I mentioned a new website awhile back, for which I am a contributing editor. As part of the ongoing conversation, several of us are posting stories of our theological journeys as an answer to the question, “Why am I Presbymergent?” (Presbyterian + Emergent = Presbymergent).
Anyhow, here’s my article. While you’re there, check out some of the conversations — it’s quickly becoming a very interesting and unique community of “loyal radicals.”
What I really want to write about is (duh) more of my ascent into Linux-land. But after two rather gushy posts in a row, and at the risk of losing my few remaining visitors, I’ll refrain. For now.
I’ve just posted a new story over on my fiction blog; It’s called 2007: An Allegory. It’s my first attempt at an allegory, so yes, it’s rather thinly veiled, and no, I’m not completely satisfied with it. It’s also my first attempt at the sci-fi genre known as alternate history, and it’s written from the rare second person point of view. I guess I just wanted to make things really hard for myself.
But those for whom it was written (the youth in my confirmation class) liked it a lot more than I would have expected, so perhaps it has some merit. I’ll let you decide. Just remember that it’s an allegory, so I can change the setting, the characters, the style, the dialogue…but not the plot.
Moving day. Not physically (although that will come soon, too) but digitally. Today I begin migrating all of my files, applications and other software from Windows to Linux. Documents are a snap — nothing to do, since I already use OpenOffice.org and they’re recognizable straight off my thumbrdrive. I already migrated all of my bookmarks and rss feeds from firefox to…firefox. Since I use a del.icio.us plugin to manage them both, that was easy and entirely web-based. The biggest challenge will be my Palm Treo (getting Linux to recognize it) and email: I use a windows version of Thunderbird running off my thumbdrive. There’s got to be a portable app. version for linux, but just a matter of finding it.
Ok, that’s all the boring technical stuff. For those who are even just a little bit interested but not into the details, here’s something interesting I’ve been asked already: Why Edubuntu? Why Ubuntu even? And what the heck are they anyhow?
Since Linux is open-source, anyone can take the core code, modify it, and re-distribute it. Imagine if M$ did that — you could have “Bob’s Version of Windows” and “Windows for Girls” or “Windows on a Stick” — as many customized versions as someone could imagine. In Linux, these are called Distributions. Ubuntu is one of these, and it seems to be gaining steam in the Linux community. A good friend of mine uses it, and so does Cory Doctorow (from Boing Boing).
Edubuntu is a modified version of Ubuntu (which btw is an African word that means “humanity to others”) that is designed for use by teachers and students in a networked classroom. As a former (and future) educator, this is the cutting-edge community I want to be a part of in “Linux world.” That and it’s designed so that an elementary school student can navigate the interface. Hopefully, I’ll manage.
Although like most Linux distributions, edubuntu is highly customizable, I’ve decided to leave most of the settings, applications, and even “preferences” alone right now. I know that I could make it almost identical to MS Windows, which would be familiar, but I’d rather learn it on its own terms before messing with it.
I hope the “blogumentation” of my transition is something that will inspire and encourage others to make the jump someday. Twelve hours so far, and no regrets.
Unless you know me very well, you have NO IDEA just how excited I am right now. It’s 1:00 in the morning, February 9th 2007. I’m sitting in my office at church (yes, I know–I should be home now). But here’s the thing. Right now, this moment, I am typing this post on my laptop, connected to the internet via Firefox browser and wireless internet…
…and running nothing but EdUbuntu Linux.
I think this moment qualifies in my lifetime top ten. Not quite as good as wedding day or when Grady was born, but higher than graduation (high school and college both). Before you think I’m too crazy, there’s some history here:
1. I first blogged about Linux February 21st, 2004. This was before I even used much open-source software, or really even knew much about open source. But I was so excited and enthusiastic about the possibilities — and had no idea how technically demanding it would be. I got really frustrated and eventually gave up.
2. The second time I blogged about Linux was a year later, on January 5th, 2005. Here’s an excerpt:
In the Microsoft vs. Linux war, I regret to say that Microsoft is still winning (curse them). I had some limited success with Knoppix right after Thanksgiving, but didn’t have time to pursue it further over Christmas break. Oh well. Bill Gates can win a few more battles, but Linux will still win the war (I hope).
As you can tell, I’ve always described this whole deal as an epic conflict, nothing short of a war, or maybe crusade would be a better term.
3. Early in 2006, I tried a different approach. I knew I still couldn’t win on the operating system front, so I started finding all the open-source applications for Windows that I could get my hands on. I basically replaced every piece of proprietary software with something open-source…almost always an improvement. That was progress, but the big prize, the operating system, was still elusive. I was always embarrassed to advocate open source so passionately, while being so bound to Micro$oft at such a fundamental level.
4. I guess I have a yearly cycle. I don’t know why I renewed my efforts this week. The biggest challenge has always been getting linux to recognize my peripherals — most importantly my wifi card for internet access. Because with that, I can get online to support forums and solve the rest as I go. The great wall has fallen. There may be a few more skirmishes, but the tide has shifted. From here, instead of “mostly microsoft” and “occasionally linux” I move to the other way around. From here I practice what I preach.
This freedom has been many long years in coming. Thanks to Jeff Brown, John Kendrick, and Willer, who encouraged and helped along the way.
Good-bye Bill Gates, and no turning back.
I am open source.
[Spoiler Warning]
Last night’s season premiere of LOST didn’t deviate too much from the usual structure: There were flashbacks, revelations, forest chase-scenes, fistfights, weirdness (hello, forced-to-watch-videos-boy), and of course, surprises. Although seriously, who (besides the ex-husband) didn’t see that bus coming, from the moment she first mentioned the idea four scenes back?
But there was one “set” of elements missing, and they are the whole reason why I watch the show. Last night, where were the:
Or did I just somehow miss the boat (pardon the pun)? If so, please “enlighten” me…
If you don’t know what Web 2.0 is (or even if you do) you have to watch this–it’s awesome. If a picture says a thousand words, then an embedded video about embedded videos and hypertext and XML and blogging and content management and interactive websites and open source software and mashups and…you know what? Just watch the video. It almost made me cry.
I had an interesting conversation with a friend this morning. He was reading about the history of ancient Mezo-American civilizations (Aztec, Inca, etc.) and was struck by some religious and philosophical similarities to Buddhism. We got to talking about parallel threads that run through many religions (uh-oh. Heresy warning here–not for faint of theological heart).
I instantly recognized the concepts he was referring to — in the early history of my own faith it came as the Gnostic movement in the first centuries of Christianity. In fact, I think my friend would make a great Christian gnostic. Unfortunately, he would almost immediately be branded a heretic by most mainstream Christian churches. The gnostic movement (and others like it) were pretty well stamped out by the 2nd century, and though it has reared its head a few times since, it has never enjoyed the status it once held as a movement within Christianity.
I wouldn’t consider myself a gnostic, but I do wonder if gnosticism might have had something worthwhile to contribute to the current theological conversation, had it not been so harshly surpressed by the early “Fathers of the Church.”
I see a similarity among all three of the major “monotheistic” world religions–Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. While there are certainly open-minded and tolerant people within each of these historic faiths, the party line in all of them has generally been (at best), “we respect your right to exist and believe what you believe, but we’re right and you’re wrong.”
I can’t speak to the scriptural source of this in Islam or Judaism. Perhaps I’m even guilty of painting the orthodoxy of those faiths with too harsh a brush. But I can speak to the line I hear most often in Christianity. It’s John 14:6: “Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.”
I think we tend to imagine Jesus as a sort heavenly goalie — standing padded in front of a goal with a hockey stick saying, “You gotta get through me if you want in!” Or, at the very least, equate his words to the expression, “It’s my way or the highway.” We often denounce any belief that does not acknowledge Jesus explicitly as the one and only savior — although I suspect that what we are really seeking is acknowledgment of own particular understanding of Jesus.
But…what if we’re wrong (gasp!) in our understanding of that passage? What if we have it upside down? What if everyone who lives out the principles taught by Jesus–loving their neighbors, caring for the poor and oppressed–has indeed “come through him” whether they acknowledge it or not? What if instead of, “It’s impossible to get to heaven unless you acknowledge me,” Jesus is saying, “It’s impossible not to get to heaven if you’re embodying these principles (this ‘way’ of living, this truth, this life), because those principles are what I’m all about. They are me. Regardless of what you call them, or how you came about them.”
Of course, I think we also greatly misunderstand and abuse the concept of “heaven.” But that’s another post for another day.
