Another interesting thing about the Canadian anthem

A follow-on to yesterday’s post about the superiority of ‘O Canada’:

I was not surprised to read that there are official lyrics in both English and French for the anthem. I was surprised a bit, though, at the stark difference in the message of the two versions.

First, the familiar English version:

O Canada! Our home and native land!
True patriot love in all thy sons command.
With glowing hearts we see thee rise,
The True North strong and free!
From far and wide, O Canada,
We stand on guard for thee.
God keep our land glorious and free!
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.

But compare that with this English translation of the French lyrics:

O Canada! Land of our ancestors,
Thy brow is wreathed with a glorious garland of flowers.
As is thy arm ready to wield the sword,
So also is it ready to carry the cross.
Thy history is an epic Of the most brilliant exploits.
Thy valour steeped in faith
Will protect our homes and our rights
Will protect our homes and our rights.

A very different flavor to those, eh? An “arm ready to wield the sword”, but also “ready to carry the cross”. And rather than the English version standing on guard for the country, the French version stands in protection of “our homes and our rights”.

Fascinating how they’ve chosen to keep the tune and meter the same between both versions, and accepted the inevitable difference in lyrical content.

On the superiority of the Canadian national anthem

Watching the winter Olympics over the past two weeks, I caught at least a few of the medal ceremonies, including at least a couple (including the one after the amazing hockey game yesterday) where the Canadian anthem was played. Each time I was struck with the same thought, which I finally voiced on Twitter yesterday: that the Canadian national anthem is highly superior to ours. One friend expressed the same thought, but another quickly disagreed. So, let me offer a few thoughts in defense of my assertion.

Reasons that ‘O Canada’ is superior to ‘The Star-Spangled Banner’

  • Singability. The purpose of a national anthem is to be sung, right? ‘O Canada’ has a nice, singable melody, and a total range of just one octave, suitable to most voices. ‘The Star-Spangled Banner’, on the other hand, has a range of an octave and a fifth, which is a range typically only well-handled by professional singers. Live performances should be opportunities for national pride, however, when the US anthem is involved, they are more often adventures in vocal torture.
  • Inspiring Language. ‘The True North strong and free.’ What a marvelous turn of phrase. And who can fail to be moved when singing “God keep our land glorious and free”? The Star Spangled Banner is just about a flag, with the bit about the country being sort of tacked on at the end.
  • Using words that people actually are familiar with. With exception, perhaps, of the old English “thy” and “thee”, “O Canada” is composed entirely of words that one might use in everyday writing or conversation. “The Star Spangled Banner”, by comparison? Spangled. Perilous. Ramparts. Gallantly. Ugh.
  • Actually mentioning the name of the country. “O Canada”: 4 mentions, not counting the title. “The Star Spangled Banner”: 0.
  • Not beginning and ending with a question. Questions typically belong in plaintive, whiny songs, not broad anthems. Starting off “O say can you see?” and ending with “O say does that star-spangled banner yet wave?”, while presumably intended as rhetorical flourishes, doesn’t impart the same sort of solidarity as “O Canada, we stand on guard for Thee”.

Sadly, any attempt to change the US anthem at this point would only result in choosing something worse. “God Bless America” is too overtly theistic to get official sanction; “America the Beautiful” has many of the same issues as the current anthem (hard to sing, odd words). There are occasional odd choices proposed, too, similarly troublesome. For instance, Woody Guthrie’s “This Land Is Your Land”: written by a communist sympathizer. And who wants to hear a folksy protest song played at the beginning of every sporting event and solemn political occasion?

Being a loyal American I will continue to honor my country by standing when the national anthem is played. But I will at the same time regret that our inferior anthem ensures that we will never have a scene like the one that played out in the Canadian hockey arena yesterday, with 18,000 victorious fans singing the anthem at the top of their lungs.

I am now spoiled to commercial air travel forever

Yesterday I traveled with five coworkers from Cedar Rapids, IA to Wichita, KS, to participate in our quarterly update meeting with the FAA.

Normally, commercial travel to Wichita from CR means taking a flight connecting through either Chicago O’Hare or Dallas-Fort Worth. For a Wednesday morning meeting you’d need to leave CR early afternoon on Tuesday, spend hours in airports, 3 - 4 hours actually flying, spend the night overnight in Wichita, then reverse the procedure on Wednesday afternoon to fly home, possibly making it home in early evening… assuming the weather is decent and all the flight connections happen.

To counter this massive hassle and resulting lack of productivity for several engineers, enter this fine little piece of hardware: the company Hawker 800 XP.

Hawker 800 XP

It’s fitted out nicely on the inside, too, similar to this:

Hawker interior

Being able to fly on our company jet made our itinerary for the trip to Wichita run something like this:

  • 0715: Arrive at company facility at CR airport
  • 0716: Announce myself and get name checked off on the manifest
  • 0725: Walk out onto the tarmac and board the plane
  • 0730: One of the pilots points out the emergency exits to me, the first-timer
  • 0735: We take off. Once we climb out, we cruise at 36,000 feet and nearly 600 MPH
  • 0840: Land in Wichita. Climb off the plane and walk across the street to the FAA office.
  • 0900 - 1230: Meet with the FAA
  • 1230: Walk back across the street to the airport
  • 1245: Board the aircraft and take off again
  • 1300: Eat a box lunch after we’re back up at 36,000 feet
  • 1405: Land back in CR
  • 1415: Get off the plane after being towed into the hangar
  • 1435: Arrive back home

It’s still stunning to me - we went down to Wichita, had a half-day meeting, came home, and didn’t even use the full workday.

I am now spoiled to commercial air travel forever.

Sometimes knowing too much is a bad thing

Last night Becky and I sat down to watch the second episode ( titled “Rewind”) of the Fox show Human Target. The first episode was fun in a cheesy action-thriller sort of way, so we decided to give it a continued try.

Back in high school, I had some friends whose dad was a submarine officer in the US Navy. They said it was unbearable to watch The Hunt for Red October around him because he spent the whole moving groaning at the inaccuracies it portrayed in the submarine. After watching this episode of Human Target, I think I now know how he felt. As an avionics systems engineer, the details of this in-air plot just drove me batty. Allow me to elaborate.

First, the plane is going down for no apparent reason. Yes, there’s a fire down in the fuselage, but that shouldn’t cause complete loss of control.

Second, they’ve gotta put the fire out, and apparently there is more wind flow over the top of the aircraft than the bottom (???? Totally bogus) so the solution is to fly upside down until the increased airflow puts the fire out. Are you kidding me?!? We’re not talking a fighter jet here, we’re talking a large airliner. While there is this rather famous video of Boeing test pilot Tex Johnston doing a barrel roll in a 707, look at how much altitude he loses just turning the thing over! There’s no way the airplane could stay airborne and upside down for long, much less the fifteen minutes or so that it does in this episode.

Third, while they’re flying along upside down, suddenly they can’t flip it back around to right-side-up because the on-board computer locked up. We’ll ignore the detail that they say the “flight management” computer locked up when, in reality, it’s the flight control computer that would help them fly the plane. Once the pilot diagnoses that it’s locked up, somebody asks if they can’t just reboot it. And of course the answer is no, they can’t. By this point I’m yelling at the tv screen. “OF COURSE YOU CAN REBOOT IT YOU IDIOTS! POP THE FREAKING BREAKER AND RESET IT AND YOU’LL REBOOT IN JUST A FEW SECONDS!!!” (Becky is not appreciating me too much at this point.) But apparently NONE OF THEM REALIZE THAT, since they then have to go on to…

Fourth, the amazing computer hacker on board decides she can somehow download the flight management software onto her laptop, patch the laptop into the aircraft system, and use it to control the plane. About the only thing that whole sequence gets right is that there are ethernet-based networks on modern aircraft. But it would be next thing to impossible to hack into the system to download the software, and COMPLETELY IMPOSSIBLE to then patch that laptop into the system. And why was she able to download the software right there in the (upside-down) cabin, but to patch it into the aircraft system, they had to go down to the avionics bay?

Fifth, once they got down to the amazingly-spacious avionics bay, they apparently were able to just unplug a standard RJ45 ethernet jack (and normal-looking ethernet cable) from the aircraft wiring and plug it into the laptop, and SHAZAM! it worked! What they ignore is that standard ethernet wiring and a plastic RJ45 jack would never pass aircraft environmental and vibration testing. All ethernet connections in an avionics system are routed through stout metal screw-on connectors, not secured with wimpy plastic clips.

Well, it’s the world of TV, which means that yes, everything worked out fine inside of an hour, the bad guys were caught, the good guys survived to fight another day, and the hero got in his wisecracks just before the credits rolled. (Oh, and fun side-note: two episodes of Human Target, two appearances by actors who had major roles in Battlestar Galactica. For whatever that’s worth in your geek scoring system.) Next time, I hope they just stay off the airplanes so I don’t have to deal with knowing too much about reality for my hour of entertainment.

Partaking "in an unworthy manner"

Brent Thomas posted yesterday on the question of “fencing the table” at communion, and while the comment thread on his post has gone down the path of fencing based on doctrinal fidelity (ah, those Calvinists!), I’ve been more thinking about it from my evangelical perspective, and the idea of partaking “in an unworthy manner”. (Thanks to my brother Andrew for batting around some thoughts with me.)

1 Corinthians 11 is the relevant passage here:

In the following directives I have no praise for you, for your meetings do more harm than good. In the first place, I hear that when you come together as a church, there are divisions among you, and to some extent I believe it. No doubt there have to be differences among you to show which of you have God’s approval. When you come together, it is not the Lord’s Supper you eat, for as you eat, each of you goes ahead without waiting for anybody else. One remains hungry, another gets drunk. Don’t you have homes to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the church of God and humiliate those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you for this? Certainly not!

For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.” For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.

Therefore, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. A man ought to examine himself before he eats of the bread and drinks of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without recognizing the body of the Lord eats and drinks judgment on himself. That is why many among you are weak and sick, and a number of you have fallen asleep. But if we judged ourselves, we would not come under judgment. 32When we are judged by the Lord, we are being disciplined so that we will not be condemned with the world.

So then, my brothers, when you come together to eat, wait for each other. If anyone is hungry, he should eat at home, so that when you meet together it may not result in judgment.

Now, in the churches I’ve been in, the pastor typically instructs the congregation something along these lines before communion is served: “take a minute quietly, examine your heart, ask God to reveal sin to you that needs confessed, then confess and partake. Don’t take it unworthily.” And while these are good instructions, I’m not sure they’re actually the point of the passage.

The problem Paul is addressing with the Corinthians isn’t that there are a bunch of unrepentant sinners partaking of communion (which undoubtedly there were), but rather that people are coming and gobbling up the food in a haphazard, flippant, gluttonous fashion, not recognizing, as Paul says, that this is the body of the Lord. They’re not taking it as a serious remembrance. Paul’s corrective summary in verse 33 doesn’t say “repent of your sins before you partake!” - rather, it says “wait for each other”. Paul is emphasizing the corporate nature of this sacrament, something that the Corinthians seem to have forgotten.

I don’t want to discount the need for examining our hearts as we come before God in worship - in Matthew 5:23-24 Jesus says to go make things right with your brother before you come to the altar to sacrifice to God. But I’ve talked to people who told me “you know, I thought about it, and I remembered something I needed to settle with another person, so I let the elements go by and didn’t partake”, and this, to me, seems to be entirely missing the point.

Partaking of the bread and the cup in communion is a reminder of the sacrifice that gave us salvation. In giving us salvation, God calls us to repent and believe, even knowing full well that perfect repentance won’t ever happen for us this side of eternity. In communion, God calls us to remember the death of His Son, with the same heart of brokenness and repentance that is working in our salvation, even as He knows that each of us will go back out and willfully commit sin.

To put it another way: communion isn’t intended to be for Christians who’ve somehow managed to get everything cleaned up. In examining ourselves, we should quickly recognize that we wretched, miserable sinners desperately need Jesus’ blood to cleanse us every day. And in partaking, we should not fear that we’ve somehow forgotten a sin and so God is going to smack us, but rather should be humbly thankful for the awesome gift we have been given.

Going To Morrow

My friend Dan’s greeting on Twitter this morning brought this song to mind - it’s a witty, punny little two minutes that’s completely worth your time.

The Muppet Show doing “Going To Morrow”.

Now Playing: Brian Eno <em>Ambient 1: Music for Airports</em>

Time to start something new around here - from time to time I’ll highlight a record that I’ve been playing. I’ll start with a rather obscure one this afternoon: Brian Eno’s Ambient 1: Music for Airports.

Brian Eno is pretty much the king of ambient music, and Ambient 1 is one of his earlier works, dating back to 1978. This isn’t something that you’re going to want to sit down and just focus on for the entire 45 minute playtime, but it makes a beautiful backdrop to an hour, almost fading out here and there but never quite leaving the edges of your consciousness. Even if you’re not typically a listener of ambient music, it’s worth a try.

No promises about the video content on this one, but the music is worth a listen.

Offering right sacrifices

In 2010 I’m undertaking the Bible reading plan put out by The Journey, and this morning’s reading hit an interesting combination of passages - Genesis 4, Psalm 4, and Matthew 4. The theme that links them all: offering right sacrifices to God.

Genesis 4 gives us the familiar story of Cain and Abel. Abel gives the right sort of sacrifice. Cain doesn’t. Jealousy and murder ensues. Such a tragic story.

Psalm 4:4 - 8 follows up that sobering story with these verses:

4 In your anger do not sin; when you are on your beds, search your hearts and be silent.

5 Offer right sacrifices and trust in the LORD.

6 Many are asking, “Who can show us any good?” Let the light of your face shine upon us, O LORD.

7 You have filled my heart with greater joy than when their grain and new wine abound.

8 I will lie down and sleep in peace, for you alone, O LORD, make me dwell in safety.

David gets in several zingers here that speak directly to me in my daily situation:

  • If you’re angry with what you see happening, don’t sin, but rather shut your mouth and search your heart.
  • Offer right sacrifices and trust the Lord.
  • The light of God’s face on us will bring joy greater than any material possession.
  • I can sleep in peace knowing that God alone is my security.

So what are these “right sacrifices” that God wants from me? A couple of texts quickly come to mind:

1 Samuel 15 - King Saul attempts half-hearted, doing-what-seems-right sacrifices, and is corrected by Samuel: God desires obedience rather than those sacrifices.

Romans 12 - reaffirms the command in 1 Samuel by telling us that we should present our bodies as living sacrifices.

So there it is, loud and clear: the right sacrifice that God desires is our obedience. If I’m wearing myself out doing lots of ‘good things’ thinking that God will be happy with me, while at the same time I’m ignoring areas in my life where I’m choosing to not be obedient to God, I’m doing it wrong. God has already justified me apart from any right living on my part. My obedience to him is an offering to show my love to Him for what He has already done. And, as the Psalmist says, I will find greater joy and peace in that life of obedience than in any striving for material things.

The final passage in today’s reading (Matthew 4) fits in nicely with this lesson as well. Jesus goes to the desert and is tempted by Satan with some ‘good’ things. Jesus, though, sets the example for us by choosing obedience. I would do well to follow.

Tales from THE SNOWPOCALYPSE, Day 2

Morning timeline:

  • 0530: alarm goes off
  • 0532: check of the cancellations page via my iPod touch shows work status as “2 hour delay”
  • 0615: grudgingly head out to snowblow the driveway
  • 0725: make it back in from clearing the driveway
  • 0730: cancellations page says “snow policy in effect” (i.e. you don’t have to come in, but you can) Conflicted as to whether or not I should try to go in.
  • 0750: finished with a shower, decided not to go in.
  • 0800: work officially closes, sends people home
  • 0830: second pot of coffee on, Christmas music playing. AWESOME.

At least I didn’t try to go in. First time work has sent people home for snow in the 10 years I’ve been there.

I think we’ve gotten about 8 inches here so far, heavier and wetter than I had anticipated. Now it’s time for the temps to drop and the wind to start blowing really hard. Guess I’ve gotta hand it to meteorologist Joe Winters, he was right this time. I feel like I should seek him out and do my meekest “I’m sorry, Dick Butkus” impression.

Happy snow day, everybody!

It's the SNOWPOCALYPSE!

Cower in your homes, everyone - IT’S THE SNOWPOCALYPSE!

Vicious white stuff will attack from the sky. Invisible freezing pneumatic forces will sweep across the land, infiltrating your homes through drafty windows and driving the white stuff into tall barriers that will prevent any and all vehicular conveyance!

Keep your children indoors, stockpile supplies, stay tuned to this channel for further updates! There is no escaping THE SNOWPOCALYPSE. Only the well-prepared will survive.