Opening Day of Spring Quarter

Yesterday began the spring quarter of my academic sophomore year. I recently graduated from the core program and am now working on electives for my degree. I think the elective portion of my degree is making me more nervous than my core portion did. I haven’t had to write a formal paper by assignment for a grade in over seventeen years. Reading is not my preferred method of learning and I only like research if it is something that impassions me.

My classes this quarter are English Comp I, Medical Ethics, Sociology of Human Sexuality, and Psychology 101. All four of these classes are going to require extensive reading and writing by assignment. I am excited about participating and learning, but less than passionate about finding the time to read, research, and write.

One particular paper is already causing me grief and I haven’t even started to write it. At some point, in my Sociology of Human Sexuality class, I will be required to write a paper in defense of why sexual education should be taught in the public school system. I don’t know that I believe that it should be. I mean, I believe that the biology and mechanics should be taught, but at what age? I have serious concerns about the content of sex ed classes. Too often, the curriculum works in issues that I feel violate moral boundaries and I do not want my children to be led to believe that homosexuality is normal and perfectly acceptable. I don’t believe that it is, and I want to instill in my children that it is morally wrong according to our faith in Jesus. You read about schools and teachers pressing the envelope and enraging us conservatives routinely.

I’ll also have to write a paper refuting the top ten reasons given for people choosing not to use condoms. The professor has been kind enough to provide us with those reasons and this assignment will be easier to write about than the sex ed one, but not much.

We’ll be reading the entire 600-page textbook for this sociology class in ten weeks. I haven’t broken down that reading for this one class, but I can tell that is a lot of reading. That is just one class.

Medical Ethics, which I am really looking forward to, is going to have me reading too. I love topics of morality and ethics. This class, I expect, will hold my interest and lead to very interesting discussions. I learned a great deal just in the first day.

Psychology will be an online class for me. I am not sure how I feel about this class yet, but I am going to put my best foot forward.

Finally, the most important class, which will also be the most difficult for me is English Comp. Most important, because it will hopefully help me write more mechanically correctly and with an improved style and ability. This class is a foundational class; in that it will help me better prepare my written assignments for classes to come. The only issue with it is that it also requires a major research project and writing by assignment.

At any rate, tune in often as I hope to dazzle you with the concepts I am learning. I hope to find a lot of material to write about from my Ethics and Sociology classes. Of course, I’ll be so busy writing papers; I won’t have time to blog. We’ll see how it goes.

Stop Polluting Our Air

Several posts ago, I talked about how rude I thought it was to speak a foreign language in public areas of America if you’re a resident of this great land. Today, I want to write about another pet peeve of mine.

Picture it: you’re sitting in a doctor’s office waiting room, waiting to be seen. You arrive roughly thirty minutes early, only to sit and wait for two hours longer than your scheduled appointment, because the doctor is behind. I don’t mind waiting for my ortho because he is the most respected and sought after Otho in the greater Cincinnati area.

Naturally, since you have to wait, all the other people in the room are going to be seen late as well. The waiting room is quite large and from across the room you hear, among the hushed whispers of people conversing and pages of magazines being rustled, a very loud, obnoxious ring tone of the old Batman TV show theme song. The person whose phone is ringing is startled and she hurriedly rushes to answer the phone. Her conversation is loud, but it is short.

You’re only slightly annoyed, but you are gracious enough to think that maybe she just forgot to put her phone on vibrate. A couple minutes later, the same loud ring tone comes to life. The owner answers, but this time her call is not so short. She doesn't’t try to speak in the same whispered tones as everyone else in the room, choosing instead to speak to the caller at a volume that even you, who is sitting all the way across the room considers to be loud and obnoxious.

The call ends. You settle back into the magazine that you’re thumbing through and pretty soon you here the same person speaking. You look up only to see that, this time, she is the caller. She carries a twenty minute phone conversation with someone she knows about all the cars she’s owned and which ones were good and not so good. She has this conversation at the same loud, obnoxious volume as the previous two calls. Every one in the entire office, including the receptionist, peers at her to express their annoyance, but she remains oblivious.

Cell phone ringers usually do not bother me. Most people are considerate enough to lower the volume or even place it on vibrate. Most people are also receptive to their environment enough either to excuse themselves from the room or to speak in a hushed voice. I find it so rude, inconsiderate, and unmannered when people are loud in a quiet environment or when they hold a conversation with someone while another person is speaking.

Why can’t they make a cell phone with technology that can measure the ambient noise and adjust the ringer automatically? The louder the ambient noise, the louder the ringer. Conversely, the quieter the ambient noise, the quieter the ringer.

I am utterly amazed sometimes at how disrespectful and rude the people around me are. Maybe it just seems like a bigger problem, because consumer technology is so young. Maybe we should require a person to take cell phone parenting classes before we allow them to purchase the device…a kind of ‘rules of the road’ dummies guide to proper use and etiquette. I am totally kidding about that, but come on people; consider the people around you when you’re in a public. Stop polluting our air.

YMC Personality Perfectly Described

I took a little Personality test online. I am astounded at how accurately it describes me. Some call me obsessive, others call me stubborn, yet according to this test,I am gifted and usually right. The results are below with the interpretation

Your Type is INFJ

Strength of the preferences %
Introverted 56% Intuitive 12% Feeling 12% Judging 67%

You are:

moderately expressed introvert

slightly expressed intuitive personality

slightly expressed feeling personality

distinctively expressed judging personality

The Protector

As an INFJ, your primary mode of living is focused internally, where you take things in primarily via intuition. Your secondary mode is external, where you deal with things according to how you feel about them, or how they fit with your personal value system.

INFJs are gentle, caring, complex and highly intuitive individuals. Artistic and creative, they live in a world of hidden meanings and possibilities. Only one percent of the population has an INFJ Personality Type, making it the most rare of all the types.

INFJs place great importance on having things orderly and systematic in their outer world. They put a lot of energy into identifying the best system for getting things done, and constantly define and re-define the priorities in their lives. On the other hand, INFJs operate within themselves on an intuitive basis which is entirely spontaneous. They know things intuitively, without being able to pinpoint why, and without detailed knowledge of the subject at hand. They are usually right, and they usually know it. Consequently, INFJs put a tremendous amount of faith into their instincts and intuitions. This is something of a conflict between the inner and outer worlds, and may result in the INFJ not being as organized as other Judging types tend to be. Or we may see some signs of disarray in an otherwise orderly tendency, such as a consistently messy desk.

INFJs have uncanny insight into people and situations. They get "feelings" about things and intuitively understand them. As an extreme example, some INFJs report experiences of a psychic nature, such as getting strong feelings about there being a problem with a loved one, and discovering later that they were in a car accident. This is the sort of thing that other types may scorn and scoff at, and the INFJ themself does not really understand their intuition at a level which can be verbalized. Consequently, most INFJs are protective of their inner selves, sharing only what they choose to share when they choose to share it. They are deep, complex individuals, who are quite private and typically difficult to understand. INFJs hold back part of themselves, and can be secretive.

But the INFJ is as genuinely warm as they are complex. INFJs hold a special place in the heart of people who they are close to, who are able to see their special gifts and depth of caring. INFJs are concerned for people's feelings, and try to be gentle to avoid hurting anyone. They are very sensitive to conflict, and cannot tolerate it very well. Situations which are charged with conflict may drive the normally peaceful INFJ into a state of agitation or charged anger. They may tend to internalize conflict into their bodies, and experience health problems when under a lot of stress.

Because the INFJ has such strong intuitive capabilities, they trust their own instincts above all else. This may result in an INFJ stubbornness and tendency to ignore other people's opinions. They believe that they're right. On the other hand, INFJ is a perfectionist who doubts that they are living up to their full potential. INFJs are rarely at complete peace with themselves - there's always something else they should be doing to improve themselves and the world around them. They believe in constant growth, and don't often take time to revel in their accomplishments. They have strong value systems, and need to live their lives in accordance with what they feel is right. In deference to the Feeling aspect of their personalities, INFJs are in some ways gentle and easy going. Conversely, they have very high expectations of themselves, and frequently of their families. They don't believe in compromising their ideals.

INFJ is a natural nurturer; patient, devoted and protective. They make loving parents and usually have strong bonds with their offspring. They have high expectations of their children, and push them to be the best that they can be. This can sometimes manifest itself in the INFJ being hard-nosed and stubborn. But generally, children of an INFJ get devoted and sincere parental guidance, combined with deep caring.

In the workplace, the INFJ usually shows up in areas where they can be creative and somewhat independent. They have a natural affinity for art, and many excel in the sciences, where they make use of their intuition. INFJs can also be found in service-oriented professions. They are not good at dealing with minutia or very detailed tasks. The INFJ will either avoid such things, or else go to the other extreme and become enveloped in the details to the extent that they can no longer see the big picture. An INFJ who has gone the route of becoming meticulous about details may be highly critical of other individuals who are not.

The INFJ individual is gifted in ways that other types are not. Life is not necessarily easy for the INFJ, but they are capable of great depth of feeling and personal achievement.

A Moral Compass For All

Over the last several days I have been reflecting on the rise and fall — and in certain sectors of society the near obliteration of the idea of a moral compass valid for all.

Today, most people agree there are certain things that are always and everywhere out of bounds — intentionally killing the innocent, lying, stealing, and rape are some of the most obvious. But, what happens when the majority of people — or more commonly, the most powerful group of people — sees things differently and creates laws contrary to one or all of these precepts?

In other words, what is the basis for morality? Is there such a thing as a universal moral compass, and, if so, who or what makes the arrow of truth point this way or that way?

These questions are not new. What is new, in my opinion, is the erosion of basic assumptions, which up until recently made a basic ethical code (like my examples above, or like the 10 Commandments) acceptable to a reasonable person.

To understand the causes of this erosion, we must keep in mind our cultural context, including the marvelous scientific advances of modern and contemporary times. In the face of jaw-dropping material solutions (medical cures, astronomical and archeological discoveries, etc.) to prior mysteries, we are tempted to think that all solutions and all truths must have a material explanation.

When we assume falsely that all truths have a biological or chemical explanation, we deny our ability to "discover" through reason the ethical message (moral compass) written in nature — human nature in particular. In fact, if someone adheres to this materialistic assumption, he or she is right to reject a universal moral compass. Experience tells us, after all, that there is no such thing as a moral gene. We know we don’t become morally "good" through biological development or manipulation, but rather through morally good decisions — free choices —influenced, but not determined, by education and environment.

Because religious faith is in crises in many parts of the world, if we are going to recover lost ground on morality, it is more urgent than ever to highlight to society and its leaders how the ethical message in nature, instilled in us by the common source of nature and reason — God — points toward what will allow us to flourish on a natural level. This very discoverable natural law tells us to avoid evil and do good, but it even goes further. It tells us what the moral life should look like in broad strokes and then how to derive other moral precepts from the rational demands of our common human nature.

On the other hand, if we can’t explain what makes some things always and everywhere out of bounds without first recurring to Sacred Books (a source many people reject), there is little left to save a secular society from giving up on prohibitions against the likes of rape, slavery, incest, or bigotry, not to mention throwing in the towel on feeding the poor, clothing the naked, and protecting the weakest members of society, especially the unborn.

If explaining the foundation for natural morality is difficult for us, it is even more challenging for policy makers and other public figures to live up to it. They are under tremendous pressure to make decisions based on selfish convenience. For example, in last week’s video blog, I suggested that politicians should not point to the Bible or Jesus’ teachings as a proof that their particular policy is best, unless they are willing to use the same standard for all of their decision-making. That’s hard to do. From my experience, these same people are often willing to change their opinion and even sacrifice votes and popularity if they are taught why personal morality is never purely subjective, that there is a law written on human nature that can serve as a basic moral compass for all people, everywhere.

God bless, Father Jonathan

Related Video: Religion in Politics

State Licensing

Well, now that the academics are over I have to go through the colossal steps of applying for the state licenses. See, the NREMT only certifies that you've been educated and demonstrated proficiency for the knowledge and skills as a Nationally Registered Paramedic. It has no lawful control over whether you can practice medicine in any given state, as that is at the sole discretion of each state. Most states recognize the passing of the NREMT as acceptable to apply for and receive their state's license to practice.

I am applying for licenses in Ohio and Kentucky since I live on the border and perhaps one day may work for a Cincinnati based agency. I also plan to apply for Illinois and Indiana as both are prospects for relocation down the road. Applying for state licensing is about as pleasurable as jumping through the hurdles to join the military. Copious amounts of paperwork that you hurriedly fill out and send in, only to be acted upon on the states own time table. Let's face it, the government is not know for their efficiency.

To top it off, required certifications that were part of our training and education done months ago have still not made it to us from the university. Advanced Cardiac Life Support and Pediatric Advanced Life Support were successfully completed last year...still here I sit in wait for their arrival so I can complete my application process to the states. They had to wait to give us the certifications until successful completion of the class...tomorrow will be one full week. One full week doesn't sound like a long time, but it really is since, a). we already passed the training for these certifications months ago and, b). the university staff knew in advance that we would be graduating on time. Maybe I am just being too impatient...but I can't do anything until I can successfully make it through the application process.

For those of you concerned, my surgery last Wednesday went well. The doctor was able to remove two of my three screws successfully, however, the third was to far in to be removed without a lot of extra work. He said I had a lot of scar tissue on the lateral (outside) aspect of my ankle that he tried to clean up. He hasn't said one positive thing about how the original surgeon did his job. He believes, as I do, that the original doctor made things way worse by doing things with such archaic procedures and techniques, which are no longer used by most ortho's because of the kind of results that they yield. I am up walking some, but I get really sore where the one screw was that was holding that little ball on the inside part of your ankle. That one spot hurts the most. I was miserable the first two day with pain...now I am down to once or twice a day on pain meds. The surgeon is still dealing with my insurance company concerning the knee injections I am supposed to receive which may help me avoid surgery in that area. Dr. Nick hacked me up there too when he was trying to do the autograft.

Culmination of Determination, Perspiration and Dedication

On Monday, a culmination of determination, perspiration, and dedication came together for me as I graduated from the Paramedic Program at the University of Cincinnati. I began my career in EMS in 2000 as an EMT-basic. I liked it so much that I decided to continue my education and become an EMT-intermediate. EMS became much more than a career choice for me; it became my passion. I worked as an intermediate, took and passed the didactic portion of the paramedic program in Illinois at the EMS Training & Research Development Institute prior to our relocation to the greater Cincinnati area in 2004. I was unable to complete my internship due to relocation and a series of medical procedures on my right leg.

I decided to apply to the University of Cincinnati at the beginning of 2006 and much to my delight, was accepted into the program. You may or may not know that Cincinnati is the birth place of EMS in America. Napoleon was the first to use a triage and EMS system in recorded world history. But I digress…to say the least, this paramedic program is among the best in the nation. I was, and am, honored to have been fortunate enough to receive my education there.

Graduating from the university's paramedic program only gained me a diploma for the program. It did not allow me to seek out and obtain the state license necessary to practice medicine. For that, I had to take the NREMT-Paramedic practical and written examinations. If you know anything at all about these tests, you know that they are extremely difficult. My friend in Illinois, who has been an instructor for two decades, had to take his test three times prior to passing. The questions are not based on finding one right answer. Instead three of your four choices may be good answers, but your task is to select the one that is the BEST answer. These questions are largely scenario based, and while the education system attempts to standardize to the best of their ability the approach to certain scenarios, the way you approach a scenario may not be exactly the way I do. Nevertheless, much to my wonderment, I did pass both the practical and the written.

My lead instructor, Anthony Kramer, is a very gifted instructor. He made the educational experience, as labor intensive as it was, interesting and fun. The practical experience he brought to the classroom was extraordinary. The man has been teaching in this program for over twenty years, is a practicing paramedic with a local agency and is also an RN.

During our graduation ceremony, Mr. Kramer decided to say a few words about each of us in our class. He described me as the IT person of the class. Moreover, he described me as obsessive. Imagine that! Me obsessive? I’ve been obsessing about his comments ever since he made them.

The basis for his comments revolved around what I considered to be ambition and a drive for excellence. When an assignment was due, I tried to do it better than the norm. The norm for our patient summary reports were to be handwritten. However, I thought it would be easier for him to read and grade them if I reproduced the form and was able to type each one out. I generally tried to arrive early to class, help set up and then stay late to help tear down. I wasn't content with just settling and so I would try to communicate with my instructors and try to be as professional as possible. Anyway, to make it short, my intention wasn’t to be annoying, it was to display my commitment to succeed and to demonstrate my desire to do it to the best of my ability. It’s not the first time I have been described as obsessive and I am sure it will not be the last, but it does bother me that it came across as annoying, because I really wanted it to be a reflection of my work ethic.

What’s next? Well I plan to apply to Western Carolina University for a Bachelor’s of Science degree in Emergency Medical Care program. I can do most all of it by distance learning and it’s a program recommended by a former Executive Director I worked for and respect. I am about the least academic person you’ll ever meet so I may be sixty by the time I graduate, but it’s for what I aspire.

Whirlwind Overnight Trip

Yesterday, I received a phone call from my mother informing me that a great aunt of mine had been suffering from complications associated with CHF, Pneumonia, and a blood infection and that she had suffered a brain injury secondary to stroke. She is 84 and was born deaf and stricken with Polio as a child and has spent most of her adult life being cared for by my grandmother (living next door to me when I was a child) and after grandma's death, my mother.

Lezlie was in Chicago for a company meeting this week and so I hurriedly packed, snuck in a quick haircut and then went to pick up the kids from school and we were on the road to Indiana by 12:30. We made good time and after arriving at my mother's we unpacked the truck and started strategizing about the coming hours.

My mother had to work and so she left. Then the boys were wrestling less than four feet away from me when down they both went. I heard a kind of 'pop' sound and Nicholas, our four year old, screamed and cried with a tone and excitement I had never heard before. He immediately grabbed for his lower left leg and did not relent.

I, being the highly trained emergency medical person that I am, calmly went to his side, grabbed a hold of his thrashing extremity and immobilized it. As I was assessing the injury I noted no deformity, no bruising, and only very mild swelling, yet I could tell from his dramatic level of discomfort that he had most likely fractured something.

I had my oldest son, Joshua, fetch me the cordless phone. I called 911 and asked them to send me an ambulance only because I did not know how I would transport him comfortably in my personal vehicle. After speaking to them, I then sent Joshua into the kitchen to ask Don (my mom's beau), for a bag of ice. While he was doing that and while skillfully controlling Nick's leg, I called Lezlie only to get her voice mail. I left her a brief, but very calm message explaining that Nick had fallen in the living room, that I believed he had broken his leg but was otherwise o.k. and that we were awaiting the ambulance's arrival.

Lezlie, also being a highly trained medical professional, called back in near hysterics. She feared that I was withholding information about his condition in an effort to spare her of any mental anguish. So, while still caring for my son, I now began to thoughtfully labor to calm my wife.

In the end, x-ray’s revealed a class one spiral fracture to the left mid-shaft tibia. The ED physician placed a temporary immobilizing splint that goes both above the knee and below the ankle. It is temporary, because they have to watch for any significant swelling that could cause compartment syndrome. He will receive a more long term cast on Friday.

The boys and I returned to our home a little while ago. Lezlie also cut short her business trip and returned home. Nicholas is doing well. He gets a little whiny from time to time and that is our indication that his pain medication is wearing off. In the long term…does anyone know what to do with a four year old who suddenly can’t walk and run anymore? I’m afraid of the coming 6-8 weeks.

Consequently, I did just hear from my mother and my aunt died at approximately 4:10 this afternoon. I never did make it to the hospital to say my good-byes to her.

If James Cameron Were Honest About His "Discovery"

Father Jonathan hits another slam dunk.

If he were honest, this is what Mr. Cameron would have said to the press:

“My dearest friends in the media,

Thank you for being here. I must admit, I am pleasantly surprised so many of you have come. Our public relations company had quite the challenge to convince you our commercial projects were headline-worthy. After all, what we are peddling is pseudo-science based on old and discredited news. But we obviously hired the right company. They came through on their promise that you wouldn’t remember, or wouldn’t care, that when this tomb was discovered twenty seven years ago, the Jewish archeologist in charge of the investigation, Amos Kloner, determined it was not the tomb of Jesus and his family and that, in fact, it is unlikely Jesus and his relatives even had a family tomb. To think that not a single respected archeologist from the Holy Land region is willing to go on record that our claims are true, and still you are here with us today, is mind-boggling. How can we thank you enough?

We really got scared when people like Joe Zias, who spent 25 years as an archeologist at Rockefeller University in Jerusalam, called into question our integrity. I think he said publicly “Simcha has no credibility whatsoever.” And even though the great archeologist, Amos Kloner, tried to rain on our party when he said, “The claim that the burial site has been found is not based on any proof, and is only an attempt to sell,” you were not deterred. You are here, and we are so happy!

By the way, did you hear our book is now in the top five of Amazon.com? Amazing! I am thinking about doing some other projects where I set science — even pseudo-science — up against religion. I think I’ll release them during the annual “slam Christianity season” — Lent and Easter — featuring a New York City press conference. We’ll win every time. Christians will be quiet. They won’t set cars on fire or blow anyone up, precisely because they believe in the Resurrection, that Jesus’ way of peace is better. They will, however, get nervous because they don’t really know much about their faith and will buy the book and watch the show.

This brings me to the real point of today’s press conference. Today is my day for revenge. When I received my Oscar for best director a few years ago, I looked out into the crowd and proclaimed, “I am the king of the world”. That’s what I felt on that day and I wouldn’t have said it, if I didn’t believe it. But some of my Hollywood colleagues have looked down on me ever since. They thought I was exaggerating. As my movie credits prove, I’ve been sidelined since that day. But when I found the two-thousand year old scribblings on a tomb wall and, with the help of mathematicians, extrapolated that Jesus’ tomb was not really empty, that he may not have risen from the dead, as two billion people believe today, I realized how true my Oscar’s acceptance speech really was. It was kind of prophetic, I guess. The real king of the world — James Cameron — calls into question the King of Kings.

So don’t forget to buy our book and watch the Discovery Channel on March 4th.”