How did you celebrate Presidents Day? I'm sure you went all out like I did. When I asked the team on Monday who their favorite President was, there was a serious dearth of responses. But they were fascinated by the devotion I led about the Jefferson Bible. Have you ever heard of it? Thomas Jefferson had his own ideas about what should and shouldn't be in the Bible. So he did a literal cut and paste job, and one result was "The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth." Anything Jefferson deemed unnatural (miracles and the Trinity, for example) or 'inconsistent' with Jesus' character (Matthew 10:34-35) was removed. That's a lot of stuff. It's quite an interesting read, and it's proof that leaders of countries are flawed people just like everyone else. As if we needed that proof right now.
I finished three groups of Mizo Chin this week. We're in the booklets now that have a lot of speech bubbles, so these will take a bit longer. But it all gets us one step closer to releasing the entire language for use in Myanmar. It will be nice to reach that goal, especially so early in the year.
You should be getting my prayer letter soon. It's being mailed out this week, so if you don't see in the next couple of weeks, let me know. We've been having some issues with our system randomly deleting addresses. It's a real mess.
On Wednesday, we had our prayer rally. This one was hosted by the director of 4VEH, the radio ministry in Haiti. They are celebrating 70 years of operation this year, which is pretty incredible even without considering that it broadcasts in a country not known for its political or economic stability. It's a real testament to God's faithfulness.
As for a health update, I got the results from my heart monitor - normal sinus rhythm, so for those of you who were wondering if it even existed, you can rest assured that my heart is firmly in place. Normality is good, of course, but it also means that there is still a question of what exactly is wrong. For now, I'm just going to keep an eye on things and keep a record of symptoms, see if a pattern emerges. Time to put my deerstalker on!
That's about it for the week, as far as work goes. If you want to stick around, I'm going to talk about the time I did a presidential ranking in college because of course I have a favorite POTUS. (Except I misspoke on Monday and said it was Pierce when I meant to say Polk. They are very different.) Who's yours?
Bye!
Okay, so presidential rankings are weird. It's been going on forever, but it's always subjective and completely arbitrary. You could argue that the first ranking took place in 1927, when Gutzon Borglum and Calvin Coolidge chose George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson, and Theodore Roosevelt to be the literal faces of Mount Rushmore. Sure, they planned on more, but who's gonna try to change it now? No one, that's who.
Arthur Schlesinger, Sr. is really the one who got things rolling. He polled 55 historians in 1948 and averaged out the results. Again, Lincoln and Washington topped the list. But there was no criteria. Seriously, how do you rank something like that when it's guaranteed for just about any president that half the country is going to like him and half the country is going to hate him?
But I tried. Because of course I did. My categories (scored on a 1-5 scale) went like this:
1. Character and public presence
2. Goal achievement
3. Foreign policy
4. Domestic policy
5. Legacy
Obviously, there are still a variety of opinions one can have in each category, but since it was my ranking, my opinion was the only one that mattered. So there.
Now, I did this in 2007. That's important because a) recent presidential deaths always boost them in the ranking and b) I think it's ridiculous to try rating sitting or recent presidents (recent like in the last 30 years). At the time, Washington, Lincoln, and Reagan all tied with 41 points out of 50. I argued then, and I'd argue now, that Washington should be taken out of the ranking completely, and possibly Lincoln. Georgie boy literally defined what it was to be president, so he has an unfair advantage, and no one is ever going to beat Lincoln's legacy. And Reagan was getting a sympathy vote because he'd recently died. But fourth was James Polk. In my opinion, he was an excellent POTUS. He definitely deserves to be studied more than he is now.
As for who came last, well that would be Andrew Johnson, followed closely by James Buchanan. It's not a coincidence that their terms bookended the Civil War. Neither was good at dealing with that situation.
If you want to see my old list or look at the new one I've decided to do, or if you have questions about ranking and how I dealt with people who died or resigned, I'd be happy to show you. I'm gonna nerd out this weekend!
I finished three groups of Mizo Chin this week. We're in the booklets now that have a lot of speech bubbles, so these will take a bit longer. But it all gets us one step closer to releasing the entire language for use in Myanmar. It will be nice to reach that goal, especially so early in the year.
You should be getting my prayer letter soon. It's being mailed out this week, so if you don't see in the next couple of weeks, let me know. We've been having some issues with our system randomly deleting addresses. It's a real mess.
On Wednesday, we had our prayer rally. This one was hosted by the director of 4VEH, the radio ministry in Haiti. They are celebrating 70 years of operation this year, which is pretty incredible even without considering that it broadcasts in a country not known for its political or economic stability. It's a real testament to God's faithfulness.
As for a health update, I got the results from my heart monitor - normal sinus rhythm, so for those of you who were wondering if it even existed, you can rest assured that my heart is firmly in place. Normality is good, of course, but it also means that there is still a question of what exactly is wrong. For now, I'm just going to keep an eye on things and keep a record of symptoms, see if a pattern emerges. Time to put my deerstalker on!
That's about it for the week, as far as work goes. If you want to stick around, I'm going to talk about the time I did a presidential ranking in college because of course I have a favorite POTUS. (Except I misspoke on Monday and said it was Pierce when I meant to say Polk. They are very different.) Who's yours?
Bye!
Okay, so presidential rankings are weird. It's been going on forever, but it's always subjective and completely arbitrary. You could argue that the first ranking took place in 1927, when Gutzon Borglum and Calvin Coolidge chose George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson, and Theodore Roosevelt to be the literal faces of Mount Rushmore. Sure, they planned on more, but who's gonna try to change it now? No one, that's who.
Arthur Schlesinger, Sr. is really the one who got things rolling. He polled 55 historians in 1948 and averaged out the results. Again, Lincoln and Washington topped the list. But there was no criteria. Seriously, how do you rank something like that when it's guaranteed for just about any president that half the country is going to like him and half the country is going to hate him?
But I tried. Because of course I did. My categories (scored on a 1-5 scale) went like this:
1. Character and public presence
2. Goal achievement
3. Foreign policy
4. Domestic policy
5. Legacy
Obviously, there are still a variety of opinions one can have in each category, but since it was my ranking, my opinion was the only one that mattered. So there.
Now, I did this in 2007. That's important because a) recent presidential deaths always boost them in the ranking and b) I think it's ridiculous to try rating sitting or recent presidents (recent like in the last 30 years). At the time, Washington, Lincoln, and Reagan all tied with 41 points out of 50. I argued then, and I'd argue now, that Washington should be taken out of the ranking completely, and possibly Lincoln. Georgie boy literally defined what it was to be president, so he has an unfair advantage, and no one is ever going to beat Lincoln's legacy. And Reagan was getting a sympathy vote because he'd recently died. But fourth was James Polk. In my opinion, he was an excellent POTUS. He definitely deserves to be studied more than he is now.
As for who came last, well that would be Andrew Johnson, followed closely by James Buchanan. It's not a coincidence that their terms bookended the Civil War. Neither was good at dealing with that situation.
If you want to see my old list or look at the new one I've decided to do, or if you have questions about ranking and how I dealt with people who died or resigned, I'd be happy to show you. I'm gonna nerd out this weekend!
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