Baptist Birthday Club 1950

As I was rummaging around through my 94-year-old mother’s boxes of paper stuff from years ago, I found a 1950 yearbook of the “Double Octet Anniversary Club.” My mother was secretary of the Baptist Birthday Club during the early 1990s, and someone sent this 1950 yearbook to them.

Some of the Club’s “By Laws” are rules we all might consider following:

1. That we elect our members by secret ballot, and it must be unanimous.

2. The members are to be Baptist.  

3. That we either elect new members or change the name of the club.

4. That we always bring some change to do our part on any expense we might have. Be prepared to pay our part on the meal or to help with flowers or any other expense of the club.

5. That during these high prices, the ones helping on the meat pay sixty cents.

6. The club meet at the time most convenient for the hostess. Noon meal or evening meal. Any day of the week.

7. That club members be considerate of the hostess and not plan to attend other things soon after the meal. Also the hostess notify members four days ahead, if possible.

8. That the hostess may invite as many guests a she likes if she herself prepares the extra dishes needed for the meal.

9. That we have a social hour after the business meeting with some planned entertainment.

10. That the dishes be left alone during the club meeting and each one take her dish home dirty.

11. When we receive a new member the Secretary read the By Laws.

12. That we give a birthday gift each time, and every one contribute ten cents.

13. That the Secretary or reporter not report the resignation of members.

I believe they tried to be considerate and respectful of each person’s feelings, a thing that is missing in many settings today.  I like the rule about contributing sixty cents for meat; would that meat cost so little now! 

But especially appealing is the idea of leaving dirty dishes alone.  

*I borrowed the picture from www.simihistory.com.   

Baptist Birthday Club 1950

https://connectionsgodandtheworld.blogspot.com/2011/02/baptist-birthday-club-1950.html

Consequences

We tell our children over and over about consequences.

In Texas public schools, the ZAP rule exists. “ZAP” is an acronym that stands for “Zeroes Aren’t Permitted.” What happens is that if a child fails to do an assignment, somebody grabs her by the hand and drags her along, standing over her until she has the dreaded assignment finished.

Thus, she never has to suffer the consequences of not doing an assignment. If she doesn’t do the work or learn the lesson, then, she is not hurt by her lack of action. She knows it will be taken care of by some caring aide or teacher; she will have to suffer through some lecturing advice and maybe some threats.

The concept of “consequences,” then, has little meaning for her. If you take a look at quite a number of things in our culture, you can see the same process going on. Some consequences of bad choices are very serious and nasty.

My friend the speech prof and I (the English prof) decided that in our college classes, we also have a ZAP rule:

“Zeroes ARE Permitted.”

We believe in letting students learn through their mistakes because we care deeply about them; truly experiencing consequences is the only real way people learn. Humans by nature are stubborn, hard-headed, independent creatures who believe they know best, whatever the situation.

Consequences

https://connectionsgodandtheworld.blogspot.com/2009/09/consequences.html

O Brave New Second Life

I have recently discovered another life—Second Life. It is very interesting—one of those things that make you want to say “Hmmmm.”

My first reaction was to make this pronouncement:

People who spend hours living virtual lives must have great need in their real lives. The virtual life—let’s face it—is not real life.

I am afraid that the virtual life is addictive. I think people who get into it in a big way become so hooked on it that to them, it is more real than real life. This view is opposed by James H. Burnett, III, whose article “More real people are living virtual lives,” states “. . . even though a meaningful virtual-world life requires a lot of time, (MIT professor Beth) Coleman says she doesn't believe it carries the addiction danger of virtual multiplayer games, because simply living online isn't competitive.”

I beg to differ. It may not be competitive in the gaming sense. But it seems very competitive with real life, real relationships. In real life, we must deal with pain every day—physical pain, hurt feelings, fear, disappointment, rejection.

Burnett goes on to say, ''But the trend has been toward more realistic representations . . . because more people are now trying to escape not who they are -- what they look like, I mean -- but where they spend their time.''

Au contraire. In Second Life, you create yourself—a slender, beautiful, young self; who would want to create an avatar that looks exactly like you when you could so easily fix up all your physical disadvantages? You would make a new identity, complete with a new name, and be whoever you wanted to be. Of course. That’s what I would do.

Then you go about building “relationships” with other “people.” And, as Burnett points out, “Twenty-two percent of Second Lifers polled by GMI said they had more virtual-world than real-world friends, and 29 percent said their virtual lives interfered with their real lives.”

On the other hand, there is my friend Laura, who introduced me to Second Life. She is handicapped and must spend most of her time at home. When I voiced my concerns to her, she said, “But think about this. In Second Life, I can walk fast. I can go wherever I want to and talk to as many people as I want to. I can fly. It’s wonderful.” I can understand that.

This strange new world is catching on in a mammoth way; over six million people “inhabit” it. It is growing businesses, clubs, colleges and universities. All those “people” are really just as needy as real people--after all, real people create them. Jesus said we must take the good news of God’s love to the whole world, and I guess that now also includes the virtual part of the world. My friend Laura is doing what she can about that. She has recently “built” a Methodist mission, where over three hundred people have visited and many have dropped “cards” into her “God Box” requesting prayer.

I am reminded of Aldous Huxley’s 1932 novel Brave New World, described in this linked article:

“The world it describes could also be a utopia, albeit an ironic one: humanity is carefree, healthy and technologically advanced. Warfare and poverty have been eliminated and everyone is permanently happy. The irony is that all of these things have been achieved by eliminating many things from which people currently derive happiness—family, cultural diversity, art, literature, science, religion, and philosophy. It is also a hedonistic society, deriving pleasure from promiscuous sex and drug use, especially the use of soma, a powerful stimulant taken to escape pain and bad memories through hallucinatory fantasies.

“. . . The ironic title comes from Miranda's speech in Shakespeare's The Tempest, Act V, Scene I:

"O wonder!

How many goodly creatures are there here!

How beautious mankind is!

O brave new world

That has such people in't!"

O Brave New Second Life

https://connectionsgodandtheworld.blogspot.com/2007/05/o-brave-new-second-life.html