partsofspeaking

--> Administrations have to play a PR game.   Alumni of a school in the South, like Clemson, might not like the idea of protests where the flag or pledge of allegiance is disrespected publicly. Why should they support with their money an institution like that?   Free speech is responsible speech, although I recognize responsibility can be in the eye of the beholder.   We can protest specific policies of the government (which need to be) without destroying the basic symbols of what holds us together as a country.   The flag and allegiance is the current administration; the constitution and who we are as a republic transcends (thank heavens) Donald Trump, who is at best appalling.   I think Trump is smarter than he’s taken for.   He’s doing all kinds of things, some of them rather good (Isis all but defeated, out of Iran deal and Paris climate accord, and fewer regulations) but the media is so fixated on his wife’s shoes and his Twitter wars w...

--> This is my life group lesson for the week.  Recently I’ve had some physical problems that required physical therapy.   So I’m becoming more aware of my body.   So relaxing. Relaxing, though, is not the same as peace.   Sometimes we confuse them.   Relaxing is a psychological and physical response.   I usually go to sleep if I relax. Peace is the subject today. We are going to do something that I hope you don’t find silly. We are going to draw.   Drawing without judgment can be relaxing, and relaxing and knowing there is no judgment can help creativity.   (I have decided to self-publish all the books I can whether anyone reads them or not; I want to get them out of my head).   I want you to draw (and it could be abstract)   peace.   It may just be color.   I can’t draw at all, so this is not an assignment.   It’s a way to bring out feelings and thoughts about peace.   Main idea: Peace i...

My husband loves this movie.   He has caused me to watch it a great deal.   We even own it. Some thoughts.     This is a pre-eminently religious movie, or at least a film with religious ideas.      The movie, to me, is about the evolution of our tools.   What Kubrick gets right is that the tools are taking over, and that cutting the cord on the tools does not mean going back to what was before.     Some people who would combine evolution with Christianity seem to have taken the Kubrick approach.   In the film the aliens or gods or whatever gave a push to evolution through an intervention (the monolith).   The primates’ first use of the tool, however, is to destroy, not to build.   They kill to eat, then kill to be dominant. So is this progress?   Well, maybe I’m confusing evolution with progress, which moderns do.   Christians who want to combine evolution with creation seem to be s...

--> CT has run a series of articles about the rapper LeCrae’s movement away from “white evangelicalism.”   They have been provocative and a bit uncomfortable.   Bryan Lorritts, Crawford’s son, I assume, really addressed the elephant in the room on Friday, October 20 by saying that he needs to give up caring whether the white bigwigs of evangelicalism invite him to their conferences or give him a seat at the table.   He said that it needs to be the other way around; minorities have their conferences and invite the whites to the table. (Maybe then they can all stop being separated.) He is pointed, a little sarcastic, but at the same time self-deprecating and right. I think white evangelical leaders have a basic fear that minority evangelical leaders will infuse more democratic or progressive political ideas into the church or theology, like the South Americans did with liberation theology in the Catholic Church. I may be wrong, but I may be right, to para...

It is possible to get through college in four years, although the majority of college graduates do not achieve this feat. 1.  Don't change your major, especially not past your sophomore year.  Get advisement or counseling about what you should pursue before taking two years of classes that largely do not count for anything. 2.  Don't drop or fail a class.  One drop or failed class each semester for first two years means a whole other semester, at least, assuming you can get the classes. 3.  See your advisor as much as you can and re-emphasize the idea you want to get through in four years. Make sure there are no surprises.  If your college has Degreeworks or another auditing tool, use it; don't take your advisor's word for it.  They probably have 200-300 clients, and that's a lot to keep track of. 4.  Stay aware of course rotations so that you don't find out the course you need in the senior year only gets taught every other year (this happens...

Last night in the English as Second Language that another teacher and I conduct at church, we had a class of six.  One Chinese young woman who is here because her husband works for an American company with offices here.  One Iranian man who "won the lottery" to get a visas to emigrate to the U.S.  (This is literally true, a fact most people in the U.S. don't know about.  I had heard about it on This American Life, and lo and behold, one of my ESL students is a lottery winner!)  Two Sudanese refugees who have had unspeakable experiences yet come to class with wide smiles.  One Sudanese Momma who keeps them in line and calls them "brother." One young Iraqi woman, whom I find stunningly beautiful, whose husband worked for the U.S. military and accompanied him here.  My co-teacher brought reading material about the presidential inaugural, and we had a discussion about American government and politics. The article mentioned "Hail to the Chief" so I played...

My first response to that question is no.  I'm sick of it splattered all over the news and at least NPR doesn't put it at the top of their news.  (I spent 8 hours in the car driving to Macon Thursday and back Friday and that meant listening to a lot of radio). I'm sick of his ugly face and the ugly stories of misused power and money, that he ran off to Europe after being fired and is facing arrests for rape, that Hollywood types knew about it for years and made awkward, unfunny jokes about it, and that these same people are so hypocritical about what they tolerate and don't tolerate based on politics (which almost always in embedded in pro-life and supposed control of women over their bodies). Not to blame the victims, because some were young and naive and misunderstood the sinful culture, and I have no doubt they are telling the truth, but . . . some of these women should have said "the heck with my making millions on my next movie, I'm speaking out." S...

Sitting after dinner watching ball game, husband changing channels.  Lands on infomercial. The spokesperson introduces another woman as  a "lifestyle expert." What is that and how do you get to be one? Sign me up.

I have a theory that Blazing Saddles is playing on some cable channel somewhere on the planet every minute.

The left is united mainly in its opposition to Trump, no matter what he does.  I'm no fan; I could say a lot of negative things about him. He's a horrible person.  I am proud of Bob Corker, former mayor of the town I lived in for many years and soon-to-be former senator from the state I lived in for two decades.  He speaks truth to power even though it puts him on outs with some of the Republican party. The left's opposition to Trump becomes frenetic, inconsistent, obsessive. 

Who died and made Jimmy Kimmel the moral authority for us all?  The Babylon Bee (where I get all my fake news) nailed it:  http://babylonbee.com/news/jimmy-kimmel-produces-official-document-confirming-nations-moral-authority/ SNL nailed it, too: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=adPXDTvADD0 Seriously, let's get back to late night being comedians who helped you relax and go to sleep.  Jimmy Fallon had Hillary Clinton on the other night!  Why? Watching her definitely wouldn't give you a good night's sleep! In fact, can she just find a good cause to lend her support to (other than Planned Parenthood, which isn't good and isn't a cause, except for a cause of death) and go do that and leave us alone? But to follow the equal time rule,  oh how I wish Donald Trump would just not talk off script!  "The calm before the storm?"  What in the world. Meanwhile, those who follow such things look for news stories that might explain Stephen Paddock.  Ma...

This is the last post on Matthew.  Now that the Daniel and Leadership book is about done, my next in a series of Bible study books will be to put this one in book form.  I also plan to do the same with John next, then a book on the meaning of relationship in the faith based on the metaphors used for our relationship with God, and one on how to study the Bible for women.  This in addition to a book on high impact practices in education, on inspiring teaching, and novels.  I don't lack for ideas, just time and energy.   The last reflection Matthew begins here.   I have completely failed in this commandment.   I have been more concerned about my own life than this commandmet.   I have looked for and found excuses to cover up my lack of obedience and compliance.   I have given money for others to do it.   I have occasionally entered into activities to facilitate this commandment.   But as to personal evangeli...

After a marathon session yesterday, I announce my first foray into nonfiction on Amazon.  It is a study of leadership in the life and narrative of Daniel, focusing how we lead in secular work environments.  Download is $1.99, which is almost as minimal as you can get (.99 is the cheapest they will allow, and I think it's worth two dollars.)  Proceeds go to World Vision.  Paperback version will be available in a couple of weeks.  https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&field-keywords=Barbara+Tucker+Leading+in+a+Strange+Land&rh=n%3A133140011%2Ck%3ABarbara+Tucker+Leading+in+a+Strange+Land I include the picture above from Scraggs Everyday Life in Babylon because it is a source I used for part of the book, for an advertisement, and because I thought it was neat to look at how Babylonians depicted their dogs and what the dogs looked like.  This is probably a mastiff of some sort, and looks like a guard dog....

(Found a typo in the original:  now fixed!) I knew that this post would hit a milestone, my 1800th blog post in the 11 years I have been blogging.  That's a lot of content.  It's all here on the archive section to the right. Therefore, I have been thinking about what it would be, and in light of the fact I plan to publish a book very soon, I decided on self-publishing. There are reasons why you should self-publishing, and reasons why you shouldn't.  If you think you will make a lot of money at it, don't kid yourself.  You probably won't, unless you already have a platform (radio show, thousands of Twitter or blog followers, widely read newspaper column, speaking career).  Or if somehow you hit a nerve, like the 50 Shades of Grey chick did.  You also shouldn't do it if you are trying to use the book as a publication for tenure (in almost all institutions) or if you want to brag about being published.  You weren't published, you published....

--> Verses 11-15 are some of the most ironic in the Bible.   That must have been a pretty big bribe to get these guards out of the accusation that they fell asleep on duty.   “And if this comes to the governor’s ears, we will appease him and make you secure.”   Of course, considering how money was being made hand over fist in the temple, perhaps they had plenty to spare.   They could have given Judas more.   Matthew says the Jews still say this is what happened, but when he says “the Jews” I don’t think he means those of the Jewish faith.   Since thousands came to Christ after that, the Jews must mean those who held on to the old ways. I can see why some would see these parts of the gospels as anti-semitic; they were written by Jews, however, (other than Luke) so it’s not a racial anti-semitism but a religious one.   Unfortunately that did not stop others many centuries later from excusing and even defending, even promulgating anti-semitis...

Why do we feel the need to get on social media and talk about a tragic news story we know nothing about?  It is a way of processing, perhaps, but also a way of expressing non-helpful information. This is unspeakable.  No words.  And yet we keep making them.

The media made a big deal about why we should mourn the passing of Hugh Heffner.  I'll pass.  He was just gross and creepy.  Ben Shapiro called him "an old perv."  Yep.  I quoted that to my son tonight and he said, "He was being nice." Anything that the left can say Heffner did for women or society can only be chalked up that he did it for himself.  Real activists act for others more than themselves (a lesson a lot of current activists don't get).

Coming home from my ESL class at Brainerd Baptist tonight I listened to the podcast of This American Life.  The opening segment was about an Australian writer who won the Melbourne prize for literature but didn't want to take part of the prize money, because it was designated for the winner to travel outside of Australia and the writer (his name escapes me) did not want to leave his island continent.  He didn't believe he needed to, that everything he needed was there and there was no reason to leave. One can take this as being really xenophobic, or . . . . Being "stuck" in Australia doesn't seem to have hurt his writing; perhaps he would be more well known if he traveled, but he is described as an introvert, so traveling might be too psychically painful. I found it refreshing in a way, and confirmation of my theory that wide experience and wide travel does not necessarily make a great or even good writer.  The people I know who have traveled a lot haven't...