It is hard to believe there is much sense in updating, but I will do it anyway.
I have begun studying for a position with a company which contracts with the FAA as a Certified Weather Observer. I have no guarantee to get this job. And those that I have spoken with have told me that I will have to work twice as hard as the next guy to get my foot in the door simply because I have no experience. I put the idea on the shelf for about six months, and now am ready to commit to the time necessary to get the job done. The point will be to go in to the contracting company and say something like this: "Hi. I want to be a weather observer. Here is the evidence of all the work I've put into learning the ins and outs of weather observing. Ask me any question. I can answer it. I love weather and know how to write a METAR in my sleep. If this work here isn't evidence of that, I don't know what is. Will you hire me?"
On another note, I thought I'd share something a little personal. Perhaps it's news (though perhaps not) to those reading r&r that I'm prone to a spell of melancholy now and then. I've learned to live with it. Partially by recording and focusing on the goodness of God, and partially by suppressing my emotions. I'm not so sure the last one is a wise move, but it's where I am with it. We are not called to be controlled by our emotions, but to have a spirit of self-control. And of love. I am learning that exercising that love for God and for others (which Romans 6 plainly gives me quarter to do, even commanding me to do so) is a good practice for dispelling the darkness that creeps in when I'm not looking.
This painting by Frank Bramley expresses much of it. I know the painting looks hopeless -- in fact it is titled A Hopeless Dawn -- but I can relate so well to the image that I have fallen in love with it. The sun is rising, there is food and fire on the table, and a home with company. And yet the disconsolate figure in the foreground is quite often my soul in the midst of the provision of the basic necessities of life and beyond. It is utter insanity, yet I have learned the compassionate response to such emotions is paramount. I fail to exercise it, but I cannot say I do not know it.
Finally, I have decided that a bit of sharpening of my mental skills is needed. I am spending the evenings not spent in study for the test in study of other matters. I am currently reading a biography of Michael Faraday, jotting notes in the margins and generally awed by the providence of God in the life, gifting, and struggles of one of His children. In the end, Faraday would exercise his love of science to provide a blessing for all humanity with his advancement of electromagnetism, and his diaries and lab notes which provide keen insight into what appears (to me) to be the Christian's encouragement gained from the philosophy of scientific inquiry. I wish I was less dull in order to provide a clear exposition of my thoughts, but it will be sufficient to say that the search for truth, both physically and spiritually, both require the careful attention paid to words and a reliance upon clear communication and exactness of meaning. In other words, no fluffy stuff. Today's science has welcomed fluff and I believe we will see a consequent decline in the amount of "real" science and "real" benefit to humankind.
That's all for now.
posted by Marcian @ 9:20 PM
2 comments
