Friday, December 23, 2016

A Skeptic Asks about Christmas

Here is Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times interacting with a gracious but unequivocal Tim Keller about the virgin birth.

Pastor, Am I a Christian?


Thursday, December 22, 2016

15 Criminal and Regulatory Referrals

Planned Parenthood/StemExpress congressional investigation updates:

https://energycommerce.house.gov/news-center/press-releases/select-panel-refers-numerous-entities-further-investigation-possible

https://energycommerce.house.gov/news-center/letters/select-investigative-panel-criminal-and-regulatory-referrals

Tuesday, December 13, 2016

Slave Narrative Describes the 1833 Leonid Meteor Shower

I have been slowly reading through FDR's WPA Federal Writers Project "Slave Narratives" from the 1930's. Today I read the narrative of Abraham Jones of Alabama, in which he describes the Leonid meteor shower on November 13, 1833.

Conditions were such at the time that the 1833 shower was supposedly the most spectacular of the Leonid meteor showers in recorded history. (These showers happen every 33 years, so the next one will be in 2031.)

A word about the slave narratives. All of the slave narratives were transcribed by writers in an attempt to get down on paper for posterity the first hand experiences of former slaves in their own words. Transcriptions and quotes are exact, so these narratives use language commonly used in that time, but which we find abhorrent in our culture. (The Jones narative is not hard to read, however.)

Here's Abraham Jones describing his experience
Here is a little modern article on the 1833 shower from The Richmond News

Monday, December 12, 2016

Kipling on Character

This is one of the most famous of Kipling's works -- and one of my most favorite poems. It explains what character looks like in daily life.

In the concrete, he describes such character traits as humility, cool-headedness, trustworthiness, perseverance, courage and risk, resignation and fortitude.

Poetry Foundation link

If—
    
If you can keep your head when all about you
    Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,   
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, 
    But make allowance for their doubting too;   
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting, 
    Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies, 
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating, 
    And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise: 

If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;   
    If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;   
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster 
    And treat those two impostors just the same;   
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken 
    Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools, 
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken, 
    And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools: 

If you can make one heap of all your winnings 
    And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss, 
And lose, and start again at your beginnings 
    And never breathe a word about your loss; 
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew 
    To serve your turn long after they are gone,   
And so hold on when there is nothing in you 
    Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’ 

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,   
    Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch, 
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you, 
    If all men count with you, but none too much; 
If you can fill the unforgiving minute 
    With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,   
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,   
    And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!

Saturday, December 10, 2016

What Happens When You Make Words Illegal

Interesting thoughts by a Jungian psychologist at the the center of a free speech legal maelstrom in Canada, Dr. Jordan Peterson article. Here he discusses the problem with authoritarian attempts to make certain types of speech illegal.

"This is why free speech is so important. You can struggle to formulate some argument, but when you throw it out into the public, there’s a collective attempt to modify and improve that. So with the hate speech issue – say someone’s a Holocaust denier, because that’s the standard routine – we want those people out there in the public so you can tell them why they’re historically ignorant, and why their views are unfounded and dangerous. If you drive them underground, it’s not like they stop talking to each other, they just don’t talk to anyone who disagrees with them. That’s a really bad idea and that’s what’s happening in the United States right now. Half of the country doesn’t talk to the other half. Do you know what you call people you don’t talk to? Enemies.
If you have enemies, you have war.
If you stop talking to people, you either submit to them, or you go to war with them. Those are your options and those aren’t good options. It’s better to have a talk. If you put restrictions on speech, then you can’t actually talk about the difficult things that need to be talked about....
What happens when that truth actually does contribute to violence against groups?
You pick your poison, and free speech is the right poison. There are groups that advocate for hate, but that’s not the issue. The issue is whether repressing them makes it better or worse. I would say that [repressing them] just makes it worse. There’s [sic] lots of times when you don’t have a good option. People think that if we just don’t let them talk, it’ll go away. It doesn’t work that way at all. In fact, if they’re paranoid, you just justify their paranoia. By pushing them underground, you don’t weaken them. You just give them something compelling to fight against. You make them into heroes in their own eyes."

Tuesday, December 6, 2016

Castro remembered

Armando Valledares in The Huffington Post on life in Castro's gulags

Monday, November 21, 2016

Corrie ten Boom: Watchmaker, Spinster, Subversive (re-post)

Corrie ten Boom was an old, Dutch spinster, a watchmaker with her family business.

She was also a dangerous contra-Nazi subversive, hiding Jews in her own house, serving as a central link in the communications of the Dutch resistance, and stealing massive stacks of meal tickets from the Nazis to make sure Jewish people were fed.

She and her sister and father were eventually captured and sent to a series of prisons, where they were stripped naked, beaten, and starved with Jewish and other political prisoners. In the barracks at Ravensbruck she secretly led prayer and Bible study, and administered vitamin drops to prisoners with materials she and her brave sister had miraculously secreted in.

If you haven't read her own rather short and gripping account of her resistance to the Nazis, may I commend to you her book, The Hiding Place.

In honor of the liberation of the Jews at Auschwitz, here are some of her quotes, (presented at goodreads website), she who faced extreme hatred and fear -- and responded in courage and love.

"In darkness God's truth shines most clear."

"Some knowledge is too heavy... you cannot bear it...your Father will carry it until you are able."

"Whenever we cannot love in the old human way, God can give us the perfect way."

"This is what the past is for! Every experience God gives us, every person he puts in our lives, is the perfect preparation for the future that only He can see." 

What's Deuteronomy Got to Do with It? (re-post)

One segment in Nancy Guthrie's series "Help Me Teach the Bible"

Scott Redd on Deuteronomy

https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/help-me-teach-the-bible-scott-redd-on-deuteronomy

In this audio, Scott lays out ideas for how to teach and explain Deuteronomy to lay people. Included is the following: a discussion of the context for the book historically and a descriptive word picture of what is happening among the Israelites at the time, the covenantal framework of the book, the idea of using the Ten Commandments as an outline for the laws, a handling topics like slavery and punishment within the context of Scripture, and how we are to view sacrifice and purity laws, theocratic laws, and moral laws as believers today -- as not one jot or tittle of the law has passed away. Scott also discusses something he calls Mosaic Eschatology -- Moses looks ahead, and at the end of the discussion, grave errors he has encountered in approaching teaching OT Scripture.

"The Old Testament is not rejected, denied, or refuted by Christ and the apostles...They [the OT books] still make claims on us....How do they, in light of the work, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ."

"We are still called to love the Lord our God with all of our heart, and all of our selves, and all of our strength today."

Strengthening the Executive Function (re-post)

Three publications look at how to develop your frontal lobe function
-- Psychology Today

-- Sharp Brain

"Examples of neurobic exercises are listed below:
Writing or using a utensil with your non-dominant hand.
Walking down your hallway with your eyes closed.
1-leg balancing exercises.
Spend time outside smelling all the plants and flowers.
Eat foods with lots of colors to stimulate your visual senses.
Feel the texture of different objects like rocks, shells, etc.
Additional neurobic activities include:
The use of essential oils – take a sniff to excite your brain.
Brushing the teeth with your non-dominant hand.
Listening to classical music or music that has different tones, melodies and instruments than you are used to listening too.
Surround yourself with lots of different colors.
Play a new instrument or try a new sporting activity.
Do a crossword puzzle.
Walk barefoot outside and pay attention to the unique feel of the rocks and ground with your feet.
Sit in a park and journal about all the unique sounds and smells you are experiencing.
Read a book or recite a speech out-loud while pacing with your eyes closed
Try a new, healthy dish with unique flavors you are not accustomed too."

Thursday, November 10, 2016

Christianity and Foreign Policy

Dad from Shangri-La, Vice Admiral J.S. Redd, Ret., signs a statement about Christianity and US foreign policy:

"A Christian Declaration on American Foreign Policy" Providence Journal 

Women in Direct Ground Combat

Brother from Shangri-La, Scott Redd, and Friend of Shangri-La, Jennifer Marshall, write about pragmatic and biblical concerns with intentionally putting women in direct ground combat roles.

"Deploying Women to Direct Ground Combat" from Providence Journal of Christianity and American Foreign Policy

In Christian theology, responding to God’s call to that cultural task is imperative for human beings seeking to honor God. Incorporating Bavinck’s observation above, honoring God means honoring him as his image. From this perspective, if sexual difference is part of humanity’s imaging of God, then recognizing and respecting sexual differences is essential to honor God. This conclusion has implications both for individuals inhabiting sexually differentiated bodies, and for males and females relating in community.

To strive for [gender] interchangeability fails to reflect the fullness of the image of God. Similarly, to set up typically male achievements as markers of female success risks denigrating aspects of God’s image that he has revealed in the nature of females.

Monday, November 7, 2016

Begin at the Beginning

When we persuade mothers and fathers that it is acceptable to kill their own children, we have no hope in bringing peace and love to our land. The process of peace and love and healing begins with truth, forgiveness, and a new direction.

A long and beautiful speech, of which this is one short part:

Mother Theresa 1994 National Prayer Breakfast

Saturday, November 5, 2016

Pleading the Case for the Mundane

(Re-posting)


Saturday, September 6, 2014


Pleading the Case for the Mundane

A letter to a gifted prep school friend

Dear Friend,

You are caught up in a hundred little deaths of your soul these days. You are forced to sit through classes which are beneath you.

You know more about these books, these histories; you understand them better than your peers. You are better read than some of your teachers. This is really true, at least in an academic sense.

In other classes you are made to study material you know you will never use. Odds are good you won't need that quadratic formula in graduate school or in cooking your dinner.

And this is an indignity. You, O Suburban Minion, must abide the endless chores of polite conversation, lunchroom shufflings, leading questions, obvious observations, endless chores, polite conversation....

You have better taste.

Every day you are forced to eat food lacking in subtlety, speak to people lacking in insight and nuance, and grind through homework assignments lacking in imagination and spark, taught by adults who punch the card when you include "setting," "characters," and an ample amount of ham-handed adverbial verbiage.

Similes that sit like a knuckle sandwich in your mouth.

What's the use? Where are Sartre and Camus and Kerouc and Woolf in all of this mundane flotsam and jetsam? Where is the Green Knight?

Where is Keats in this tedious homework assignment to analyze Fanny Brawne -- 'til the Bright Star herself becomes thick-limbed, ugly, and graceless with dead eyes? Nothing like the sun.

Oh to be one of those noted intellectuals! Those brilliant sparks, caught up in thought and conversation, and not hampered by The Daily Bourgeois of suburban high school and carpool line and vacuuming the stairs.

Oh to feed that bright fire of the mind, all day, with people who understand and appreciate the heat!

Yet, you are well-read. What about those characters you know so well?

What about Saruman in his tall tower hanging in the thin air far above the plains and the little men and the beasts.

What about Uncle Andrew and Queen Jadis, and their "high and lonely destiny"?

What about that Invisible Man, and his lone scientific pursuit of autonomy, fed by a withered heart lacking in human connection?

What if Dr. Frankenstein was a monster and the Monster had a soul?

What about Virginia's Lighthouse? Did it help her see the rocks?

And you have read The Intellectual Greats. What if:

What if many of those ivory tower intellectuals were tiresome bores in the pub or the parlor?

What if it would be insufferable to share just one drink with them? What if they were the ones everyone avoided at the cocktail party or on the street?

What if they were people that made other people look at the clock to mutter about appointments and traffic and "needing to go, so nice to touch base with you...."

What if -- in their rejection of humility, humanity, and the simplicity of duty -- they lost touch with glory, divinity, and the deeply complex?

What if, in their single-minded pursuit of truth and beauty in isolation -- in the rarefied company of themselves and their toadying salons -- they lost both. (Truth and beauty, that is.)

What if we all felt sorry for their wives and children and dogs and next door neighbors?

And more.

What if Mother Teresa was a genius and Sartre was a fool (himself telling tales full of sound and fury, signifying nothing)?

What if Einstein practiced piano scales daily as a kid?

What if the capitalist down the street is a philanthropist, the humanist down the street is a misanthropist, the scholar is a bigot, and the small town sheriff is a sage?

What if theology is the queen of the sciences?

It's complicated, isn't it?

Think:

What if we maintain our connection to the divine, in part, by maintaining our relationship with the human?

What if we love God in part by loving others and performing daily duties?

What if even the Word Himself became flesh. And dwelt among us.

And what if to love and know and learn, we have to go where the unwashed they are, and live where the un-nuanced they live, and eat their casseroles, boiled vegetables, and drink their iced tea, and do their homework assignments?

And in meeting with daily life and daily people, what if we find not just truth and beauty, but also ourselves -- right there?

What if we find that we, in fact, are just another one of them: merely a co-regent of all creation. (Nothing big.)

My friend, what if we find our best selves in the mundane performance of daily duties that bring order and abundance, done with love, joy, and humility?

Here is your next homework assignment for "Life 101"

* Read the Gospel of John to yourself aloud and slowly
* Read "The Practice of the Presence of God" by Brother Andrew
* Read "Intellectuals" by Paul Johnson
* Discuss with your fellow co-regents. (Ie, your middle class parents, teachers, and friends. You might be surprised at how much they know.)

Sincerely,
An old friend who once hated homework, wore black turtlenecks, and choked on both gnats and Camels

Wednesday, October 5, 2016

Weep with Those Who Weep

Helpful piece on what to say when your friend is grieving.

Yes, You Should Say Something

Thursday, September 29, 2016

Turning Toward

Based on just a few factors, psychologist John Gottman can predict with up to 94 percent certainty whether a marriage will succeed or fail. Changing your mindset and behavior in a few ways changes everything.

I read this fascinating and concise article a couple of years ago and reading it again has been a good exercise for me.

"He invited 130 newlywed couples to spend the day at this retreat and watched them as they did what couples normally do on vacation: cook, clean, listen to music, eat, chat, and hang out. And Gottman made a critical discovery in this study—one that gets at the heart of why some relationships thrive while others languish."

The Masters of Love

Country Romance

Love these two pretty songs about real, grown up romance.

Remember When -- Alan Jackson

Something That We Do -- Clint Black

Thursday, September 22, 2016

Brother from Shangri La

Tales from Shangri-La features The Brother from Shangri-La's blog responding to a recent Nicholas Kristof article:

Resisting the Talisman View of Salvation 



Tuesday, August 16, 2016

Be encouraged by good and saddened by evil, but surprised by neither.



Friday, August 5, 2016

What If You Don't Weed Your Garden?

Butterfield on each of us driving a fresh nail through sin each day, on the church functioning as a true family for singles, and the different challenges she faces at secular vs Christian campuses.

No Free Passes

Monday, August 1, 2016

Vote how you must

and do so shrewdly. Naivete is unbecoming to the wise Christian.

Politicians on both sides of the aisle historically "tickle the ears" and court those who can give them power. Political leaders court interest groups, the strong, intellectuals, and elites. Mussolini courted the Roman Catholic Church. Hitler promoted neo-pagans but apparently despised them.

"There is no getting away from the facts: to many in the Church Mussolini and Fascism were an attractive option. We may even include Pope Pius XI amongst these, at least for the first decade or so of Fascist rule. To these men the sacrifice of Catholic political freedom in Italy was worth it if it brought the Church security and stability. Many were no strangers to nationalism either. The episode of Bl. Cardinal Schuster of Milan praising the invasion of Ethiopia in 1935 as being a great Italian adventure and a great Catholic crusade are emblematic of this strand of thinking."

The Church, Mussolini, and Fascism

Mussolini and the Roman Catholic Church


Thursday, June 30, 2016

Lights in Darkness

“If this is a sign of how religious liberty claims will be treated in the years ahead, those who value religious freedom have cause for great concern,” Alito said Tuesday in a critical dissent.

Article: Justice Alito on legal developments this week

Full dissent

And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. -John 3:19

The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. -John 1:5

Saturday, June 25, 2016

Haptics for the Deaf-Blind

Haptics are ways of communicating to the deaf-blind through touch. I saw a video of this being done on facebook, and I hope this video comes through.

Beautiful.

https://www.facebook.com/TIYADB/videos/1841889996035174/

Saturday, June 11, 2016

Douglas Wilson's post (and picture) on approaching worship


We have a meal here that entails consecration. All of Christ is offered to you, and in natural return, you are summoned to come. But when you are summoned to come, this means that all of you is summoned to come.communion20elements20-20dickow
The cup of blessing is here, set before you. But we want always to remember what the Scriptures teach about the nature of blessing. “Blessed are they that keep his testimonies, and that seek him with the whole heart” (Ps. 119:2). So you are invited to come, and you are being exhorted to come with an entire heart.
The underlying cause of great affliction for many struggling Christians is partialism. They want to have God in their lives, but they want to hold back something for themselves in reserve. God can have that, but we want to retain this. Thus we parcel ourselves out, and are surprised when nothing works as it ought. God is happy to work with the fragments of your life, but He insists on having all of them.
Different people want to retain different things, but the results are always some sort of dislocation. Some want to keep control of their money, others of private lusts, and others of their position in the community. If we turn whatever it is over to God, He might mess with it.
But God’s people are, always and everywhere, exhorted to deal with God in bulk. “Therefore also now, saith the Lord, Turn ye even to me with all your heart” (Joel 2:12). So what you are saying by approaching this Table—since it is governed by the words of Scripture, and not our own private desires—is that you want God to take whatever it is . . . and mess with it.
So come, and welcome, to Jesus Christ.

Friday, June 10, 2016

Thursday, June 9, 2016

Mrs. Pardiggle, Mr. Bumble, and the rest

Nothing subtle about Dickens.

Charles Dickens and the linguistic art of the minor character. 

Top 5 Interior Design Errors

An interior designer told me once the most common mistake she sees are people hanging pictures too high. They are supposed to be at around eye level of a regular person.

Top 5 Interior Design Errors and how to correct them

Wednesday, June 8, 2016

Global Power Book

Congratulations to my husband, David Chamberlin, who made it into PR Week's 2016 Global Power Book -- the annual guide to the 350 most influential PR professionals in the world!

PR Week page with link to searchable directory. 

Sunday, June 5, 2016

Prayers for the People (48)

48. For Those Who Live Alone

Almighty God, whose Son had nowhere to lay his head:
Grant that those who live alone may not be lonely in their
solitude, but that, following in his steps, they may find
fulfillment in loving you and their neighbors; through Jesus
Christ our Lord. Amen.

-- Online Book of Common Prayer

Thursday, June 2, 2016

Strengthening the Executive Function

Three publications look at how to develop your frontal lobe function

-- Psychology Today

-- Sharp Brain

"Examples of neurobic exercises are listed below:
Writing or using a utensil with your non-dominant hand.
Walking down your hallway with your eyes closed.
1-leg balancing exercises.
Spend time outside smelling all the plants and flowers.
Eat foods with lots of colors to stimulate your visual senses.
Feel the texture of different objects like rocks, shells, etc.
Additional neurobic activities include:
The use of essential oils – take a sniff to excite your brain.
Brushing the teeth with your non-dominant hand.
Listening to classical music or music that has different tones, melodies and instruments than you are used to listening too.
Surround yourself with lots of different colors.
Play a new instrument or try a new sporting activity.
Do a crossword puzzle.
Walk barefoot outside and pay attention to the unique feel of the rocks and ground with your feet.
Sit in a park and journal about all the unique sounds and smells you are experiencing.
Read a book or recite a speech out-loud while pacing with your eyes closed
Try a new, healthy dish with unique flavors you are not accustomed too."

Handel in Summer

I found this succinct post at the website of a Methodist minister (I know nothing about the rest of his site or his ministry so I am not necessarily commending those).

The post is a list of the Scripture verses used in the Messiah. The blog begins with some short historical notes, then there is a a list of the Messiah's program. Following that are the verses used, listed by song. A handy, concise resource!

Handel's Messiah in writing

Here is an NPR discussion of the presentation in the mid 20th century. Apparently, the Philadelphia Orchestra's recordings of the Messiah went gold before the Beatles did.

And below is one rendition  of Handel's Messiah by Mormon Tabernacle Choir and the Philadelphia Orchestra.

(I tried to find the older, famous presentation with Eugene Ormandy, et al but was unable to find the whole production. I trust that the following recording is legally being reproduced.)

Messiah Part I

Sunday, May 29, 2016

neato mosquito

Pencil tip sculpting

O Captain! My Captain!

This poem was written by Walt Whitman for Abraham Lincoln at his death. I read it at the funeral of my grandfather, a retired Navy Captain and pilot in WWII and the Korean War.

I found this poem a fitting tribute for my grandfather -- a Harvard-educated renaissance man, lover of poetry, graceful ballroom dancer, a veteran -- dashing and courageous. He introduced me to the poems of Robert W. Service and the stories of Bret Harte.

My father is a veteran, also, and my uncle flew combat air missions in VietNam. David's grandfather and at least one of his great uncles were veterans, as well. The USS Loeser (pronounced LOH-zer) was named after David's "Uncle Art," who was killed in WWII.

On Memorial Day we remember those who died in war. And by extension, it seems right to remember those who are and were willing to die in war.

Soldiers and farmers are frequently given as examples for believers in Scripture. I am blessed to have both in my family.

(This copy from Poetry Foundation website):

O Captain! My Captain!

Related Poem Content Details

O Captain! my Captain! our fearful trip is done, 
The ship has weather’d every rack, the prize we sought is won, 
The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting, 
While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring; 
                         But O heart! heart! heart! 
                            O the bleeding drops of red, 
                               Where on the deck my Captain lies, 
                                  Fallen cold and dead. 

O Captain! my Captain! rise up and hear the bells; 
Rise up—for you the flag is flung—for you the bugle trills, 
For you bouquets and ribbon’d wreaths—for you the shores a-crowding, 
For you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces turning; 
                         Here Captain! dear father! 
                            This arm beneath your head! 
                               It is some dream that on the deck, 
                                 You’ve fallen cold and dead. 

My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still, 
My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will, 
The ship is anchor’d safe and sound, its voyage closed and done, 
From fearful trip the victor ship comes in with object won; 
                         Exult O shores, and ring O bells! 
                            But I with mournful tread, 
                               Walk the deck my Captain lies, 
                                  Fallen cold and dead.

Source: Leaves of Grass (David McKay, 1891)

Monday, May 9, 2016

So This Happened

I'm often the last to read the thing everyone is buzzing about, but in case you missed it, too:

Confessions of Liberal Intolerance is an article about intolerance of and condescension towards different ideas in academia, written by (progressive) Nicholas Kristof in the New York Times. Interestingly, in the article some black professors describe being discriminated against as Christians and conservatives in academia as being like the prejudice they face outside of it.

Heterodox Academy's line-up of contributors.

Sunday, May 8, 2016

My Friends' Moms

I love this piece. Thinking of all of my friends' moms growing up, and the Navy moms on different bases, and my own delightful friends who mother my own kids, too, in their own way.

The New YorkerMy Friends' Moms


A Naranj and Other "Mondegreens"

[edited]
A discussion of how the mind interprets sound into words and then meaning.

 The New Yorker, The Science of Misheard Lyrics (and other Words)

Friday, May 6, 2016

Last Day

It's 10:30 pm on a Friday night and I'm about to clap shut my laptop. Today is my last day as a homeschooling mom.

I have taught anywhere from one to three of my kids at home for the past 12 years. (And none of them have ever been in five-day school.) All three are headed to a regular, brick-and-mortar, five-day-a-week school next year for 8th, 9th, and 12th grade. Radical.

Like all big endings, it has been a little anticlimactic: hassling one child to finish one final test, shuffling through files, last minute grading, an impromptu grocery store run, realizing transcripts will be polished up next week rather than today. Not with a bang but a whimper.

But it feels momentous to me.

Thank you, and goodnight, to homeschooling's curious, wild, busy, funny, angsty, peaceful, "lovely, dark, and deep" ride.

Our family has been viewed as kooky and offbeat.

We been viewed as conservative and authoritarian.

We've been viewed as rebels, madmen, and saints.

Of course we are none of these -- or perhaps all of these. Just like any family trying to creatively "do" life in the way that seems to fit with our lifestyle, resources, values, and needs.

I've been a terrible mom, I've been an amazing mom -- sometimes all in the same hour.

My children are quirky in some ways, brilliant in some ways, regular in most ways. Just like yours.

I have a shrewd, natural test-taker, and one who used to bomb standardized tests.

I have kids with different learning styles, different strengths, and different test scores. I have a math avoider and one who "hates" reading. (Though lately this kid has started talking animatedly about his reading.) One has been in learning therapy pretty regularly (and benefited greatly).

I have a philosopher, an engineer, and a pragmatic businesswoman. I have a child who carefully lines up pencils and ruler in the workspace and keeps a detailed calendar; I have one who can't find homework.

I've taught my kids in China and America, on the east coast and in the southwest. In the kitchen, in the bedroom, in the library, in the car.

I've used material from the internet, from neighbors, from friends, from books.

I've personally seen and experienced the kind of resources and co-ops that spring up in freedom-rich cultural and legal environments (Texas!) -- and the dearth of same in educationally narrow-minded and culturally parochial parts of the country.

Some of my best friends are other homeschooling moms. And some of my other best friends are not. I have gained wisdom from both about parenting.

The kids and I have worked so closely together, with all of our flaws and strengths. I have learned some basic things.

It's counter-intuitive, but start work each day with the youngest before you work with the older kids. Make sure everyone reads aloud each day. Let each do math at the time of day when they are mentally fresh. Take a short break every 30 minutes. Pick the curriculum that appeals to you as much as it appeals to them. Encourage each kid to study in his own way (eg, one kid may study by orally telling you all about what is going to be on the test, one kid may study by making flashcards. Both ways are fine and I only figured that out this year). Three words: Saturday morning chores. Have a short family devotion every morning -- ie, reflect on the forest before you head for the trees. Laughter really is the best medicine. Laugh easily, pray hard.

Most of these things I learned the hard way. And so many other things I still have not figured out. Homeschooling did not come naturally to me.

Somehow, the kids are alright. Not amazing. Not terrible. Like yours.

Gooodnight, homeschooling. I'm going to miss you.

And tomorrow I am finally going to catch up with the laundry.

"He is happiest, be he king or peasant, who finds peace at home." Goethe

Thursday, May 5, 2016

What's Deuteronomy Got to Do With It?

One segment in Nancy Guthrie's series "Help Me Teach the Bible"

Scott Redd on Deuteronomy

https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/help-me-teach-the-bible-scott-redd-on-deuteronomy

In this audio, Scott lays out ideas for how to teach and explain Deuteronomy to lay people. Included is the following: a discussion of the context for the book historically and a descriptive word picture of what is happening among the Israelites at the time, the covenantal framework of the book, the idea of using the Ten Commandments as an outline for the laws, a handling topics like slavery and punishment within the context of Scripture, and how we are to view sacrifice and purity laws, theocratic laws, and moral laws as believers today -- as not one jot or tittle of the law has passed away. Scott also discusses something he calls Mosaic Eschatology -- Moses looks ahead, and at the end of the discussion, grave errors he has encountered in approaching teaching OT Scripture.

"The Old Testament is not rejected, denied, or refuted by Christ and the apostles...They [the OT books] still make claims on us....How do they, in light of the work, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ."

"We are still called to love the Lord our God with all of our heart, and all of our selves, and all of our strength today."

Wednesday, May 4, 2016

"My Fellow Clergyman"

Here is a neat link to photos of the original and entire text of the "Letter from a Birmingham Jail" by Martin Luther King, Jr. I am slowly reading through it and love reading the words as they were on the original document.

Patient and reasonable terms

"O Judgement, thou hast fled to brutish beasts and men have lost their reason..."

More on Shakespeare. The Guardian has done a series of actors reading lines from Shakespeare called Shakespeare Solos.

Zawe Ashton's presentation is brilliant.

And this famous monologue from Shakespeare is performed really beautifully by Damian Lewis. It's short. "Lend" him less than 3 minutes, will you?

Damian Lewis as Antony

From Blueprint to Building

One way of understanding/processing the flow of the Bible from Old to New Testaments. Author is mein bruder, Scott Redd:

The Building Paradigm

"For they looked for the city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is the Lord."


There is nothing at all surprising about the world being drawn to baseness and power.

That is what people are drawn to, in their nature. And people are easily deceived. The sheep look for a shepherd, but often they pick a king -- or a wolf -- instead. We look for Cincinnatus, but we follow a Caesar.

It is wrong to assert that political concerns and exertions are meaningless or worthless for the believer -- political ambivalence smacks of a gnostic approach to loving one's neighbors. As if it isn't my concern if my neighbor lives under the oppressor's thumb or has his day in court. We can lament cultural injustice and decline. We can discuss when began the grounding of "the ship that sailed the moon" (1973?)

"For they looked for the city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is the Lord."

But as we rightly labor and exert ourselves in this country (our national neighborhood) to love our neighbor by advocating and appealing for truth, protection for the innocent, just laws, and freedom and mercy, which acknowledge the divinely-decreed, deep and intrinsic value of each and every image-bearer -- we do so at rest in our souls, as citizens of the better country.

For no matter what, with respect to our Job Description: Nothing has changed from yesterday to today and nothing will change in November 2016 or November 2020 or November 2200.

Love God.
Love your family ("little platoons").
Love your church.
Love your neighbors.

These are subversive acts.

Do the things God has given your hands to do with vigor and pleasure.

Fill the earth and subdue it with your work, knowing the good work of your hands done by the grace of God will never perish or tarnish and not be lost.

-- Anne



Monday, May 2, 2016

Happy Birthday, Will (Shakespeare)!

"All the perfumes in Arabia cannot sweeten this little hand....what's done cannot be undone." Dame Judi Dench as Lady MacBeth

Kenneth Branagh as Hamlet

‘To Be Or Not To Be’: Words Spoken by Hamlet, Act 3 Scene 1

To be, or not to be: that is the question:
Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them? To die: to sleep;
No more; and by a sleep to say we end
The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to, ’tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish’d. To die, to sleep;
To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there’s the rub;
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause: there’s the respect
That makes calamity of so long life;
For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,
The oppressor’s wrong, the proud man’s contumely,
The pangs of despised love, the law’s delay,
The insolence of office and the spurns
That patient merit of the unworthy takes,
When he himself might his quietus make
With a bare bodkin? who would fardels bear,
To grunt and sweat under a weary life,
But that the dread of something after death,
The undiscover’d country from whose bourn
No traveller returns, puzzles the will
And makes us rather bear those ills we have
Than fly to others that we know not of?
Thus conscience does make cowards of us all;
And thus the native hue of resolution
Is sicklied o’er with the pale cast of thought,
And enterprises of great pith and moment
With this regard their currents turn awry,
And lose the name of action.–Soft you now!
The fair Ophelia! Nymph, in thy orisons
Be all my sins remember’d.

Manufacturing Job Growth in America

Good news for those who worry that manufacturing in America is dwindling -- though number 20 is sobering.

Top 20 Facts about Manufacturing in America

The Body Electric

How the body fights against you, to regain weight you have lost.

The New York Times discusses the science behind it all

Friday, April 29, 2016

And they walked off to look for America

I grew up in a military family which meant, for me, cumulative days and weeks driving between duty stations with my two little brothers, our dog, and whichever cat was lowering himself to abide with us for the time being. We were all in the backseat, filed together side by side but not very neatly. A row of elbows and knobby knees, one of us on the hump of a white Pinto wagon or, later, a red Volvo station wagon.

Entertainment was limited in the 1970s and early 80s, driving from Virginia to California to Maine to South Carolina and points south. So this was our catalog:

1. We had two Superscope story tapes. Superscope Storyteller presents: Moses in Egypt and The Adventures of Spiderman,

2. We also liked to sing The Gambler by Kenny Rogers with lyrics we made up each time (and laughed uproarously over),

3. We liked to sing Don't Go Breakin' My Heart with Elton John and Kiki Dee,

But mostly we listened to:

4. The Mamas and the Papas Greatest Hits,

5. Simon and Garfunkel's Concert in Central Park, and 

6. Zero Mostel, in a production of Fiddler on the Roof.

Tevye: Rabbi, is there a blessing for the Czar? 

Rabbi (singing): May God bless and keep the Czar...FAR AWAY FROM US! 

Not a bad catalog. Though I do remember one of us asking my dad, "Who is Ed Koch and who are 'the guys sellin' loose joints?'"

Rolling along, I read all of the Little House books and Narnia books a hundred times each, or a thousand, when I wasn't snoozing from Dramamine. I was a bookish, very shy, easily-carsick girl born into a traveling family. (By the time I graduated from high school I had attended ten schools.)

There is a special mental state you reach when you are bored of being bored. A Boredom Rubicon is crossed. Born of resignation, resolution, but call it magic, for I would lean my cheek on the vinyl window bumper and stare out at the sky -- a clear blue endless day, a rainy roof of grey, a whiteout blizzard in Iowa, a midnight sky full of a spray of stars big and bright. California dreamin'

I saw Half Pint trundling across a prairie in her wagon in a calico dress, and Pa shouldering his way through a blizzard to feed the horses. I saw the Children of Israel pulling carts across the yellow sand and water spilling from the rock. I saw Lucy in the snowy woods, and Caspian turning his ship away from the long blue wave on the Silver Sea to go back and marry the star's daughter. Kindred spirits, I imagined, all of us -- Moses, and me, and Caspian the Seafarer.

Sunrise, Sunset.

So we all rolled along to the tune of the traffic on the Cross Bronx Expressway or my brothers' action figures shooting each other. In between the battles and songs and stories, I told my little brothers my own invented, wandering story that re-commenced with each new road trip. It was a story about some kids who found an ancient, secret door in a gnarly tree, which led to a secret tunnel under the road, which led to a secret room, which led to adventures.

In some of the adventures, there was a Gila Monster. ("...and that's when they turned the corner and came upon THE HEELAH MONSTER!")

My dad had introduced us to The Gila Monster into his own "Billy Boy" story series -- concoctions initially developed to keep us amused on the exceedingly bleak and ominous day two of the five day trip to Arlington, Virginia from Monterey, California. My brothers and I imagined him as some kind of bloody-mawed, man-eating Godzilla. (So imagine our surprise and amusement when, much later, we learned that gila monsters are small, harmless lizards in the American southwest. Not even Japanese!)

On the road, my brothers asked occasionally If There Are Sharks In That Big River (fresh water disqualification was not really absorbed, for perhaps hope sprang eternal) and How Deep Is That Bay and How Long Until We Get to the Motel. My brothers were always asking about sharks, alligators, snakes, and bears which, they sincerely hoped, lived in the woods by the highways were were driving down.

They also were keenly interested in the depths of the bodies of water over which we passed on bridges. Dad obliged by thoughtfully and confidently making up the answer right out of thin air. "Oh hmmm, let's see. I believe that river is about 50, maybe closer to 55 feet deep at this point."

I eventually fell asleep to my parents comforting, murmuring grown-up conversation, waking up crick-necked and drooling in the McDonalds parking lot or the rest area off of some turnpike.

It makes sense that at some point in middle school I decided the following: The theme song for my life shall be "America," by Simon and Garfunkel.

"America" is a somehow both soaring and pensive traveling song about people and places. It builds a big picture from small things. (I have only reluctantly forgiven Bernie Sanders for co-opting it for his campaign.) It also seemed slightly and deliciously rebellious for me to choose it, because it mentions cigarettes.

It also has the gait, somehow, of a highway song. Do you know what I mean? Some songs have this, not in exactly the same way as each other, but they do. "Driver 8" is a highway song, "Africa" is, too -- not just because of the words, because of the indefinable traveling song-ness of the sound and rhythm. Like wheels thrumming steadily on pavement. Things by Gordon Lightfoot are sometimes traveling songs. "Rocky Mountain High," by John Denver, is a traveling song, and "Country Roads." "Walk on the Ocean" by Tode the Wet Sprocket. There are others.

Anyway, my middle school real estate was in my bag. My bag was a purple Le Sac with a novel, some Trident gum, some Bonne Bell gloss or Cover Girl Frosted Peach lipstick, a retainer, my allowance, a notebook with my friends' addresses from the last place we lived.

That was then. This is now.

In three weeks I move again, this time to Pittsburgh. I have never lived there.

I am 45 and married to a civilian, but he has been a traveling man, as well. If you count the three month stints in apartments waiting for homes, this will be my 30th move. If you don't, it will be my 25th.

It just so happens that the traveler in the song boards a Greyhound bus in Pittsburgh. For some, maybe this means nothing. But, for me, it means that, at age 45, I'm not quite done looking for America.

America

Let us be lovers, we'll marry our fortunes together
I've got some real estate here in my bag
So we bought a pack of cigarettes and Mrs. Wagner's pies
And we walked off to look for America

Cathy, I said as we boarded a Greyhound in Pittsburgh
Michigan seems like a dream to me now
It took me four days to hitchhike from Saginaw
I've gone to look for America

Laughing on the bus, playing games with the faces
She said the man in the gabardine suit was a spy
I said, be careful, his bowtie is really a camera

Toss me a cigarette, I think there's one in my raincoat
We smoked the last one an hour ago
So I looked at the scenery
She read her magazine
And the moon rose over an open field

Cathy, I'm lost, I said though I knew she was sleeping
And I'm empty and aching and I don't know why
Counting the cars on the New Jersey Turnpike
They've all come to look for America

All come to look for America
All come to look for America


Read more: Simon And Garfunkel - America Lyrics | MetroLyrics