My gardens
So, if y’all have been wondering what I’ve been doing with my time other than blogging, here ya go. Continue reading “My gardens”
Tag: life
The Magic Pillow
A post by Suburban Correspondent over at The More the Messier about her blogging injuries reminded me of a product recommendation I’ve been meaning to make for ages. It’s for a contour memory foam pillow. It’s a bit pricey for my blood ($40 at Target), but the darn thing is like a miracle. A couple of months ago I did something to my neck (actually, … Continue reading The Magic Pillow
Heartless in Hartford?
Wow. This is the creepiest video. A surveillance camera caught video of a man being hit by a hit and run driver while crossing the street in Hartford, CN. The man is left laying in the middle of the street and no one rushes over to help him. He lays there until a police car shows up about a minute and a half later (if … Continue reading Heartless in Hartford?
Shoes are evil!
Well, I feel slightly vindicated now. You see, as long as I’ve known him, my husband has given me a hard time about my shoe wearing habits (or lack thereof) and the condition of my feet. I HATE shoes. So I walk around barefoot as much as humanly possible. When I do put on shoes they are either cute heels to go with an outfit … Continue reading Shoes are evil!
Check Yourself
I have written before about issues of race, especially as pertains to conservative’s perceptions about race before. My basic premise is that I do not think that conservatives have an accurate or often even rational view of race in America. Now, mind you, I’m not some goofy lefty here to incite white guilt and pander for more government programs. I am coming at this from a conservative perspective myself. For me this is both a moral issue and a practical imperative. I say a practical imperative because if we think that we can keep the problems which arise in impoverished, minority communities isolated, we’re not paying attention. Over and over, we can see that things from social breakdown to styles of music and dress spread outwards from our cities into the lives of middle class white suburbanites. So my point is, it matters. If you are a conservative who cares about the breakdown of the family or porn posing as music, then you need to care as much about issues of race as you do about what goes on in leafy suburban neighborhoods.
As I have argued before, one of the main barriers to dealing realistically with matters of race and the ongoing fall-out of the history of race relations in this country, is an almost complete denial of race as a real issue worth dealing with. What is crazy, and what I did not realize was that this is not at all a new phenomena. We like to think that race is not an issue anymore because we have made so much progress. Anyone claiming that race is an obstacle for them must be trying to “play the race card” and “make themselves the victim”. However, it turns out that even back when we would all agree that the state of affairs for African Americans was horrid, unequal and morally indefensible, white Americans thought pretty much exactly the same thing!
I came across some statistics today which I think we all need to remember the next time we are tempted to write off race as an actual issue today: Continue reading “Check Yourself”
Book of Job Chapter 2: Lowering the Boom
Well, I figured I would pick up my slow-mo study of the Book of Job again tonight. (Here’s my take on Chapter 1.) Tonight we’ll look at Chapter 2. (Text of Chapter 2 here.)
Chapter 2 starts with a repeat of the scene from Chapter 1 with a gathering before God at which Satan appears. Once again, God points out Job’s integrity – this time in the face of enormous suffering.
One of the challenges of the Book of Job is God’s complicity in Job’s suffering. As I said in my comments on Chapter 1, God not only allows Satan to visit tragedy on Job, but He actually offers Job up as a target for this treatment. This doesn’t sit well at all with our understanding of God as a protective force for His people. This difficult state of affairs continues in Chapter 2. Here we find an oddly worded sentence which points both to the fact that God is manipulating Satan and that He is willing to take responsibility for causing Job’s suffering. Verse 3 says, “you incited me against him to ruin him without cause”. The Netbible translates “incite me” as “stirred me up”. This is a rather odd thing to say as it was God who actually provoked Satan’s desire to ruin (lit “swallow up”) Job. But, like a manager who allows an employee to think their new assignment was their own idea, God allows Satan to think that he rather than God is in control of this situation. The other odd thing about the sentence is the imprecise pronouns which obscure who is bringing about ruin. God does not say, “you incited me against him so that you could ruin him without cause.” Rather, by simply saying “to ruin him”, God leaves open the possibility that it is not Satan, but God who has brought Job to ruin. In which case, Satan is merely the tool by which God has done this work. Satan, of course misses this distinction (as do most of us, come to think of it).
Now, I do know that I am treading in some ugly territory here. Continue reading “Book of Job Chapter 2: Lowering the Boom”
Italians ask, “who was this Jesus fellow?”
Apparently Americans are far from alone in being an overwhelmingly Christian country where most people know shockingly little about what scriptures actually say. A recent survey of Italians found that although 88% of them claim to be Roman Catholic, most of them are unable to answer basic questions about the bible correctly. Questions included whether Paul was in the OT or NT, if Jesus penned … Continue reading Italians ask, “who was this Jesus fellow?”
What’s in your closet?
You know how sometimes you go rooting through your closet and come across an item of clothing you forgot you had? Well, one Japanese man had something much more interesting than an ill-fitting suit hiding in the unused corners of his closet. After being called to check on a suspected burglar, police found a 58 year old homeless woman hiding in a shelf compartment in … Continue reading What’s in your closet?
You are a beautiful woman . . .
Ok Gentlemen, if you could leave us alone for a moment, I have something I’d like to share with the ladies real quick. Well, I guess if you want to pass this along to your wife or daughter, you can stay and eavesdrop. Now, ladies I don’t know about you, but it seems to me that as a culture we have not only fetishized flawless … Continue reading You are a beautiful woman . . .
Wherefore art thou, authority?
Sorry for the long break in blogging. I’ve been busy getting my gardens in order and just got back from a trip to Chicago. Of course, not blogging isn’t the same as not obsessing over things, so I suppose I’ll just jump right back in with the latest fun item to be taking up brain space . . . the potential purpose and role of authority in our lives. Sounds like a good time, eh? 🙂
I am a child of my age, and as such, I have always looked at authority as something to be handled cynically and derisively. I recognize that certain authority, such as law enforcement needs to be obeyed if only to keep us all from crashing our cars into one another. Much beyond that, any authority, be it parental, church, political or otherwise was held to a “prove it” standard. And not just prove it to someone who would approve those in positions of authority, but prove it to me, the person you would have authority over. Honestly, it’s hard for me to think of anyone whose instructions or thinking I would follow simply because they were “the authority”. Question everything and everyone has been my MO.
Fear of or respect for authority were punch lines in my book, certainly not anything by which I would make decisions. I would guess that a lot of people are like me in this regard. However, I recently realized something which has made me re-examine my attitude towards authority. You see, over the last 10-15 years, I have invested a lot of time and mental energy into constructing what you could call a philosophy of life. It’s my understanding of the nature of life, the rules by which we ought to govern ourselves in order to live happy, productive lives which are a benefit to our families and communities. I can provide detailed, well reasoned and thought-out explanations for what I believe. You may disagree with my conclusions, but it would be hard to argue that I am simply making things up willy-nilly out of religious delusions or to justify my personal desires.
I have been compelled to do this, I think, precisely because I did not feel that there was a source of authority for how to live my life and think about the important questions of life which I could trust. And now, at the age of 35, I have managed to construct a framework for living which I am pretty satisfied with. The problem is that in the absence of authority, we’re all going to have to go through this process. If we each need to figure out right and wrong and rules for relationships and all the important things in life for ourselves, we are leaving ourselves obscenely open to majorly screwing up our lives long before we have a chance to figure out what’s what. Continue reading “Wherefore art thou, authority?”
The Upside Down World 