The rockets' red glare - an appropriate symbol for the beginning of the USA

I can be cranky about really miniscule things. For example, Americans generally refer to yesterday’s celebration as “The Fourth of July,” as if the calender date were explanation enough for the holiday. I’ve been rather obstinate in calling the holiday by its proper name, “Independence Day.”

So, in reflecting upon my own crankiness, I stumbled upon something I’d never seen before.

I thought, if I were a Russian, for example, or an Egyptian, or a Chinese person, I would not have a foundation date of my nation to celebrate. My patriotism would be rooted in some vague confluence of ethnicity, geography, and language. As an American, however, my nationality is based in a very distinct and deliberate confluence of political and military action. As one historian I heard on the radio put it, our nation was founded by an ideological movement. America began in a war of rebellion.

And suddenly it made sense to me why patriotism in America is synonymous with some kind of militarism: because we were founded as a nation at war. We have continued to define our responses to change both within and without in military terms and often with military action. The Civil War stands, next to the Revolutionary War itself, as the most significant defining event for America.

For other nations, sure, wars and battles are important parts of their history; but only rarely do military engagements define what it is to be a citizen, a patriot. The Spanish, for example, did not fight the Moors in order to become Spanish, but because they already were Spanish; the Moors were seen as foreign invaders.

Now, I’m not sure what conclusions to draw from this. I’m neither a warmonger nor a pacifist; I believe war must be conducted according to the principles generally known as Just War Theory. With regard to ethic or cultural heritage, I’m ambivalent: it gives individuals a concrete community to belong to, but it also gives rise to us-versus-them ways of thought. I see pluses and minuses to the way America has defined itself as a nation, and to the ways other nations have done so throughout history.

But it is clear to me, in a way it never has been before, that the American Revolution really did start something new in the world. And this insight is helping me to see my nation and my own cultural heritage more fully.

I’m also, let’s say, ambivalent about the whole idea of blogging. I’ve never been quite clear or consistent on what I want to accomplish with this blog, or what readers expect. I’m pretty clear I don’t want to use it as a sort of public journal of my personal life; at the same time, the topic of virtue and personal growth through practicing virtue is, well, personal and the examples I have to give touch on areas of life – either my own or others’ – that are private. I’m still working out how detailed and personal I should get in order to make my experience most useful to you.

Several of you have told me, through emails or in person, that my writing has helped you. Thank you! I cannot imagine a higher compliment! So I’m committed to continuing to write, including blogging here. But, as I’ve said, virtue is about setting life in proper order, and my life is very disorderly at present. So my blogging will be sporadic for the near future.

Probably the easiest way for me to write is to answer a question. So if you have a question about virtue ethics or about some moral quandry, please drop me a line and I’ll do my best to answer you, or at least point you in a good direction.

Meanwhile, do good and avoid evil!

That said, I’ve obviously not been blogging much lately. That’s not because I’m despairing of the blog, but because I’m tied up in a number of other obligations. And when my time has not been obliged, I’ve been indulging in escapist pursuits. (Darn you, Hulu!)

So it has become clear to me that blogging daily is not workable in the long term. And if I expect myself to post daily, that’s just one more failure to stack up at the end of the day. But neither do I want to neglect blogging. For the moment, while I’m gearing up in a new job and trying to gain momentum on some other writing projects, I fear the blog will take a bit of a back seat.

I hope I do get back to regular (whatever that means) posting sometime soonish. But till then, expect me when you see me!

Till then, do good and avoid evil. Or, at least, don’t make the mistakes I make.

My goal is to present the classical moral and theological virtues in a way that twenty-first century Americans can apply in everyday life.

I don’t presume that all my readers are Catholic, and my goal is not evangelization in a primary or direct sense. So, though I don’t hide my own faith, I don’t necessarily run to the Catechism or the lives of the Saints for my examples or support. My hope is to follow St. Paul’s advice: Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.

Please look around, and feel free to comment on any of the posts, or to contact me directly with any questions. Thanks, and God bless you!

For just a guy out of nowhere, it means a great deal to me that I have so many steady readers. I hope you get as much out of reading my posts as I get out of writing them. Thank you!

Thanks for your patience!

Update!

I’ve found the missing posts, and am reposting them. Unfortunately, I’ve lost the tags and comments. So go ahead and make new comments, if you want!

I don’t think I’ll get a new post written today; but I’ll be back on top of my game tomorrow, God willing! Thanks for your patience!

St. Thomas divides human beings from the animals saying that man is a dominus of his own action. Man is lord, and from his being lord it follows that he should be rational and volitional.

Emphasis is in the original.

This struck me in a profound way when I read it. I had always assumed (even having read the passage Chastek refers to) that our moral responsibility derived from our rationality; but it’s a whole different picture to look at reason and will as the tools we need in order to fulfill our calling to bear responsibility for our actions. For example, it explains why we’re still responsible for unintentional actions, like this: Actually, this is the kind of thing that could open the door to being real BFFs, because it gives the opportunity for genuine acts of humility, care, and honesty. But that doesn’t make it right that the guy smacked the girl upside the head.

It’s just that, being lords of our actions – even though we’re not 100% in perfect control of our actions – we can take responsibility for what we do and develop enough command of our emotions and our gestures to bring some good out of bad situations.

That’s a pretty lordly thing, if you ask me.