Daily Archives: May 31, 2022

Nihilism about the Senate's ability to do anything after yet another horrific mass shooting this one taking the lives of 19 children and two teachers in Uvalde, Texas permeated social media and the halls of Congress on Wednesday.

The big picture: Most lawmakers, even Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), remain highly skeptical that this time will be the time lawmakers strike a compromise. But there are at least five reasons to believe the dam may finally be ready to break.

1. The majority of Americans support background checks.

2. The National Rifle Association is weakened.

3. Children were murdered. Again.

4. It happened in Republicans' backyard.

5. Key bipartisan players are talking again.

The bottom line: For all the justified pessimism stemming from past failures to act, all that matters in the Senate right now is counting to 10.

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5 reasons this could be the time Congress finally acts on gun reform - Axios

Tommy Thomas| Abilene Reporter-News

Good evening, Wylie Class of 2022; my name is Tommy Thomas, and it is truly a blessing and an honor to be with you all tonight.

First off, I would like to congratulate all graduating students, especially those on this stage (many of whoms outstanding achievements far exceed my own). I would like to also thank our staff and fFaculty, who labor tirelessly to cultivate and serve the students of this school.

Finally, I would like to thank my mom, dad, friendsand church community, who have walked with me every step of the way.

In writing this, the temptation was to present a meticulously crafted valedictorian speech that would only serve to reminisce on the path to graduation and give somewhat relevant advice to our upcoming future. I, however, firmly believe that in order for something to be truly meaningful, it must also often be equally challenging. With this in mind, I would like to present to you something I have considered in my life many times: significance.

Now, what is significance, and how would one define it? According to Oxford Languages, significance is defined as the quality of being worthy of attention or importance. This logically begs the next question, what is significant or worthy of attention or importance? This precise point is where I believe that many people miss it. In a very short amount of time, you will soon be on your own making decisions that will not only affect yourself but others also. We all want to live lives full of significance, and the temptation will be to seek significance by filling our lives with success.

Many of you will spend your lives in the pursuit of money, power, recognition, and prestige in the hope that your life will be considered significant when all things are said and done. Although these things are arguably good, you will not make your life significant by seeking these.

You see, all of these things are what I would characterize as success, but success is only about you while significance is about others. By chasing these things you likely will have been successful, but the question is, did you do anything worthy of persistent importance? Did you do something with your life that truly mattered to not just yourself but to others in the long run?

I insist that this is something you need to think about now while you have not yet invested so much of your life chasing significance but ultimately pursuing success. I insist that your extremely valuable yet finite lives would not be used in the age-old pursuit of materialism, which in every instance leads to nihilism and unfulfillment. And again, success is not a bad thing, it's just success in the absence of significance will not lead to satisfaction.

Well then, the next question follows as how does one live a life characterized by significance? The answer is really quite simple; significance can be found in three things: serving others, dedicating your life to something bigger than yourself and your desires, and living your life not just in the present but in the context of eternity.

Now, what do I mean by the first two? The reason why serving others and serving something bigger than yourself is so important is that it shifts your default, self-centric mindset that is often plagued with anxiety to a selfless mindset saturated with purpose. Furthermore, scientific literature shows that serving others provides a myriad of benefits, and in one study, those who served were 44% less likely to have health complications.

Now the last point, what does it mean to live in the context of eternity? Our culture today emphasizes living to fulfill every desire and the instant gratification of said desires, and the temptation will be to conform to this trend. I would implore that if you are able to resist this and live your life in a meaningful way, you would be far more satisfied in the long run. By viewing life holistically through the lens of significance, you will both mitigate aimless gratification and promote lasting impact.

In closing, I want to present to you what I truly have found to be the key to a life of significance so that as you venture past this first major milestone, you will be fully equipped to lead lives of satisfaction and fulfillment. I have found that in order to live in a way that is in profound service to others, one must follow the example of Jesus Christ, who is quite literally the fulfillment of the definition of significance. He is the one who is worthy of attention and importance, and if you would give your life to Him just as He gave His life for your sins, you surely will live a life of significance.

As you all leave this building tonight as Wylie alumni, I pray that you all will embrace your positions as leaders of this generation, that you will venture into the future emboldened to change the world, that you will live a life of significance, and that when all is said and done, every single one of you would hear the words well done good and faithful servant.

Thank you and God bless.

Tommy Thomas, Wylie High School valedictorian

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2022 val speeches, Wylie's Thomas: Ahead of you is a life of significance - Abilene Reporter-News

Dear Reader, this is not short, but I would ask you to take your precious time, which I respect, and read to the end and think deeply with me about this subject. Thank you.

Nearly every American has voiced an opinion this week about this. Why Uvalde? The horror. The tragedy. The unthinkable. And how to stop it? Confront mental health. Gun control. More security. Some compromise, somehow.

With no expression of sarcasm whatsoever, I humbly yet boldly say this, I know the answers to both of these questions. But you need to hear this, the answers are not mine. And I am certainly not the only one with this information.

These answers are clear and direct, coming from the only perfect source of information, and that is A Biblical World View. Yes, it is in and through the Bible, the very Word of God, the eternal and timeless Word of God, that we can find these answers. We do not necessarily like the answer to the first question, but we certainly are thankful to have the answer to the second question.

Why Uvalde? And tragedies like this, both large and small? The Bible is very clear in Genesis that after the glorious creation of all things by God (which is key in a Biblical World View), humankind fell from perfection and brought imperfection to all creation. Thus, now all humankind carries this Sin and lives in a fallen world, a world that is now under the power of sin, death, and the devil, as Martin Luther so well described it.

Yes. This Sin (theologians use the upper case for this over-all fall from grace) separates us from God and puts us at odds with each other. Left unchecked, our Sin would ultimately destroy us and all that exists even for all eternity.

If you are not a person of this understanding at this point, I would challenge you to explain the reality of our world with any other feasible explanation.

There are certainly consequences of this Sin, which become evident everywhere we look. These consequences include, but are not limited to, denial of this Biblical World View, disease, behavioral problems, broken relationships, mental health problems, crimes of all kinds, wars, human chaos of all sorts, human death, etc. Throughout the Bible we see time and time again these consequences of Sin that were evident before us, and now we see through the lenses of Scripture the reason for the presence of all these consequences in our own time. Well come back to this.

Sin. Yes, left unchecked would ultimately destroy us. However, and thankfully, Sin was and is not left unchecked. Of the Two-Point-Truth of the Bible (the first being Sin), the second is the good part, even called The Good News, even called The Gospel. Yes, fortunately, oh-so-fortunately, God Himself did not leave Sin unchecked. First of all, He made His Holy Promise to send a Savior to take on Sin and conquer it, and thereby saving the whole world from these destructive consequences of Sin.

Then, He sent even His own Son, Jesus, to be our Savior. By His perfect life, by His death on the cross to pay the ultimate sacrifice to forgive all sin, and by His conquering even death in His resurrection, Jesus has beaten Sin for all eternity. In reality and in His Perfect Will, God has chosen to leave us in our fallen world at this time, but with these promises. Since Jesus has already defeated sin, death, and the devil, we are now empowered by His Holy Spirit to live our lives meaningfully and faithfully even in the harshness our fallen world; and Jesus will return again at His Perfect Time to bring the new heaven and new earth (The Revelation) into eternal existence for all who believe in Him.

The perfection of The Biblical World View is this. The Law of Scripture shows us our Sin, its consequences in our lives, and our need for a savior because we cannot conquer our Sin by ourselves, even with our best human effort. The Gospel of Scripture declares to us the Good News that God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him, shall not perish, but have eternal life. (John 3:16)

However, there is still one more key component in Gods Plan as revealed in His Biblical World View. Jesus gave His disciples The Great Commission right before He ascended into heaven (the event we marked just this past Thursday, 40 days after the resurrection). Jesus said, Go therefore and make disciples of all people, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Teaching them to observe all which I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, even to the end of the world. (Matthew 28:19)

So, the perfect Biblical World View has us now taking all that I have just laid out from the Bible to the world. That is the Mission of The Church. And here is the way that has played out in history. When The Church has positively influenced governments and societies to live within the Biblical World View, for the most part life for humankind has been better, much better. I cannot go further into world history at this point, and some scholars would certainly disagree with this statement, but I would challenge that a full denial of this is impossible.

So, what about our society? Our government? Our quality of life at this present time? It is sadly clear that in our society today, in the United States of America, that the Biblical World View, upon which our country was founded (yes!), and by which our society lived for the most part in previous generations, it is sadly clear that we have drifted and been driven away from the Biblical World View in far too many ways. Argue if you will, but true. I do not believe our society is already doomed and defeated. So much good still lies within us, but warnings have been and must continue to be made concerning this.

Heres the question: In the absence of The Biblical World View, what takes its place? Many -isms, for sure: atheism, hedonism, narcissism, just to name a few. However, I believe there is one that is now more prevalent and perhaps even more dangerous to our society. And that is nihilism.

Ever so quickly, nihilism is nothing-ism. People believe nothing. People believe nothing is real. People believe they are nothing. People believe their lives mean nothing. People believe nothing is wrong. People believe nothing is contrary to society. People believe nothing is permanent. People believe nothing is of value. And into that nothingness comes the evil of a fallen world.

Combine the reality of mental illness in fallen world with the absence of a Biblical World View, replaced with nihilism, and you get evil rising up and a gunman shooting children! To which we all shout, Make it stop! Make it stop! Make it stop!

What will make it stop? Ultimately, only the return of Jesus Christ to bring His Full and Holy Kingdom for eternity. But until then, we of The Church must take up even more vigorously The Mission of bringing the world, our world, our family, our neighbors, into the Biblical World View of the reality of Sin, the need for forgiveness, the saving work of Jesus Christ, His love for us, and our love for one another, even those who may differ from us.

So, to those who put down our faith and our beliefs and our mission; to those of you in our own government who continue to try to shove us Christians and our Biblical World View further and further to the edges of influence in our society; to you I say, Watch out! Here we come again! We Christians will again become Christian Soldiers, armed not with human weapons, but with the Truth and Love of Jesus our Lord and Savior! Only this will turn the hearts of the people of our society to do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with our God. (Micah 6:8) And I would certainly add, And walk with each other in justice, kindness, and humility.

This is the Ultimate Answer. Amen! And Amen!!

[Kollmeyer, a Fayette County resident for 36 years, is Pastor Emeritus at Prince of Peace Lutheran Church in Fayetteville. Follow Pastor Scott Ness and this great church at http://www.princeofpeacefayette.org. Kollmeyer until recently was Interim Pastor at Word of God Lutheran Church in Sharpsburg. Find some of his video recorded sermons at http://www.woglutheran.org and follow Pastor Jason Dampier and this great church on this site.]

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Why Uvalde? How to stop it? - The Citizen.com

Pick of the weekAbbott ElementaryAbbott Elementary. Photograph: Prashant Gupta/ABC

Quinta Brunsons mockumentary comedy set in a rough-round-the-edges Philadelphia school manages a rare feat. As any teacher worth their salt might demand, it shows rather than tells. Were encouraged to sympathise with the schools scrappy kids and hard-pressed, passionate teachers. But the show strikes a fine balance between comic charm and subtle polemic about the inadequacies of the US education system. As we join the action, a teacher has been fired for kicking a student and a funding battle begins over basic equipment. Brunson also stars as Janine Teagues, an endearing if slightly scatty teacher who delights the kids but sometimes bothers her superiors. Disney+, from Wednesday 1 June

Based on Sex Pistols guitarist Steve Joness memoir, Danny Boyles six-part comedy-drama rattles along energetically enough, summoning up the mood of dank, repressed mid-70s Britain. The angle feels relatively new Joness (Toby Wallace) perspective has been explored less than Sid Viciouss and Johnny Rottens, and his abusive childhood is evoked in all its claustrophobic grimness. But theres an earnestness to the script and performances that feels slightly off, undercutting the bands nihilism. However much they gurn and sneer, the actors simply arent grubby or delinquent enough to pull it off. Disney+, from Tuesday 31 May

The heyday of Scandi-drama seems like a distant memory, but the return of Birgitte Nyborg (Sidse Babett Knudsen) feels like a welcome visit from an old friend. A decade ago, she felt like a principled anomaly. In the populist era, shes even more of a liberal wish-fulfilment fantasy. Nyborg is now minister for foreign affairs and when oil is discovered in Greenland, shes at the centre of an international power struggle in the Arctic. She also has to keep an eye on Katrine Fnsmark (Birgitte Hjort Srensen) who is milking her status as a Nyborg expert on TV. Netflix, from Thursday 2 June

I may be a superhero. But Im still just a man who fell in love with the wrong woman. Homelander (Antony Starr) is attempting a rebrand, but his gentler mode seems even more unhinged. This is par for the course for this returning superhero spoof it manages to have its cake and eat it by satisfying a taste for satire and spectacular ultraviolence. Butcher (Karl Urban) now works for the government and is unusually calm. But when the Boys learn of a mysterious anti-Supe weapon, they collide with the Seven and all hell breaks loose. Amazon Prime Video, from Friday 3 June

Strip clubs had a tough time through the pandemic, and the Pynk in the fictional, deep south town of Chucalissa was no different. Covid-related departures created vacancies. Cue Roulette a new dancer (portrayed by Gail Bean of Snowfall fame), ready to give the club a few headaches and a much-needed fresh lease of life. The first season of this show was a sleeper hit, but P-Valley deserves more attention: its saucy in every sense, but the stories are told generously and from the perspectives of the dancers, and are all the better for it. StarzPlay, from Friday 3 June

This Lycra-clad comedy-drama, launched last year, aims to do for the fitness video what Glow did for female wrestling: present it as an emblem of an era, set in amber and ripe for all sorts of melodrama and kitsch period detail. The problem is, unlike Glow, the characters are never quite well-drawn enough for it to convince, either as drama or comedy. In season two, Sheila Rubin (Rose Byrne) deals with the aftermath of breakthrough success her workout video has spawned imitators and jealous also-rans eager for a share of her spoils. Apple TV+, from Friday 3 June

Season one of this wonderfully daft adventure show (think The Crystal Maze with regular plummets into boiling red gloop) did big, albeit possibly Covid-related, numbers for Netflix, so a second season was a no-brainer. But once youve created an obstacle course of bubbling volcanic matter, how do you raise the stakes? Its obvious really: a massive volcano, spewing even hotter lava! Its fair to say no one can be accused of overthinking this shows USP, and thats part of the appeal. Put it this way: youll watch more than one episode.Netflix, from Friday 3 June

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Pistol to Borgen: the seven best shows to stream this week - The Guardian

The stories collected in Paul Dalla Rosas debut, An Exciting and Vivid Inner Life, are similar enough that you sense a theme, different enough that each comes as a relief. Theyre about young modern lives: precarious and disappointing houses, boyfriends, jobs; trying to make beautiful art, or a beautiful self, to do something or be someone that matters (at least to someone). And the lust and vanity and vulnerability of that.

Many of these ten pieces have appeared elsewhere in Australia and overseas, and marked the Melburnian as a writer to watch. In 2018, Dalla Rosa described his idea of a great short story: It appears, everything else fades away, then its gone An act of transubstantiation, matter simultaneously changed and unchanged. To weigh someones work against their own criteria for success might be a friendly way to load the die but it does describe what these stories achieve.

Characters have no massive epiphanies. In Brooklyn, Melbourne, the Gold Coast, Dubai, innocuous miscalculations make their lives variously more stressful: they slide into debt; get saddled with bad housemates; botch hook-ups, professional opportunities and dermal fillers. You leave them at (or just over) the brink of an awkward moment, anaesthetised dismay, or something darker but not fundamentally different. Still you feel yourself, as a reader, subtly rearranged. Not least because you can breathe again after 20 minutes of wincing: Dalla Rosa is both curious and unflinching about the weirder things our bodies do and that we do to our bodies, a tone set early on in a macabre incident with a boil. But also because theres something absorbing about the bleak acuity with which he renders a bad moment. He knows when to let someone go quiet, or to set an ache of despair against a slash of colour or beauty (phosphenes. Sparks. A burning filament).

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He is very funny, with a lightness of touch that both eases the bleakness and makes it worse skewering his characters with a deadpan economy that belies his keen interest in them. One couple, from the window in the apartment they cant afford, can see the tops of oaks, branches beginning to bud with leaves, and, across the street, a woman rummaging through trash. He sees the pretensions of these people oh, let us live gorgeously, in debt, desperately blindfolded to the suffering of others, the inadequacy of our personal trysts and the total absurdity of the lengths they go to, to preserve delusions of who they might be. But he doesnt hate them. He cares about them, even. Good for you, you find yourself thinking to all these characters burning their lives to the ground, these aspiring life coaches, influencers, Pancake Saloon waiters, stars.

Dalla Rosas publisher compares him to other observers of the ugly, beautiful parts of life, Lucia Berlin, Ottessa Moshfegh and hes been mentored by Abigail Ulman, whose Hot Little Hands isnt far from that family tree. Hes previously referenced Lydia Davis and Lorrie Moore: restless, clever writers, also ruthlessly interested in the way we want things, and get annoyed at the people who dont give them to us.

These characters sit at the edge of jealousy, loneliness, fear, panic, numbed out by greasy phone screens and chat sites and eBay, all horribly exposed by the threadbare stuff of their dreams, their longing to be someone slightly other.

I said Thats great and he said, It is great and I said, Great.

I mean, its okay, he said. Maybe the novel isnt very good.

No, I said. Its great.

We walked like this, me repeating Great, all the way home.

Ive felt all that, Dalla Rosa said in 2019, the feeling of being stagnant, things not going how you planned them too, the feeling of time moving, the realisation you dont get it back. These stories, he told novelist Marlowe Granados earlier this year, come from obsessively trying to figure out the problem of being young. He is fascinated by shock value, takes a knowing glee in it, but doesnt rely on it for momentum, or fall back on sarcasm or nihilism this writing is acid, not sour.

One character moves to LA. She takes her family to the Walk of Fame, and her father tells her one day shell have her own star. Alice said nothing but felt something keenly, something close to pain, because though it was tacky he had said exactly what it was she wanted.

The jokes are deftly executed; the dialogue is cringingly funny. But underneath, these well-choreographed car crashes are all pulled toward the same, tender magnetic pole.

An Exciting and Vivid Inner Life by Paul Dalla Rosa is out 31 May in Australia ($29.99, Allen & Unwin)

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An Exciting and Vivid Inner Life by Paul Dalla Rosa review deftly executed and cringingly funny - The Guardian