Race Relations

I last visited the USA 20 years ago. I found race relations there to be awkward, even strained. Back here in South Africa, where race relations a generation ago were disastrous, I now find joy in race relations every day. I find a happy harmony, and a celebration of diversity. Of course, it will not be like that everywhere.

Potato Patch

Son M lives in a Church manse in Switzerland, which he sub-lets to refugees. Across the road, he has a garden, which he regularly tends. This is his potato patch. The house is seen in the background. In fact wife E planted the potatoes last year.

40 Days a Week

Next semester, I am working as a seminary lecturer full-time. Full-time = three courses or more. That might not seem like much, but consider the following. One lecture is 90 minutes. In seminary, they generally say that one minute of sermon = one hour of preparation. Say, 20 hours for 20 minutes. I shall be teaching 90 x 3 = 270 minutes a week, so that makes ... 270 hours, which is nearly 40 working days a week -- at university level. OBSERVATION: That is theoretically impossible. So for the lecturer, the question is: how to make it possible. I have a professor friend who says, you are not just teaching a course. You are conveying you. That makes one feel rather vulnerable -- but it is part of the secret.

Greeting in the Pews

A worship leader invited us yesterday to greet people in the pews. I turned to the person behind me, and the conversation ran like this:

Me: "I know you! I don't need to greet you!"

Answer: "They didn't say you must know me. You must greet me!"

Me: "But then again, do I really know you?"

Answer: "That's impossible. I don't even know myself."

Me: "Don't even know yourself? Isn't that strange?"

Answer: "The Bible says that all of humanity is strange."

Then the worship leader called everyone to order. OBSERVATION: Of course, it is quite true that we don't even know ourselves. It is rather a problem, how little we do.

Aspirant Intruder

An aspirant intruder this week tried to enter my e-mail account. They typed in my correct e-mail address and password -- nevertheless, Google stopped them. I double-checked: does Google stop people with the correct e-mail address and password? Google says: "Google actively stops hackers from accessing accounts, even if they type the correct email address and password". OBSERVATION: This raises some obvious questions. How did someone obtain my correct e-mail address and password, and what did they want?

Chance Meeting

I was in a Church pew today, and greeted the couple in front of me -- and recalled that I had taken a photo of them years ago (not knowing them by name). They are now a married couple. I took the photo when they were first an item -- I think in 2019. OBSERVATION: It took a search and a half to find the photo, which I sent to them.

Pre-Birthday Celebration

Son M celebrated a pre-40th birthday party in Switzerland this week. I said it is an honour that so many people care about you. M now lives in the town of Herzogenbuchsee in Switzerland. His 40th is on Tuesday. The day is hard to forget, as the streets were lined with troops when he was born. Today it is called Youth Day -- a national holiday.

CORRECTION: This post serves as proof positive that I am a typical father. I got his 40th birthday wrong. M's birthday is on 14 June, not 16 June. Youth Day is indeed on 16 June. The troops were on the streets from the morning of 15 June.

Ordination Sermon

I found this photo today, of me preaching my ordination sermon, on 15 November 1983. Ordination in the Congregational Church is where a congregation formally recognises what God has already done, which is called you to ministry. I received the title "Reverend" on this day. In my case, the fellowship or denomination ordained me separately, too. OBSERVATION: "JHS" on the pulpit stands for "Jesus Hominum Salvator" -- Jesus, Saviour of Humankind. If it says "IHS", that stands for “Iesous Huios Soter” -- Jesus, Son and Saviour.

Laser Microphone

Every now and then, a small electronic revolution comes along: say, transistors, LEDs, or Nd magnets. There is one about to burst on the scene: the sensiBel SBM100B laser microphone (pictured) -- which is small enough to fit on one's fingertip. It is due to go into full-scale production next year. OBSERVATION: If I myself had had this for my designs, it would have made a big difference. Its frequency ranges over a few Hz to nearly 200 kHz, and it delivers the same audio recording quality as professional studio microphones 50 to 100 times the size. 

Metaphysical Notes 2024

I discovered today that the 10th Anniversary Edition of Metaphysical Notes -- my first complete metaphysics -- could not be found on this blog by searching for "Metaphysical Notes". In 2024, I issued a 10th Anniversary Edition of this 2014 work -- originally published by the Philosophical Society of England. For all its terrible flaws, I realised in 2024 that it was original, and it was cohesive. It deserved to be brushed up. In the new edition, the ideas are unchanged, yet readability is improved. Find it free at (click here) Metaphysical Notes. One can even download it there.

Evolution of Electronics

The April Practical Electronics magazine (PE) has an interesting article on the evolution of electronics. I myself have done a lot of electronic design, using discrete components -- the "nuts and bolts" of electronics. The PE article describes how electronics today, compared with a generation ago, is "fundamentally uninterested" in that. The author Clive Maxfield concludes:

"So here we are, surrounded by devices which are smaller, smarter, quieter, and vastly more capable than anything our younger selves could have imagined, yet often sealed, abstracted, and inscrutable."

The photo shows a modern electronic "black box". Who needs to know what is going on inside?

Well-Disguised Bug

For want of anything to post tonight, here is a photo that I took in South Africa's Suurveld. It is a full-colour photo of a well-disguised bug sitting on some shrivelled flowers.

‘Western’ Sermon

One of the assignments of my homiletics students is (will be) to grade a sermon they hear. I therefore applied the assignment to a sermon I heard in Church today. This seemed an unusual mix of great positives and great negatives. The preacher was experienced. The sermon was both topical and exegetical. He knew how to make his point -- although he did so loosely. The main failing, in my view, was that it was a typically Western sermon. God's power in particular was largely implied -- rather than being brought into focus. OBSERVATION: And this tended to make the sermon more abstract than concrete. With divided feelings over its great strengths and great weaknesses, I graded the sermon 50%. Perhaps, if I thought more like a Westerner, 75%.

African Materials

I am preparing three seminary courses for the second semester of 2026. The seminary is largely African. I am therefore deliberately seeking out African materials. My reading matter is about 30% African. My video materials are approaching 20% African. OBSERVATION: The biggest problem is the amount of African materials available (not). Apparently 5% of written materials -- theological materials -- is African. Apart from a want of materials, though, there are other problems. Black authors and producers are so often prophets, apostles, self-made people. They often adopt non-mainstream theologies, too. But one needs African input. It may be substantially different to Western fare, and balances it out.

Short of Information

Just over a year ago, my brother-in-law R (wife E's younger brother) rolled his car, broke a leg and, apparently in good health and good spirits, died a few days later. It was a men-only funeral, since it was an unnatural death. Then police forensics called. They had found a small hole in the back of his head, they said. OBSERVATION: The family have been distressed about the circumstances of his accident and death. I myself suspected this: with a hole in the back of his head, he jumped in the car, rolled it, broke his leg, and the hospital missed the head injury. But there is not enough information to work it all out.