partsofspeaking

When God said His name was "I AM," He put a period, not a blank for us to fill in more words from our own imaginations and devices.

I’ve seen more tweets and such this year about Mary, the mother of Jesus. Evangelicals are criticized for not emphasizing Mary enough, although I don’t know why we should emphasize a Bible character in the first place. But I suppose that since we create Bible character studies on every personage in the Bible except Mary, they make a good point. We know as much about Mary’s life and biography as we do most characters: her lineage, birthplace, husband, other children, some of her experiences as a mother, her activities during Jesus ministry and death, and how John was given custody of her at Jesus’ death (interesting since his brothers should have taken care of her). We know she was part of the early church. So we don’t have a dearth of information about her. Since I don’t think much of character studies as a Bible study tool, I don’t have much use for a character study of Mary, but that is a personal matter; if we study Esther, Abraham, or Joshua, we should study Mary. So why ...

Great article on how Amazon sellers can get scammed by competitors (and therefore the buyers can be) and how Amazon benefits. https://www.theverge.com/2018/12/19/18140799/amazon-marketplace-scams-seller-court-appeal-reinstatement

Check this out . Funniest thing I've seen in a while; heard about it on the incomparable This American Life podcast, which I recommend even if I don't share all their values. Also this for the editor's favorites. You should know I post some things on this blog so I can go back and find them; I'm archiving my life.

This the last installment on my lessons about Joseph. Let's start with some background. In comparison to Mesopotamian civilizations, the Egyptian civilization provided a distinct environment for the Israelites.  They were superstitious about death, more focused on it. Mesopotamians had a harsher climate, evil gods that wanted human sacrifices, constant wars and rising and falling civilizatins, and little idea of afterlife. Egyptians civilization was stable, affluent, agricultural (based on the floods from the Nile depositing rich minerals in the soil), protected. Life on earth was good and so was life afterward.  Joseph would have looked and dressed like an Egyptian (even face paint), spoken Egyptian, and 20 years later, so it’s no surprise he wasn’t recognized. Broad outlines of the story: Jacob’s brothers, minus Benjamin, come to Egypt. Joseph recognizes them, sends them back with their money in their bags, keeps Simeon, says not to come back without Benjamin. Eve...

For what is definitely a more intelligent and appreciative review, see this piece from CT. I saw that this film was on Prime Video, free, so I took two hours out of my life and watched it. The question is whether I would recommend another person to do so. However, I often have this experience with a film: I watch it, and get mad because there is something about the plot, resolution, or theme that I don't like and find objectionable. And yet I can't get the film out of my head; it bugs me, for days, forcing me to examine what it was I didn't like and to ask what I missed or misinterpreted. Such was the case with Sling Blade , for instance, and with the very different First Reformed. The CT article gives one the outlines of the plot (spoiler alert!) and I will write here about the ending of the film. For the first half of the film I was enthralled; reviewers on Amazon said, of course, that is was slow and boooorrrrrriiiiiiing, but that is the opinion of children. I was ...

I like this from Bertrand Russell, not because his world view was congruent with mine but because I think there is wisdom here, gleaned from old age. https://sites.google.com/site/gobenyan/essay

I talked to the college's "financial advisor" yesterday. He's not really that; he's a nice man who helps us understand the 403b plans.  But he gave me some other good advice. At full Social Security retirement age, you can work as much as you want and draw Social Security.  Of course, you're paying more taxes. You can't do that at 62. At 70.5 years, you have to take required minimum distributions from the IRAs you have, about 4% (3.7%).  That would be reasonable; it would be good income if you've saved anything in those accounts, which we have. 78 is considered the break even year. You want to figure how much to work versus when to retire based on the idea that you will make it to 78. I have no plans to retire for at least five years; assuming the stock market/economy doesn't tank, all will be well. So where is God in all of this?  Well, I'm thankful for the good job with a good pension, and a natural frugality (cheapskatedness), and ...

My post for the day is a reference to an interesting article from CT on literature and reading.  https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2019/january-february/karen-swallow-prior-good-books-make-better-people-reading.html I agree with Dr. Prior and have written similar things elsewhere on this blog (please check my archives to see the many directions this blog has gone over 12.5 years).  As a sometimes literature instructor myself I agree, and as a student of media I agree, although her references to "researchers" saying that screens are hurting us needs some, well, interrogation.  This last week many items on the news have been arguing for the harms of "screen time" on children's developing brains; of course, tech advocates basically "pooh-pooh" that and say that 1. my generation watched a lot of television, 2. the research is not complete, and 3. lots of things affect the child's developing brain.  Common sense says to be wary. At my age I see...

Here are some helps: Most of us are familiar with the outlines of Joseph’s story. Last week I told you about my brother-in-law who at 58 is just learning the story, and when you think about it, it’s like a movie, very strong narrative, although it takes place over decades.   So I want to review the story, then show the parallels between Joseph and Daniel and in this advent season, Joseph and Jesus. Joseph is first mentioned in Gen. 30:22. Rachel had been unable to get pregnant for many years and pulled a Sarah by having her husband sleep with her maid, Bilhah, which only shows how steeped in paganism they were. It is 500 years now before Moses will receive the law. I listen to Jewish political commentators and their theological head is Moses. The Jews trace themselves back to Abraham genetically and for the promise of the land, but it was not until Moses and the Law that they began to live for God in a distinguishable way. It is as if they had to...

After a long and intense week I decided to relax and watch a Netflix movie, and the newest one out is Dumplin'. It is the story of a teenage girl with a (rather severe) weight problem who decides to participate in the town beauty pageant. She is joined by three other girls, one of whom is her best friend from childhood and actually a good contender for winning such a thing. The other two is a rather masculine activist (not unattractive) and a church-goer who also is quite overweight and a fabulous singer who really, really wants to be in the pageant.  The quartet's goal is to protest the pageant ethos. That's the surface; the conflict comes from the fact that Willowdean's mother runs the pageant and is thin and pretty (Jennifer Anniston, who does quite well here). Her mother thinks the girls are just mocking the pageant experience (which is easily mockable). Add to this the memory of her sweet and indulgent overweight aunt who recently died, a love interest at work, a...