England In October

It's easy to fall into the trap of being a constant complainer here in England. Part of the English culture is to gripe and moan about how miserable things are all the time. The Brit's favourite topic for whinging is the weather. Invariably, when someone finds out that I have moved from America, one of the first questions asked is how do I find the English weather. The question is asked with a certain amount of restrained pleasure, the questioner anticipating the complaint-fest that is about to ensue. What people in England don't seem to realize is that the weather is not perfect everywhere in America. I lived for many years in the Pacific Northwest where it rains all the time. I lived in Iowa where the winters are unbearably cold, and in Salt Lake City where the summers are unbearably hot.

So in an effort to fight the rampant English pessimism, I want to talk about how beautiful it is in England in October. The temperatures have been extremely mild. I haven’t really needed a coat at all. We have had gentle rain on and off, enough to keep things crisp, clean, and green. The smell of smoke from fireplaces occasionally fills the air. The trees are slowly starting to change colour; unlike the trees in Salt Lake City that seem to instantly change colour after having their leaves burned off by the summer sun.

We live in a little country village and although it can be a bit dull at times, it has the distinct advantage of being in the middle of the beautiful English countryside. This is the landscape that inspired much of Tolkien's “Lord of the Rings”. I just finished reading Kenneth Grahame's “Wind in the Willows”. This turned out to be much more than a silly kid's story about a toad driving a car (I had seen the cartoon as a child). It is a beautifully written story, filled with magical little vignettes about the English countryside and the wildlife that inhabits it.

A couple of weekends ago I took a long walk with the dogs to Kingsford Forest Park, which is just a couple of miles from our house. I took the camera along with me and tried to capture some of the beauty that constantly surrounds me here. The pictures are linked to my picture website, so you can see more by clicking on any one of them.

A message from Shane...

"God is infinitely more concerned about who you're becoming than what you're doing"

amen


JE

Paradigm

Definitions of paradigm on the Web:

An example or pattern, especially an outstandingly clear or typical example or archetype.
www.sei.cmu.edu/opensystems/glossary.html

A "view" of how things work in the world. In Risk Scenarios or Threat Scenarios, paradigms are used to set the basic rules of how the world works so that the solutions can be set within some boundaries.
www.mc2consulting.com/riskdef.htm

From the Greek word paradhma (paradigma), the term paradigm was introduced into science and philosophy by Thomas Kuhn in his landmark book The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (1962). Essentially, a paradigm is simply the predominant worldview in the realm of human thought. For instance, today we would say that we live within an evolutionary paradigm since evolution is the predominant worldview regarding origins.
www.apologetics.org/glossary.html

"A paradigm is a set of rules and regulations (written or unwritten) that does two things: 1) it establishes or defines boundaries; and 2) it tells you how to behave inside the boundaries in order to be successful". (Joel Arthur Barker) "A shared set of assumptions. The paradigm is the way we perceive the world; water to the fish. The paradigm explains the world to us and helps us to predict its behavior.
www.miqel.com/text/twholedefs.html

an example or pattern that exists as the prevailing principle for a school of thought.
www.woodrow.org/teachers/esi/1998/r/health/glossary.htm

The most commonly accepted definition of paradigm is that of Thomas Kuhn who describes a paradigm as the set of common beliefs and agreements shared between scientists about how problems should be understood and addressed [Kuhn, 1962].
http://www.iua.upf.es/~xamat/Thesis/html/node2.html

The recipe or model that links the elements of a theory together and shows, where possible, the nature of the relationships.
http://www.lhfm.salford.ac.uk/students/Stratman/glossary_ntor.htm

is a conceptual model that is used to communicate descriptions of the component parts of a theory, a policy, a belief system or a worldview and how they interact and are interrelated.
http://www.greeleynet.com/~cnotess/gloss.htm

a system of scientific interpretation which is embedded in a cultural worldview and implicitly favors certain ways of carrying out and evaluating scientific research.
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Troy/1895/Glossary.html

(Excerpts from a recent conversation I had with my parents)
We each have our own paradigm. It causes us to react in different ways to different ideas. If an idea, concept or belief fits our paradigm, we take it in, accept it as truth and use it to reinforce our beliefs. If it is something that challenges our paradigm, or makes us uncomfortable, we quickly dismiss it or set it aside as untrue. The geniuses and exceptional people are able to take in different ideas equally, whether or not they fit in with their existing paradigm. In doing so, they are able to learn and grow from things that would have automatically been dismissed. At the same time, they are able to challenge things that would have automatically been accepted as truth.

How is your paradigm shaping the way you see the world?

How do you react when you hear something that challenges your worldview??

How do you achieve a balance between believing in something and still being able to challenge those beliefs???

JE

JBL LSR4300

When I lived in Salt Lake, I was working for the speaker company JBL Professional. The last project that I was working on before I moved to England was the LSR4300 digital studio monitor. The "studio monitor" became a forbidden topic in our house because I chose to stay and work on that project rather than accept a job in Belgium designing the sound systems for Philips television sets (as you might imagine, Heather was more than a little disappointed when I chose to stay in SLC). A couple of years later, when the opportunity to come and work for a very well known pro audio company in England came up, it was time to move on. It seemed at the time that the studio monitor project was very close to completion, but now, over a year after I left, it has finally been released. It is very exciting to see something that I put so much time and effort into finally out in the world. Hopefully, it will do really well...

The Buddha

Last week, Heather brought this little guy home from work with her. As many of you know, Heather is currently working in a charity shop (a thrift store of sorts where all of the proceeds go to a charity, in this case, the British Heart Foundation). As you might imagine, this leads to her bringing home all kinds of unusual things.

I immediately liked the little effigy, with his big smile and even bigger round belly, but at the same time I was not sure I wanted this "graven image" in my house. But rather than follow my knee-jerk reaction to throw him out as an idol, I decided to look into what the figure represented and then decide if it would be "inappropriate" for it to be displayed in my house.

I assumed he was a "Buddha" (which isn't exactly true); so I started by doing a little reading about Buddhism. I have to admit my ignorance on this topic because up until now I have never read anything about Buddhism. I know I can't get a full understanding of an ancient religion by reading a couple of articles, but I wanted to get a feel for where it came from and what the major tenents of the faith are. I won't go into everything that I learned, but I now feel I could carry on a half way intelligent conversation about spirituality with a Buddhist. I found this article to be quite informative.

Of course I found Buddhism to be very different from Christianity in many important ways, but at the same time, they have a moral framework very much like "the ten commandments" that they try to follow to help the achieve enlightenment. In short, I found nothing so offensive about their beliefs that I would deny the buddha a place in my house.

I have other objects that represent different faiths (African masks, a carved didgeridoo, Egyptian cats) and I enjoy looking at all of them. Obviously, the objects hold no power in themselves, and I believe that my household is dedicated to and blessed by God, so I certainly don't fear any evil spirits that may have been lurking within.

My research led me to another interesting find. The obese "laughing Buddha" originated in China, and is actually an image of Hotei, a Bhuddhist monk, not an actual Buddha himself. As I already knew, his image represents happiness and plentitude. In Chinese culture, people will jokingly blame Hotei's influence for eating or drinking too much, so in that respect, Hotei will fit in nicely in our household.

So for now, Hotei is sitting under the Jade plant in the bathroom, smiling happily at me whenever I sit on the toilet.

Just out of curiosity, does anybody else have a Buddha (or Hotei) in their house? Would any of you refuse to have one in your house?

JE