Published: February 23, 2008 05:26 pm            

VASICEK: More opinionettes on events

Did you hear about the dyslexic, agnostic, insomniac? He stayed up all night trying to decide if there really was a dog!

Sometimes I wonder if there really is a column. And if I cannot produce one sizable article, I break the glass and pull the emergency lever: I resort to “opinionettes,” brief comments about current events.

NIU shooting

Although the Northern Illinois University shootings may seem far away to many Kokomo residents, not so to we Vasiceks. My brother-in-law graduated from NIU. And even closer to home, my wonderful wife, Marylu, graduated from Northern Illinois University back in 1972.

As a matter of fact, I owe my marriage, in a sense, to Northern Illinois University. My friend Norman attended NIU and was involved with Campus Crusade for Christ while a student. There he met Marylu and later introduced her to me. The rest is history.

Returning to a more somber picture, one of the students who died in this massacre was from my home town of Cicero, Ill. Our prayers are with these families.

Leap year

2008 is a leap year. But why do we have leap years in the first place? Because an actual year is about 365.25 days. Every four years, the four-fourths add up to a whole day, hence leap year. The idea is to coordinate our calendars with the earth’s actual rotation around the sun. Otherwise, spring will eventually start in September.

Our calendar is adjusted so that the vernal equinox occurs on March 21st. If we did not adjust our calendar, we would move off target one day every four years. Hence we correct the problem via leap year.

But an actual solar year is not quite 365.25 per year – it is actually 365.242374, but slowly increasing. To adjust for the fact that 0.242374 is not 0.25, years which are divisible by 100 but not divisible by 400 are not leap years. So there was no leap year in 1900, but we did have a leap year in 2000.

Even with this adjustment, we will have to make another one in about 8,000 years. I’m not worried about it. (Source: Wikipedia).

Denmark

“60 Minutes” poses and answers this question: “Which is the happiest country in the world? According to a scientific study by Leicester University in England, it’s Denmark. And that’s despite having one of the highest tax rates in the world!”

Nonetheless, it seems that Denmark’s status is a matter of interpretation. The ranking is based on standards of health, welfare and education. I would question whether those three social measuring sticks are actually measurements of happiness. There is something rotten in these Denmark studies.

I have many missionary friends. One of them reported that the happiest people he ever met lived in great poverty – but they loved life and enjoyed people. The first question that needs to be decided in such a survey is, “how do you measure happiness?”

But one point seems clear: America is not at the top of the happiness scale. If you look at our divorce statistics, the number of counselors/analysts, and crime statistics, things here could be a lot happier. Unfortunately, most Americans blame the government for all our woes, and they look to government to fix them. And politicians play along, making promises that seem mighty rosy.

More objective studies show time and time again that happy people are social people who participate with others, not necessarily highly educated, well-insured wealthy people. I’ve know more than one miserable individual who was educated, wealthy and had great health insurance.

Ed Vasicek is pastor of Highland Park Church and a weekly contributor to the Kokomo Tribune.

        

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