Happy Birthday, Elvis

The first of three birthdays today (1935, Tupelo, Mississippi) belongs to the King of Rock and Roll, Elvis Presley. Surely I need say no more than that?

First line meme

Here's a meme where you post the first line of the first post of each month for the past year.

January: If you celebrate the turning of the year today, then Happy New Year!
February: Busy day at work but I thought I'd share this with you.
March: It's Saint David's Day - Saint David, known in Wales as Dewi Sant.
April: I just saw this story.
May: Today is the National Day of Reason.
June:This week's science links:
July: A guy named BA over at TPM is boggled:
August: Well, I wronged the good folks at Blogger.
September: This year we in the US celebrate Labor Day today.
October: A while back I asked how it can be so hard to see cardinals, given that they're, you know, bright red?
November:This time we read Remembering Hypatia by Brian Trent.
December: Today is the birthday of Rex Stout (1886).

It looks a fair sampling - language, politics, birds, freethought, books, birthdays, humor. No poetry or Russian, but you can't get everything...

Reflections on 2008

Looking back on 2008, for me personally:

On the negative side, I did no writing (fiction or poetry). I lost touch with several people I wish I hadn't. And I got so wrapped up in the election I find my blog posts were almost entirely that, photos, or birthdays.

On the plus side, I think I've got the hang of the new job - I know how to schedule my classes now so that I'm not overworked. I went to a great set of workshops in the summer. And I got a promotion.

For 2009, I intend to stay in touch with those folks (I've written them all over the holidays), and I promise to start writing again - I'll get submissions into blog carnivals that want more than a photo, and I'll finish the stuff I've left hanging. On the work front, I've got several nice trips in store, but I've managed to make sure I'm not teaching two classroom classes (I'm talking all day twice a week) at the same time - just the on-line seminars at the same time as a traditional course.

And maybe having this post out here will help me focus.

Happiest of Happy Birthdays, Robert!

Today is the birthday of Robert Ingersoll. The great freethinker was born in 1833. As Ebonmuse says,

Both in his professional career and his personal life, Robert Ingersoll was a steadfast defender of the Bill of Rights and the true ideals of America, and a friend to those struggling for liberty everywhere. He spoke out tirelessly not just against religion, but against all evils that oppress the mind and chain the spirit. He was, for example, a fierce foe of slavery and of racism, which was still extremely common in his day; a tireless opponent of corporal punishment and child abuse; and an unapologetic advocate of female suffrage. In the 1800s, it need scarcely be noted, all of these were radical positions.

Ingersoll's lectures blended profound wisdom and courage with a warm, friendly charm and knowing humor, and his positive vision of a human future undergirded by reason and suffused with happiness stands out like a beacon. Thankfully, his eloquence has not been lost to us. His complete works, most of which he had committed completely to memory for his public lectures, are freely available on the Internet. We even have a few rare recordings of his voice, among the first sounds ever recorded on the prototype phonograph built by a prolific young inventor named Thomas Alva Edison.

Though Robert Ingersoll has long since passed on, the flame of freethought kindled by his words has never gone out. From generation to generation, through the darkest depths of fundamentalist resurgence and the bright dawnings of reason's victories, the torch has been passed from hand to hand. And everywhere it has passed through, it has kindled new lights in turn. There is more truth, beauty and wisdom in his works than in the Bible, the Qur'an and the Book of Mormon put together; and although we cannot and do not worship him or his writings, we can and do draw a powerful example from them. In times such as ours, we need a hundred more like him.

Here are a quick couple of excerpts of Ingersoll's writings:

It is far better to give yourself sometimes to negligence, to drift with wave and tide, with the blind force of the world, to think and dream, to forget the chains and limitations of the breathing life, to forget purpose and object, to lounge in the picture gallery of the brain, to feel once more the clasps and kisses of the past, to bring life's morning back, to see again the forms and faces of the dead, to paint fair pictures for the coming years, to forget all Gods, their promises and threats, to feel within your veins life's joyous stream and hear the martial music, the rhythmic beating of your fearless heart.
And then to rouse yourself to do all useful things, to reach with thought and deed the ideal in your brain, to give your fancies wing, that they, like chemist bees, may find art's nectar in the weeds of common things, to look with trained and steady eyes for facts, to find the subtle threads that join the distant with the now, to increase knowledge, to take burdens from the weak, to develop the brain, to defend the right, to make a palace for the soul.
This is real religion. This is real worship.

—"What Is Religion?" (1899)

We have no master on the land —
    No king in air —
Without a manacle we stand,
    Without a prayer,
Without a fear of coming night,
We seek the truth, we love the light.

We waste no time in useless dread,
    In trembling fear;
The present lives, the past is dead,
    And we are here,
All welcome guests at life's great feast —
We need no help from ghost or priest.

—"Declaration of the Free"

Check out Robert Ingersoll's Complete Works