Baby, It's Cold Outside

OK, maybe not that cold but it did dip below 32 degrees last night which, when you're camping in a tent, is very cold! Noah and I did just that last night with the Cub Scouts in order to earn our Polar Bear badges and we will remember our evening huddled together for warmth when we wear them proudly. All right, maybe that's a bit melodramatic - we were actually fairly comfortable for the night. We put our individual sleeping bags inside a double bag and put the whole thing on an air mattress. We camped with about twenty other scouts and their families out at BSA Camp Moultrie out on Lake Moultrie. It was an adventure, but we're glad to be home now and are looking forward to hot showers and warm beds.


Today being the Democratic primary in South Carolina, I stopped and voted on the way home. I was one of only a dozen or so voters at our polling place (which is Zoe's school gym.) And I was one of only three white voters there. Needless to say there is not a large population of Democrats in our area and those that are, are almost exclusively black. The woman who checked me in to vote asked me twice if I realized I was voting in the Democratic primary. I assured her that I was in complete control of my senses. As I had predicted, I really didn't know who I was going to vote for until I arrived at the polls. Well, truth be told, I decided while I was driving to the school. Noah and I had left the campground around four and during the thirty minute ride back home, Noah fell asleep. This gave me some quite time to contemplate my decision. Shamefully, I haven't put as much research into this election as I did four years ago. I haven't even used one of those on-line questionnaires that identifies the candidate that best matches your political priorities. But while I was driving I came to the realisation that more than finding a candidate that perfectly matches my sensibility, my role in this election is to make my vote count and help my party elect the best person to lead this county and effect change. To that end I decided to vote for Obama. I think I really made that decision four years ago when I watched him on television speaking at the Democratic convention in Boston.


I have said publicly on several occasions that George Bush is a buffoon and an idiot (usually after a glass of wine or several beers.) I've accused him of being a puppet and unintelligent. But the fact is that you don't get to be President of this country by being an idiot. It takes a lot of hard work and perseverance and you have to know what you're doing. Americans may be slowly being overrun by apathy but we aren't yet at a point where we'll elect a buffoon to the oval office - at least I sincerely hope we're not. But the one thing you do have to do, and the one thing that I feel ol' Georgie hasn't been very effective at, is leading. I believe him to be a man of strong convictions and beliefs but that doesn't make him a good leader. Leadership requires charisma and articulation. It requires someone who can unify and motivate and persuade. In my opinion, George W has failed on all counts. For this round of voting at least, my vote went with the person I felt was best equipped to both win the nomination as well lead the country.

What's In A Name?

So today I had to take the day off from work and visit the dentist. Last night I lost a crown during dinner and I was able to get an emergency appointment this morning to have the tooth cleaned up and a temporary crown put on. needless to say, I'm a bit sore right now. And, to add insult to injury (or maybe it should be injury to injury,) Dr. Brad found that my only other crown (from a root canal I had done 15 plus years ago,) also needs to be replaced. All of this happened to the tune of $500 - give or take $50. Oh, well, as Mel said, "We may live in the south, but I'm not being married to a guy with no teeth!" In any case, the trip got me to thinking about something I've contemplated before.

Having been named for the A. A. Milne character, my given first name is Christopher. At eleven letters long, it's not the longest name in existence, but it is longer than average. This fact was never really an issue when I was younger, but as I aged and the world became more dependent on computers, a funny thing started happening. I was first annoyed and then somewhat amused that most computer databases only allow ten spaces for a first name. They often make allowances for longer last names but rarely have I run into any kind of computerized system (and where do you NOT run into one of those these days?) that didn't want to truncate my name. There is many a governmental or medical data base that knows me as Christophe. I don't mind so much, but I'd love someone who knows more about this than I to explain exactly how much is saved by denying me my "r."

OK, I told you that to tell you this. In more recent years I've noticed a new trend in computerized systems. It seems that in our daily lives, into which we try to cram all manner of time saving and space saving gimmicks, computers have started to shorten things even further. Now our computer desktops are littered with scalable "tabs" with titles. Sometimes these "tabs" become the source of some deep thought - well, they do for me at least.

I was sitting in the dentist's chair earlier waiting for the dull ache in my lower right jaw to be replaced by that blissful yet awkward numb feeling that leads to much drooling and an embarrassing grimace. Having already counted all the ceiling tiles in the cubicle in which I now found myself reposing, I turned my head to the side to look at the computer monitor that was displaying my most recent bite wing x-rays for the offending tooth. I examined the screen for a while noting the post and crown on the adjacent tooth which also requires replacing. But soon my eyes started to wander and my gaze drifted to the bottom of the screen where each of the open software applications was represented by a small labeled tab. Most of these didn't mean anything to me but one caught my eye. It was again a case of where the computer's need to save space and memory cost me part of my name - only this time the resulting label was...well...thought provoking. There at the bottom of the screen was a little bar labeled, "Patient Record For Christ." Now there's a medical record I'd like to read. I had to wonder - what exactly would be in Christ's patient record? Suffers from stigmata? Lacerations of the forehead? Most likely our modern medical establishment would label him schizophrenic - "Suffers from delusions of grandeur." "Believes himself to be the son of God." Think about it - what chance would Christ have in our modern pharmaceutically over-dosed society? Me thinks there would be a straight-jacket and lots of diazepam in his future. Mind you, I'm not saying that's the way He should be treated, just that I doubt He would get very far in today's world. We need Him more than ever now, but I'm just not sure we'd actually accept him for who he is. Think about it - even those of you with strong Christian faith - what would be your honest reaction if someone came up to you and told you he was the son of God? Honestly? Maybe I'm just cynical, but I think we'd end up just dismissing him as another kook.

In a related thought, I've noticed that the same issue with my name has come up elsewhere. I do a lot of on-line browsing and shopping (more browsing than actual shopping,) and one of my favorite sites is Amazon. I use Amazon a lot to find album covers so I can add artwork to my iTunes files. In any case, I have an account with Amazon and anytime I log on with my own computer, I get, "Welcome Christopher Hofmann" near the top of my screen and along the top edge is a line of labeled tabs. On of them is a shortcut that reads, "Christ's Amazon." And again I have to wonder - what would be on Christ's wish list? A Holy Bible? Maybe, but which one? Who's translation? And Christ reading a bible is like William Rand and Andrew McNally reading an atlas - sort of a been-there-done-that kind of thing. I'd like to think He might be more interested in reading Ayn Rand, Alvin Toffler, or Jaczues Barzun. Not that I think He'd be agreeing with these writers; just attempting to get a read on today's society (pun definitely intended.) I'd like to think that Christ is someone who would seek to understand many different view points - not someone who would just dismiss anyone who disagreed with him. And what about movies or music. Would He only be interested in praise music? Gospel perhaps? I tend to think not. Sure, He would understand the importance of music in worship and as a way for man to express himself, but Jesus was pretty hip guy and I bet his iPod would be filed with a very eclectic mix of modern and classic tunes. Maybe some Pink Floyd mixed in with Mozart (oh wait, that's my iPod!)

In any case, it makes for some interesting contemplation. I'd love to hear what you think might be on His "Wish List."

Sunday Morning

Well, it’s Sunday morning and the smoke has cleared. Yesterday, South Carolina held its Republican primary and John McCain won (but you already knew that, didn't you.) Fred Thompson didn't do so well which might have had something to do with his campaign staff - one of which was quoted in this morning's paper as saying, "The campaign is still a campaign until it's not the campaign." What? Is that the kind of logic a degree in rhetoric will yield?

Down this way, a registered voter can vote in either primary regardless of declared party affiliation. Which means I could have voted yesterday despite my allegiance to that bastion of northern sensibility – the jackass….I mean donkey….I mean the Democratic Party. Alas, I’ll be waiting until next Saturday’s Primary to cast my vote - but most of you knew too that already, didn't you? And I frankly don't know who I'll vote for. I may be like the many Americans I hear on the news saying that they won't know know who they'll vote for until they walk into the voting booth. I can tell you that I often vote based on gut reactions to people. In my last job I had an opportunity to meet several people who were, or went on to be, political leaders in State or Federal government. And although I'd be very hard pressed to ever vote for him, Mitt Romney is one of the few politicians I met that came off as both genuine and generally likable. Most of them are pretty superficial - especially when dealing with very low placed constituents like me. I have the same sort of feeling about John Edwards although I've never met him. He seems like a very genuine kind of guy - but that opinion isn't based on any type of empirical data. I remember back in '04 (geez, this sounds like some old war story in the making. "Back in '04 when your uncle and me fought the rising tide of Chinese imports......" But I digress.) Anyway, in '04, Barack Obama gave a keynote address at the Democratic National Convention in Boston. I can remember being riveted to my television during his speech and then commenting to several people in days after that I thought Obama would make an excellent representative of the Democrats in '08 (which seemed like so far off at the time.) And then there is Hillary. I've never been a big fan of Ms. Clinton, but I also think she's been unjustly villianized. Most people seem to forget that she's not a First Lady turned politician but rather a politician who happened to serve as First Lady. In any case, I think people are quick to sell her short, but I'm not sure that I'm ready to vote for her.

But what really got me to musing on this issue was a conversation I had yesterday with Tommy at work. It's no secret that having been born and raised in the South, Tommy tends to have a conservative view of the world. Mind you, he's a pretty laid back, live-and-let-live kind of guy; he is, by no means, a radical right-winger. But unlike me, he chose to vote yesterday and, sufficed to say, he'll be at peace with the outcome. In any case we got to chatting about politics (which surprisingly isn't often the subject of conversation at work.) In any case, Tommy indicated that there were two "hot button" issues that helped him decide who to vote for - gay marriage and abortion. And it doesn't take a great stretch of the imagination to guess which side of these issues he comes down on. He feels so strongly about these issues that he declared that he would never be able to vote for a candidate that disagreed with his stance. Although Tommy and I are 180 degrees opposed on these two issues in terms of how we'd vote, I have to say that I very much respect (and envy) his integrity, clarity and decisiveness. For him there's no question involved - if a candidate doesn't share his convictions, he's not going to vote for them. It doesn't make his vote a given, but it does help weed out some of the clutter. While I have my own strong personal convictions regarding these issues, I don't share his adamancy - I would be hard pressed to completely discount a candidate based solely on their stance regarding these two issues. In fact, I don't think I can ever recall a candidate or platform plank that defined for me the way to vote. I do envy anyone who has that advantage. Well, I've got six days to try and make up my mind - hopefully some of Tommy's clarity of thought will rub off on me.

Hey, how 'bout them Patriots! Go New England!

Spinal Tap

I was just listening to All Things Considered on NPR and they quoted Spinal Tap. Never in all my years did I ever think I'd live to hear that. It was a story about scientists trying to create the world's darkest material - which of course led to the quote about, "How much blacker could it be?" "None. None more black." Or something like that. In any case it gave me a smile.

Welcome

Hey all. This is the new home of Southern Transplant - the once in a while, when I feel like it, here's what's going on - ramblings of someone with way too much time on his hands. OK, maybe not that much time on my hands. At least, not as much as I would like. But you get the idea.

For those of you who are new to Southern Transplant (or who might have stumbled here accidentally,) this is my forum for both updating friends and family on my family's escapades as well as place for me to muse on life in the south from someone who spent the first forty years of his existence north of the Mason/Dixon Line. And yes, when I refer to the "north" or "northerners" I'm referring to the north east - a distinction that came to my attention earlier today (which is a story I will relate soon.)

In an attempt to get my writing back on track, I've decided to go this route. I'm hoping this format will be more conducive to my style - allowing me to post shorter ramblings more often rather than feeling like I "need" to come up with enough material to make an email worth wild. We'll see how it goes. Please, let me know what you think.