Morgan Bolt's Blog, page 4
November 10, 2017
Roy Moore is Just a Reboot
Everything about this Roy Moore situation is unsurprising. This already happened when the Access Hollywood tape of Trump bragging about committing sexual assault came out and millions said “gosh darn that’s disturbing if true” and then elected the man President of the United States. The same principle is still at work today, and while it’s manifesting itself to increasingly disturbing extents, it isn’t anything novel. It’s just a sad reboot of a terrible original.
So when I hear someone say that Mary was a teenager while Joseph was probably in his 30s, and they were parents to Jesus so what Roy Moore did might not be all that bad, it isn’t shocking. When I see someone on twitter write that a pedophile is still better than any democrat, I check that it’s a real person but it doesn’t surprise me when it turns out they are. This is the world today. Actually, this is the world as it’s always been, laid bare for all to see.
Part of me misses last year when everyone at least pretended to be morally opposed to sexual assault. But most of me considers this part of a necessary growing process. We’re better off realizing that some people will justify or willfully ignore literally anything for the sake of political power.
We’re also better off now that many people can no longer pretend their homophobia and opposition to marriage equality has anything to do with sexual morality. We’re better off now that fewer people can act like their opposition to trans people using the correct bathroom has anything to do with protecting children from sexual assault. People still will, of course, but they have no pretense of a platform anymore.
Yes, it’s extremely disturbing that so many people are defending Roy Moore. But it really isn’t anything new, and it’ll leave us better off in the long run. Take heart.
So when I hear someone say that Mary was a teenager while Joseph was probably in his 30s, and they were parents to Jesus so what Roy Moore did might not be all that bad, it isn’t shocking. When I see someone on twitter write that a pedophile is still better than any democrat, I check that it’s a real person but it doesn’t surprise me when it turns out they are. This is the world today. Actually, this is the world as it’s always been, laid bare for all to see.
Part of me misses last year when everyone at least pretended to be morally opposed to sexual assault. But most of me considers this part of a necessary growing process. We’re better off realizing that some people will justify or willfully ignore literally anything for the sake of political power.
We’re also better off now that many people can no longer pretend their homophobia and opposition to marriage equality has anything to do with sexual morality. We’re better off now that fewer people can act like their opposition to trans people using the correct bathroom has anything to do with protecting children from sexual assault. People still will, of course, but they have no pretense of a platform anymore.
Yes, it’s extremely disturbing that so many people are defending Roy Moore. But it really isn’t anything new, and it’ll leave us better off in the long run. Take heart.
November 7, 2017
Concerning Thoughts and Prayers
I really, truly hate that the subject of ‘thoughts and prayers’ gains relevance so frequently. Those words have become part of a bleak ritual in America, a liturgical cycle of sorts. Monthly or weekly another batch of lives are taken by largely-preventable instances of gun violence, and monthly or weekly we hold vigils by candlelight, use hashtags of yet another town’s name followed by the word ‘strong,’ and pause for a moment of silence at sporting events. And then we move on, until the next round.
Always in this ritual thoughts and prayers are offered to the survivors, those who must forever live haunted by memories of horrific violence and loved ones senselessly lost. And every time, thoughts and prayers are offered as a rote response unaccompanied by any meaningful actions. It reminds me of James 2:16 and it breaks my heart.
It reminds me of my own cancer as well. My cancer won’t disappear because people are mindful of my disease. My tumors won’t shrink with prayer alone, should I choose to forgo treatment. Please do remember me and pray for me, but also understand that I have needed every kind of treatment available to keep my disease minimized, including treatments still being tested. Understand that I’d much rather be treated by an atheist willing to try some surgery or new drug than a Christian who offers prayer as the only course of treatment. And if you’re in a position to influence our laws and regulations, think and pray about the actions you can take to reduce gun violence. Think and pray about what you might do for those who will otherwise be victims of tomorrow’s shooting.
Always in this ritual thoughts and prayers are offered to the survivors, those who must forever live haunted by memories of horrific violence and loved ones senselessly lost. And every time, thoughts and prayers are offered as a rote response unaccompanied by any meaningful actions. It reminds me of James 2:16 and it breaks my heart.
It reminds me of my own cancer as well. My cancer won’t disappear because people are mindful of my disease. My tumors won’t shrink with prayer alone, should I choose to forgo treatment. Please do remember me and pray for me, but also understand that I have needed every kind of treatment available to keep my disease minimized, including treatments still being tested. Understand that I’d much rather be treated by an atheist willing to try some surgery or new drug than a Christian who offers prayer as the only course of treatment. And if you’re in a position to influence our laws and regulations, think and pray about the actions you can take to reduce gun violence. Think and pray about what you might do for those who will otherwise be victims of tomorrow’s shooting.
November 2, 2017
NaNoWriMo Plans
It's November, or National Novel Writing Month. For the first time ever I'm going to participate! At least, I'm going to publicly state my writing goals and post updates and hope that keeps me on track. So, I'm hoping to get the second book in the Legacy of Rythka series done by the end of the month! Well, a first draft, that is. I have about 37,000 words to go, plus a decent amount of rewriting for the first half of the book which I already have done. I'll also work some on The Sundering of Rythka and Other Tales, a history of the world of Rythka in a similar style to Tolkien's Silmarillion. I plan to post daily updates of my word count on my twitter, and I'll update regularly here too.
October 31, 2017
Road Trip! Part 2/?
After Custer State Park, our next stop was Devil's Tower in Wyoming. Called Bear's Lodge or Bear's Tipi by local indigenous people groups this was I think the most interesting and one-of-a-kind geological feature of our trip. The rain stopped and the lowest clouds departed right as we arrived at Devil's Tower, so we were able to see it clearly,which we appreciated.
Next came Yellowstone, perhaps the best stop on our whole trip. Just outside the park's east entrance we saw a picture-perfect moose feeding in a pond, and for a brief moment that I managed to capture on camera, it was joined by its calf. The next few days in the park brought us up close to more bison and elk than we could count. The elk--which were still riled up for the fall rut--were especially neat, bugling often and in general being more active than the bison. We did get to drive in the midst of a couple different bison herds as they ran along the road, so it's not like they were boring or anything, but we just enjoyed the elk more, for whatever reason.
The geysers, mud pots, and hot springs are cool too of course. We were more interested in wildlife so we only did a couple short hikes at the various geyser basins, though we did get to visit all the main highlights. I enjoyed seeing all the geothermal features in much colder weather, with far more steam than you get in the summertime. Grand Prismatic Springs was all but invisible, shrouded in its own steam. At times it washed over us in pleasant, warm waves, a stark contrast to the rest of our time there, which scarcely creeped above freezing temperatures. The forest of Fellwood in Rythka is set in a caldera, and while we were in Yellowstone I figured out a couple scenes that will take place later in the Legacy of Rythka series that will incorporate geothermal features.
Two main highlights stand out from Yellowstone--eagles and wolves. Our first evening in the park I spotted two eagles swooping low over the Yellowstone River, and then noticed they were harassing a duck in the middle of the water. After several unsuccessful attempts to catch the duck, which dove under the surface with every low pass from the eagles, the pair of predators eventually caught the duck and carried it off to eat elsewhere. Having never personally seen a bald eagle catch anything before, and given that they largely eat fish, this was a pretty spectacular sequence of events, especially for a raptor enthusiast like myself.
The wolves were a little less impressive, being perhaps a mile off on a snowbank of blinding white with a heat shimmer distorting the view through the binoculars, but two different people confirmed that the specs in the distance were in fact wolves. Like, real live wild wolves.
More later...
Next came Yellowstone, perhaps the best stop on our whole trip. Just outside the park's east entrance we saw a picture-perfect moose feeding in a pond, and for a brief moment that I managed to capture on camera, it was joined by its calf. The next few days in the park brought us up close to more bison and elk than we could count. The elk--which were still riled up for the fall rut--were especially neat, bugling often and in general being more active than the bison. We did get to drive in the midst of a couple different bison herds as they ran along the road, so it's not like they were boring or anything, but we just enjoyed the elk more, for whatever reason.
The geysers, mud pots, and hot springs are cool too of course. We were more interested in wildlife so we only did a couple short hikes at the various geyser basins, though we did get to visit all the main highlights. I enjoyed seeing all the geothermal features in much colder weather, with far more steam than you get in the summertime. Grand Prismatic Springs was all but invisible, shrouded in its own steam. At times it washed over us in pleasant, warm waves, a stark contrast to the rest of our time there, which scarcely creeped above freezing temperatures. The forest of Fellwood in Rythka is set in a caldera, and while we were in Yellowstone I figured out a couple scenes that will take place later in the Legacy of Rythka series that will incorporate geothermal features.
Two main highlights stand out from Yellowstone--eagles and wolves. Our first evening in the park I spotted two eagles swooping low over the Yellowstone River, and then noticed they were harassing a duck in the middle of the water. After several unsuccessful attempts to catch the duck, which dove under the surface with every low pass from the eagles, the pair of predators eventually caught the duck and carried it off to eat elsewhere. Having never personally seen a bald eagle catch anything before, and given that they largely eat fish, this was a pretty spectacular sequence of events, especially for a raptor enthusiast like myself.
The wolves were a little less impressive, being perhaps a mile off on a snowbank of blinding white with a heat shimmer distorting the view through the binoculars, but two different people confirmed that the specs in the distance were in fact wolves. Like, real live wild wolves.
More later...
October 24, 2017
Road Trip! An Update, Part 1/?
We've had much less consistent internet access than anticipated, and I've greatly enjoyed being disconnected from the rest of the world, but I apologize nonetheless for the lack of posts here lately. On the whole this has been a wonderful trip and a great time for Christina and I to be away from hospitals and all that cancer involves. We're in the Denver area now and won't be home for about a week or so yet but we also won't be in any remote areas from here on out so this seems like a good time to catch people up in where we've been and what we've done.
The first couple days were pretty straightforward, driving through the Midwest to get to our first destination. We made the requisite stops at Culver's of course, and we went for a brief hike in a state park in the Wisconsin Dells, but there's not a lot else to report, other than we discovered our dog has grown considerably since we last stayed in a tent with him, and we realized we needed to upgrade to a bigger one. Oh, and we forgot several items of clothing we had been counting on, as well as our folding camp chairs. It was a bit of a comedy of errors at first. But at least it was a comedy!
Soon we reached our first national park, Badlands in South Dakota. I'd been there several years ago and the place helped inspire the Ramshead Plains region of Rythka, so it was especially great to experience the unique area again and imagine new ways to discribe it in my writing. More than one prominent character will spend time in the Ramshead Plains in the Legacy of Rythka series, and multiple Verten hideouts exist in the narrow ravines there, but I'll say no more so I don't spoil anything. One change I did notice was the explosion in the prairie dog population. Over a mile of the scenic drive we did there bordered a single prairie dog colony, and it seemed they'd become somewhat of a nuisance within the park..
After a stop at Wall Drug for free ice water, we headed on to the Black Hills. Mount Rushmore was busy and not as pretty as the rest of the region, so we didn't spend long there. We really enjoyed Custer State Park though, camping for a night before the snow moved into the area. On the Needles Highway we saw some mountain goats in the distance perched somehow on a cliff face, along with our first bison in a meadow.
I'm writing this on my phone so I'll edit this later to catch typos and add pictures when I have a chance to get out the laptop, but I wanted to get a start on recounting our trip here. A huge thank you to everyone who donated to us so we were able to enjoy his much-needed time on the road together.
More updates later....
The first couple days were pretty straightforward, driving through the Midwest to get to our first destination. We made the requisite stops at Culver's of course, and we went for a brief hike in a state park in the Wisconsin Dells, but there's not a lot else to report, other than we discovered our dog has grown considerably since we last stayed in a tent with him, and we realized we needed to upgrade to a bigger one. Oh, and we forgot several items of clothing we had been counting on, as well as our folding camp chairs. It was a bit of a comedy of errors at first. But at least it was a comedy!
Soon we reached our first national park, Badlands in South Dakota. I'd been there several years ago and the place helped inspire the Ramshead Plains region of Rythka, so it was especially great to experience the unique area again and imagine new ways to discribe it in my writing. More than one prominent character will spend time in the Ramshead Plains in the Legacy of Rythka series, and multiple Verten hideouts exist in the narrow ravines there, but I'll say no more so I don't spoil anything. One change I did notice was the explosion in the prairie dog population. Over a mile of the scenic drive we did there bordered a single prairie dog colony, and it seemed they'd become somewhat of a nuisance within the park..
After a stop at Wall Drug for free ice water, we headed on to the Black Hills. Mount Rushmore was busy and not as pretty as the rest of the region, so we didn't spend long there. We really enjoyed Custer State Park though, camping for a night before the snow moved into the area. On the Needles Highway we saw some mountain goats in the distance perched somehow on a cliff face, along with our first bison in a meadow.
I'm writing this on my phone so I'll edit this later to catch typos and add pictures when I have a chance to get out the laptop, but I wanted to get a start on recounting our trip here. A huge thank you to everyone who donated to us so we were able to enjoy his much-needed time on the road together.
More updates later....
Road Trip! An Update
We've had much less consistent internet access than anticipated, and I've greatly enjoyed being disconnected from the rest of the world, but I apologize nonetheless for the lack of posts here lately. On the whole this has been a wonderful trip and a great time for Christina and I to be away from hospitals and all that cancer involves. We're in the Denver area now and won't be home for about a week or so yet but we also won't be in any remote areas from here on out so this seems like a good time to catch people up in where we've been and what we've done.
The first couple days were pretty straightforward, driving through the Midwest to get to our first destination. We made the requisite stops at Culver's of course, and we went for a brief hike in a state park in the Wisconsin Dells, but there's not a lot else to report, other than we discovered our dog has grown considerably since we last stayed in a tent with him, and we realized we needed to upgrade to a bigger one. Oh, and we forgot several items of clothing we had been counting on, as well as our folding camp chairs. It was a bit of a comedy of errors at first. But at least it was a comedy!
Soon we reached our first national park, Badlands in South Dakota. I'd been there several years ago and the place helped inspire the Ramshead Plains region of Rythka, so it was especially great to experience the unique area again and imagine new ways to discribe it in my writing. More than one prominent character will spend time in the Ramshead Plains in the Legacy of Rythka series, and multiple Verten hideouts exist in the narrow ravines there, but I'll say no more so I don't spoil anything. One change I did notice was the explosion in the prairie dog population. Over a mile of the scenic drive we did there bordered a single prairie dog colony, and it seemed they'd become somewhat of a nuisance within the park..
After a stop at Wall Drug for free ice water, we headed on to the Black Hills. Mount Rushmore was busy and not as pretty as the rest of the region, so we didn't spend long there. We really enjoyed Custer State Park though, camping for a night before the snow moved into the area. On the Needles Highway we saw some mountain goats in the distance perched somehow on a cliff face, along with our first bison in a meadow.
I'm writing this on my phone so I'll edit this later to catch typos and add pictures when I have a chance to get out the laptop, but I wanted to get a start on recounting our trip here. A huge thank you to everyone who donated to us so we were able to enjoy his much-needed time on the road together.
More updates later....
The first couple days were pretty straightforward, driving through the Midwest to get to our first destination. We made the requisite stops at Culver's of course, and we went for a brief hike in a state park in the Wisconsin Dells, but there's not a lot else to report, other than we discovered our dog has grown considerably since we last stayed in a tent with him, and we realized we needed to upgrade to a bigger one. Oh, and we forgot several items of clothing we had been counting on, as well as our folding camp chairs. It was a bit of a comedy of errors at first. But at least it was a comedy!
Soon we reached our first national park, Badlands in South Dakota. I'd been there several years ago and the place helped inspire the Ramshead Plains region of Rythka, so it was especially great to experience the unique area again and imagine new ways to discribe it in my writing. More than one prominent character will spend time in the Ramshead Plains in the Legacy of Rythka series, and multiple Verten hideouts exist in the narrow ravines there, but I'll say no more so I don't spoil anything. One change I did notice was the explosion in the prairie dog population. Over a mile of the scenic drive we did there bordered a single prairie dog colony, and it seemed they'd become somewhat of a nuisance within the park..
After a stop at Wall Drug for free ice water, we headed on to the Black Hills. Mount Rushmore was busy and not as pretty as the rest of the region, so we didn't spend long there. We really enjoyed Custer State Park though, camping for a night before the snow moved into the area. On the Needles Highway we saw some mountain goats in the distance perched somehow on a cliff face, along with our first bison in a meadow.
I'm writing this on my phone so I'll edit this later to catch typos and add pictures when I have a chance to get out the laptop, but I wanted to get a start on recounting our trip here. A huge thank you to everyone who donated to us so we were able to enjoy his much-needed time on the road together.
More updates later....
October 2, 2017
Road Trip!
I seem to be staying free of side-effects from the clinical trial I started last week, so we’re going to make the most of this break from chemo and take a road trip! We’ll be spending time in Yellowstone and Arches national parks for sure, and we’ll see what else time, energy, and weather permits—the “plan” is to also see Badlands National Park and Mt Rushmore, Devil’s Tower, Zion, Bryce Canyon, and Rocky Mountain National Park. Maybe more, maybe less. I’ll post here every so often with updates of what we’re doing. We leave Wednesday!
September 18, 2017
Not Another Attempted ACA Repeal...
Apparently there's another Affordable Care Act repeal in the works, one that will send premiums for cancer like mine to somewhere north of $140,000 a year.
If that's doing justice, loving mercy, and having compassion for the sick and needy per Matthew 25, I want nothing to do with such things.
If that's doing justice, loving mercy, and having compassion for the sick and needy per Matthew 25, I want nothing to do with such things.
September 15, 2017
My Cancer Didn't Happen for a Reason
I recently wrote a post entitled "My Cancer Didn't Happen for a Reason" for the Patheos Unfundamentalist Christian blog. You can read it here.
September 11, 2017
Amoral Disasters
Humans seem to almost universally ask “why?” in the face of disasters. When wildfires, earthquakes, and hurricanes strike, especially all in the same week, explanations and scapegoating grow rampant. People of all sorts blame one factor or another for such events, and all too often these analyses ascribe morals—or a perceived lack thereof—as the driving forces behind them. I think that’s ridiculous.
Let me back up here first. It’s fine to ask why a particular disaster occurred and examine the reasons behind it. Sometimes there are pretty clear causes for disasters, or at least factors that contribute to the severity of their effects on people.
Sometimes a wildfire is started by a person, intentionally or accidentally. That’s worth knowing and learning from so we can more effectively work to prevent such occurrences in the future. Sometimes an earthquake brings far greater destruction than it would in another area, due to substandard building codes and materials available. That’s worth considering as we rebuild with an eye for mitigating future destruction. Sometimes flooding is made worse by poor planning and overdevelopment of low-lying swampland. That’s worth examining as we reconstruct after a hurricane, or perhaps choose not to in some areas.
After all, when most of us ask why a particular terrible event transpired, we don’t actually want to know the reason for it as much as we want to know what to do about it. We want to know if there’s any action we can take to prevent or minimize future iterations of such disasters. And that’s wise. We need to take seriously the anthropogenic factors like climate change and insufficient emergency preparedness measures that make natural disasters worse. We would be foolish not to.
At the same time though it strikes me as extremely unwise to ascribe moral causes to natural disasters or anything else that is part of the natural, dynamic systems at play in this world. When we look for sources of the events that bring suffering into our lives, too often we hear that everything happens for a reason, that God has some greater purpose for allowing or even causing painful events to unfold. I believe such thinking is utterly false.
Natural events like wildfires, earthquakes, hurricanes, or cancer simply define the extremes of different dynamic systems working in God’s world. We could argue about whether or not they are a result of sin in general corrupting the systems God created, throwing them out of balance and allowing for greater extremes than God originally intended, but that’s incidental to my point here. Either way, hurricanes are a part of the ever-changing weather systems currently at work on this planet. Either way, cancer is just an extreme manifestation of DNA mutation and cell division, both of which are good and necessary for adaptation, growth, and healing. To say that any natural process somehow responds to the morality of the people they affect is patently absurd.
It’s true that human actions can influence the effects of events like wildfires, earthquakes, hurricanes, and even cancer. How and where we build or the amount of carcinogens we expose ourselves to can certainly impact these things and reduce or exacerbate the suffering they can cause. But at the same time, no amount of preparedness can entirely eliminate the possibility that these things will still cause human suffering. Natural processes are by definition beyond human control. They don’t respond to our actions. They just happen, and our morals have nothing to do with them.
Let me back up here first. It’s fine to ask why a particular disaster occurred and examine the reasons behind it. Sometimes there are pretty clear causes for disasters, or at least factors that contribute to the severity of their effects on people.
Sometimes a wildfire is started by a person, intentionally or accidentally. That’s worth knowing and learning from so we can more effectively work to prevent such occurrences in the future. Sometimes an earthquake brings far greater destruction than it would in another area, due to substandard building codes and materials available. That’s worth considering as we rebuild with an eye for mitigating future destruction. Sometimes flooding is made worse by poor planning and overdevelopment of low-lying swampland. That’s worth examining as we reconstruct after a hurricane, or perhaps choose not to in some areas.
After all, when most of us ask why a particular terrible event transpired, we don’t actually want to know the reason for it as much as we want to know what to do about it. We want to know if there’s any action we can take to prevent or minimize future iterations of such disasters. And that’s wise. We need to take seriously the anthropogenic factors like climate change and insufficient emergency preparedness measures that make natural disasters worse. We would be foolish not to.
At the same time though it strikes me as extremely unwise to ascribe moral causes to natural disasters or anything else that is part of the natural, dynamic systems at play in this world. When we look for sources of the events that bring suffering into our lives, too often we hear that everything happens for a reason, that God has some greater purpose for allowing or even causing painful events to unfold. I believe such thinking is utterly false.
Natural events like wildfires, earthquakes, hurricanes, or cancer simply define the extremes of different dynamic systems working in God’s world. We could argue about whether or not they are a result of sin in general corrupting the systems God created, throwing them out of balance and allowing for greater extremes than God originally intended, but that’s incidental to my point here. Either way, hurricanes are a part of the ever-changing weather systems currently at work on this planet. Either way, cancer is just an extreme manifestation of DNA mutation and cell division, both of which are good and necessary for adaptation, growth, and healing. To say that any natural process somehow responds to the morality of the people they affect is patently absurd.
It’s true that human actions can influence the effects of events like wildfires, earthquakes, hurricanes, and even cancer. How and where we build or the amount of carcinogens we expose ourselves to can certainly impact these things and reduce or exacerbate the suffering they can cause. But at the same time, no amount of preparedness can entirely eliminate the possibility that these things will still cause human suffering. Natural processes are by definition beyond human control. They don’t respond to our actions. They just happen, and our morals have nothing to do with them.
