partsofspeaking

Last evening at about 6:00 I took my dog for her normal walk at a local high school, since I knew there would be a football game.  6:00 was too late, really, but it allowed me to experience the phenomenon of high school football. I spoke with a police officer as I was leaving, one who admired my pitbull, and he said they were expecting 7,000 people, about 1/8 of the population of the county.  The game was between the high school my son attended and the new kid on the block (in the county), and my son's school has won seven times, and that included last night. What mattered to me, though, was the party fervor of it all.  Tailgating and collapsible tents, soft drinks and tea set out, adults visiting.  Trucks and SUVs galore.  A drum corps my dog and I had to walk through, her not very happy about it and doing everything she could to bolt away to a quieter place.  I am still just a tad stronger than she and kept her under control, but I learned my lesson....

Some people have been putting memes (I use that for lack of a better word) on Facebook implying that the tragic murder, on air, of the reporter and cameraman in Roanoke by a gay black man is "equal" to the Michael Brown killing in Ferguson, MO, and that the media's lack of reporting on it as a hate crime, etc. is an injustice. Well. All murders are equal; all murders are unequal.  All killings are equal but are also unequal.  We cannot measure pain and loss of human life in mathematical terms.  And we should have a long time ago stop expecting the media to report fairly and justly and equitably ON ANYTHING.  I understand the frustration of the persons posting these memes, but they miss the deep complexities of the two.  One person was killed because he was in the process of being arrested and a policeman felt threatened, perhaps justifiably or not; he was left to lie in the street for hours that night.  It is the tip of the iceberg of a long, long pro...

Ten years ago Katrina hit. Chaos theory says that a butterfly in Japan affects the weather in Ringgold, GA.  I don't know about that, but I know Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico affected me and many friends here. One friend's home in Biloxi was spared while the houses in her subdivision literally vanished.  I visited coastal MS for a short disaster relief trip in December of 2008, and we drove through New Orleans (and I have no intention of going back) on horribly hot day in July in 2006 or 2007.  I heard on the radio today that 10,000 homes still have not been touched.  That is hard to imagine. The town we visited for disaster relief was Lakeshore, MS, where the congregation of the Baptist church said they would not rebuild the church until the community's home were restored.  And they did, only within the last two years or so finishing the church.  We were there to help with homes. The pastor of my church lost everything in Katrina and moved away; we h...

--> Today was Ingrid Bergman day on TCM, and she made one film with Ingmar Bergman, Autumn Sonata, which was shown earlier this evening.   This is film at its best, one to watch over and over except not at close intervals because the emotion is so raw and real. My husband asked me if that was common between mothers and daughters.   I said some, but not most.   I don’t think that is the point, that this is a microcosm of all mothers and daughters.   It’s about this one, a “selfish” woman (subjective) who put her career as a classical pianist on tour before being at home with her children, one of whom is disabled in some way (the disease is so vaguely portrayed that it comes across metaphorical rather than real).   The other adult daughter is suffering from grief (from death of child), depression, anxiety, and some deep abandonment from her mother that she interprets as hate.   I am not sure it really is hate, though.   She wants her moth...

When I read the headline of the article linked below, I thought, "Seriously? How can a person who calls themselves a Christ follower be looking for hook ups on this crazy site? http://www.christianitytoday.com/edstetzer/2015/august/ashley-madison-caught.html I am reminded of my thankfulness for people (writers) who are more in tune with God's grace than I am.  My temptation is to just question the reality of someone's faith who would participate in Ashley Madison. This writer calls for repentance, which is really the only call.  A person on that site blew it, intentionally, by his/her own free will, big time.  But God is bigger than that.

Instead of berating myself for not added to this blog every few days, I am going to give myself a break and encourage any interested readers to go back through the archives to find some of the (if I do say so myself) interesting things I have posted over the eight years I have been writing this blog, and to also check out my other blog, Chrisiancollegeinstructor.blogspot.com, which I wish I had named something else in retrospect.  I am trying to write a speech textbook for which we received a large grant, I am writing a play, and this top of a full-time administrative job and teaching three classes because our department is understaffed and the college's enrollment (thankfully) has risen.  And then there is life--homemaking, yardwork, church, worship, ministry, billpaying, dogs, husband, sleep, exercise.  Not, of course, in that order.  The total randomness of that list exemplifies my organizational struggles right now. So blogging has to put aside.  Additio...

Donald Trump is trying to hold the Republican party hostage with threats of being a third party candidate.  Whoever is answering these polls needs to get a grip.

I managed to borrow a copy of THE BOOK.  Mixed feelings so far.  About half way through.  The best written part so far is a reminiscence of her childhood with Dill and Jem!  It is hard to believe that she would never have known about Atticus' feelings about race.  I'll keep reading. Addendum:  Read a little more. Scene at the Coffee good.  However, I am ambivalent about how Jean Louise could be so clueless about the racism all around her growing up, especially having gone to New York.  Calpurnia scene a little hard to figure also.  It's hard not to read this and see pieces of The Help and my own book, although we couldn't be accused of being derivative since this book just got published.  Maybe these are such universal feelings that they are going to show up in different books. 

Planned Parenthood is getting some much needed and much deserved scrutiny right now, and I am glad.  This article tells the facts: http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2015/aug/03/martin-omalley/97-planned-parenthoods-work-mammograms-preventive-/ It looks like PP did about 1/4 to 1/3 of all abortions in this country, and the claim that it provides mammograms is a lie.  Referrals is not the same as doing them.  Poor women have county health departments for other services.  Defunding PP is not going to be the end of affordable health care; it will be the end of tax-payer funded abortion, which is not supposed to be the case. And then there is Margaret Sanger.  A friend posted this on Facebook: Quite colorful display.  But did she really say this?  Yes, but if you read the Wikipedia page on her (and we all know Wikipedia is above reproach), you could interpret this as her saying something different . . . but I find that doubtful....

There is something about the first of August.  Although it will be quite hot today, the morning was cool.  I go out on my porch to blow dry my hair (and not wake up my husband, who was having trouble sleeping), and watched the coming sunrise.  I like that spider webs, I like that school will start soon, I like that the oppressive heat of summer is waning a bit but the days are still very long. My Franklin Planner quote yesterday, "For the unlearned, old age is winer; for the learned, it is the season of the harvest."  It is an Hassidic proverb.  I love that.  It may become my motto. I am studying what the fullness of the gospel means.  In looking at some websites, it is clear that the main goal of some Christian groups is to tell you why all the other Christian groups are wrong.

0098 The number above represents remedial or learning support courses in the state higher education system where I live.   So it’s not 101, but something before that. I was listening to Janet Parshall’s radio programming coming home, and she was playing person-on-the-street interviews in response to the question (I think) “Is Jesus the only way of salvation?”   Of course, the answers were all over the place, from yes chapter and verse to yes that’s how I was raised to I don’t know or I don’t think about those things to no there are many ways to God or salvation.   Of course, the idea that there are many conflicting ways that are all truthful is pretty illogical, and the fact that people don’t care about the question shows nothing but a lack of commitment.   Because if you didn’t believe in the Jesus behind the question, you would advocate for the opposite. What get me the most are the ones that equate Jesus, Mohammed, Confucius, and Buddha. ...

I am not the first to say what I am going to say in this blog post, although I hope mine is a little different spin.  In the last couple of days I have been hearing about the social media minefield of Cecil the Lion, who was "lured, hunted, and killed" by a dentist from Detroit.  Because (and I'm weak on the facts) this Lion was older and sort of revered, this dentist has been hounded and persecuted and there have actually been the tried and true "death threats" against him. I suppose animal rights activists and such were behind this, although considering the nonsense I read on any message board I go to, just as much of the "buzz" could be trolls or people with too much time on their hands. Then of course is the backlash from liberals and conservative alike as to why so much outrage over a lion when so much evil is being unleashed on humans, from womb to grave, and when lions and other animals get hunted and killed everyday.  So there is outrage ov...