored. I wasn't a particularly good or saintly kid; I just liked the stories and sometimes didn't have anything else with me to read. A story about your brothers wanting to kill you and selling you into slavery, that's exciting. A story about a girl menstruating on a camel, what?! A story about a king peeping at some hot girl taking a bath, that's kind of sexy. Proving your God is better by having a fire contest, that's awesome. Angels with rainbows over their heads, ten-horned, seven-headed monsters rising out of the sea, that's weird.

Shipwrecks, miracles, big fish, giants, fire, fighting, morals, good guys, bad guys- all made their impression upon me. But I had no idea believing the Bible meant when I couldn't find my mom, her being whisked off to heaven was as possible an answer as she was in the backyard rather than the front. And even though I had a pretty good sense that a lot of what was in the Bible could be used in some lucrative rackets, I was clueless to the financial potential of Daniel and Revelation. I guess I knew things would end, but I didn't know some people would say we had such a detailed account of that end. The Day After loomed before me more than A Thief in the Night. Like a child, indeed.

So I grew. When asked in youth group what we thought Revelation was about, I offered something or other about it being a coded attack on Nero and the nature of political power and a Christian's relation to it. I didn't know that wasn't the right answer, but the giggles and sideways looks clued me in that something else was going on. When I was in college and read The Politics of Jesus it seemed a good approach to the Gospel and Gospels. I had no idea it would cause so many furrowed brows in Bible study and church. When I crossed out the word "premillenial" so I could sign an employee statement of faith in good conscience... well, I knew what I was doing that time.

But these kids, what will I do? I'm not even putting eschatology on the syllabus. We'll touch on it in some of the readings, but probably not the way they need. What will they do with a survey of modern theological developments and readings if they don't include how Bird Flu fulfills Biblical prophecy or understand how animals will be raptured? Liberation theology's relation to eschatological thought? Worthless. We need to know that the antichrist is here now and is a Jew.

If only I had known that my understanding of Jesus’ teachings as inherently political was wrong and impractical. If only I had learned in time that the Gospel only speaks obliquely to real human relationships or social institutions and it must be hammered into an unrecognizable pulp to be socially relevant. John Yoder, if you were alive today you would rue the day you made me think Jesus’ deliberate use of political language and Paul’s understanding of the “powers” is for a community that is necessarily political in nature. Rue it I say!

No Iron Maiden
Move On Up a Little Higher- Mahalia Jackson
Enjoy- Bjork
Roulette- System of a Down
The Boy With the Thorn in His Side- The Smiths
Smokestack Lightnin'- Howlin Wolf
Untitled Original- John Coltrane
Island In the Sun- Weezer
Blissed and Gone- Smashing Pumpkins
Brick House- The Commodores
Sweet Leaf- Black Sabbath
No Shelter (Live)- Rage Against the Machine
Riot- Miles Davis
High 5- Beck

Baby Don't Cry

Here's how lame I am:

A while ago I mentioned that I like to see people win. It's true, even as I'm the guy that can construct a nice taunt, I'll also cheer for you. I like competition, I like trying, and as much as I like winning, I like good play. It makes me feel good.

Gator Ade has a new commercial out promoting Team USA, or you could say honoring Team USA, for qualifying for the World Cup Finals. It's a montage that condenses what I enjoy about sports, soccer especially. My face gets flush just writing about it...

Why am I writing about it? You can watch it-


Anyway, I get farklempt watching it. I know that's a bit lame. But how about something a bit more lame?

ESPN is running World Cup promos narrated by Bono, the Edge, and the One I Didn't Know Talked. Two of them during the UEFA Cup yesterday made me cry. Eating lunch with Cyndi, I tried to tell her about the comercials and how goofy I am, I cried.

The one that really gets me is about the Ivory Coast. This is their first time qualifying for the World Cup Finals and it occurred in the midst of ongoing hostilities between Muslims and Christians with a team composed of, strangely enough, Muslims and Christians.

So Bono narrates this commercial, giving a very brief overview of their conflict, images of war, tension, and suspicion set the tone. Then we see that it's not an angry mob at all. The team passes through this crowd gathered to see them off, people are waving their Nation's flag and colors rather than party banners- fighting becomes dancing, crying becomes singing and all that. Their team has done what leaders couldn't do, and the commercial is set to the intro of "Where the Streets Have No Name." Peace and Sport- good grief what a set up.

You can laugh if you'd like, Cyndi did.

Of course it's an idealized snapshot. The 30 second or so narrative doesn't capture everything. But I cried. 'Cos I'm a baby, and because it's true. Things are still tenuous in Ivory Coast but there are also stories like this:

-Kone and Oulai live near each other in a poor neighbourhood in the main government-held city of Abidjan. Kone says he warned his relatives to avoid their neighbour - until the Elephants qualified last year for the 2006 World Cup.

"Everyone was exultant. Oulai ran into my house and he yelled 'We won!' We spoke for the first time since the war began, thanks to the Elephants," Kone says.-

How's that for maudlin, heart-string manipulating, treacle? And as united as people might be behind their Elephants, I bet you wouldn't want to be in Abidjan if you were from Sudan or Cameroon. Still, sometimes, this is what I'm looking for-

Just those moments.

Russ Feingold Is Gay!

WASHINGTON - A Senate committee approved a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage Thursday, after a shouting match that ended when one Democrat strode out and the Republican chairman bid him "good riddance."

AP Yahoo News

Oh he's not really gay, but he and Arlen Specter had a bit of a spat.

What a day to get a late start at the computer. Russ Feingold harumphed out of a Judiciary committee meeting this morning after a catty give and get with Chairman Arlen Specter.

Arlen Specter requested that the vote take place in the President's room where public access is limited. Though Specter "totally opposes" the amendment, he voted "yes" to give it to the Senate where it will be passed around and likely voted down.

So almost like clockwork, and strangely enough, coinciding with Congressional races, every second Spring we hear about flag burning and gay marriage. Bills or proposed amendments go through the House and are defeated by the Senate (even a Republican controlled Senate).

I wonder what that's all about.

Of Course, Subtitles Help

Heaven's Porch

Anyone care to join me for a trip to paradise in a space ship behind a comet... Anyone... no... no takers? Are you sure? We could all shave our heads and add -ody to our names.
Oh right, we mutilate our genitals and we kill ourselves too? Who's with me? Still no one?
Okay- your loss.
Still, while the comet's here you should get some binoculars or a telescope and check it out. Finder charts are here.
But if anyone changes their mind let me know. I don't want to go by myself, but if someone wants to come along I got plenty of vodka, you bring the phenobarbital.

Oh Right, The Daily Feingold

Senator Russ Feingold is going to Seattle. If you're in Seattle this Saturday you can attend a rally with US Senator Russ Feingold and your favorite King County elected officials. And while you're there, get your tickets for INXS, part of the Marymoor concert series. Even though you missed Natural Yard Days bring some organic fertilizer or homemade compost.

I don't live in King County, Washington, but I do have a favorite official (though he's not elected). Meet David Spohr, the new Rural Ombudsman for King County. Don't let the defeated look and stack of paperwork fool you. Rural communities now have an advocate who can ‘speak their language’ when it comes to the issue of property rights. But don't take my word for it. Employment Committee Vice-Chair, Larry Gossett, says, "Rural communities now have an advocate who can speak their language when it comes to the issue of property rights."

"Land use disputes will always be contentious, but if you have the right person who is qualified, credible, and knowledgeable, we can make the process less abrasive and more productive.” "Less abrasive?" Well said, David.

I'm Singing, I'm In a Store and I'm Siiiiingiiiiing

My dog woke me up very early this morning and I couldn't fall back asleep. It was the early morning before the freeway din becomes a roar and I heard something I don't ever recall hearing before: roaring birds. The cacophony of tweets, chirps, whistles, and peeps stood out in the gray like a high pitched overwhelming static.

Other than to say it was loud, I don't think we have the words to describe birds being this rowdy. Birds sing, or warble, or trill. They don't holler, and shout, and whoop it up. Well, they really don't do any of those things, they just make sounds of varying tone and complexity. I guess you can take issue with that, you can call it singing, we do call it singing, but it's not the singing humans do. (Unless of course you consider that boys join bands to get girls in much the same way birds might sing to get a mate). It's not even called singing by everyone- some cultures say birds cry. How sad. Anyway, we say birds sing, but calling it singing limits my ability to describe what the birds were doing this morning: screaming, yelling.

It sounds strange to say birds yell. The image of birds tearing into town on horses shooting their guns in the air, as soccer hooligans chanting at their opponents, or as a NBA coach on the verge of stroke is odd but it shouldn't be. Or perhaps it should, but other anthropomorphized ideas of birds should seem just as strange. A bird as a soprano is just like a bird as an olympic powerlifter.

I don't know what we gain or miss by saying birds sing, other than we have a way of talking about birds but our way limits what we might say about birds. We gotta say they do something- I guess.

It's early, so maybe I don't want to be all preachy about my anthropomorphized ideas of God. They're there too though, with the same possibilities and limits.