partsofspeaking

This is the text of a speech I gave in Toastmasters this morning.    Stop me if you heard this own before: There are two types of people in the world…I’m sure you’ve heard speakers make that pronouncement before. .   I think there are two types of people in the world: those who think there are two types of people in the world and those who know things aren’t that simple. However, if I had to separate people, I’d do it this way: there are dog people and cat people.                         Don’t worry, I’m not here to tease or insult cat people. They have enough problems, bless their hearts. I’m here to talk about dogs, or really, one specific dog, mine. I own—or I should say my husband owns and I take care of—a brindle Staffordshire pitbull terrier.   Because we don’t really know our dog’s origins, we call her a pitbull mix. Yes. A pit bull. That word, I have learned, strikes fear i...

  https://frenchpress.thedispatch.com/p/jd-vance-and-the-great-challenge?token=eyJ1c2VyX2lkIjoxNzExNjU1NywicG9zdF9pZCI6NDMwMTYzNjMsIl8iOiJLOGk2ayIsImlhdCI6MTYzNTUzNDU2OSwiZXhwIjoxNjM1NTM4MTY5LCJpc3MiOiJwdWItMjE3NjUiLCJzdWIiOiJwb3N0LXJlYWN0aW9uIn0.RtB_ZYiILKYo6bYlE1dOcJD33A6SIGHIdfdW969P-Nw My three amigos: David French, Russell Moore, and Tim Keller. 

 From The Dispatch (highly recommended but requires a subscription) In a nearly 90-minute video presentation , founder Mark Zuckerberg said he wants to move Facebook beyond being just a social media site.   He announced the company is building a “metaverse” that includes futuristic products like virtual reality headsets and augmented reality glasses. Zuckerberg called the metaverse an “embodied internet” that puts users “in” the experience, not just looking at it. The Meta team admitted that the products in the presentation will not come to fruition for a while.  “Our hope is that within the next decade, the metaverse will reach a billion people, host hundreds of billions of dollars of digital commerce, and support jobs for millions of creators and developers,” Zuckerberg said.  Scott Galloway, professor of marketing at NYU Stern and author of The Four: The Hidden DNA of Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google , told The Dispatch the rebrand may actually be go...

 Last week (on my son's HBO MAX account) I watched He's Just Not That Into You. It's another movie I can't recommend in all good conscience, but really. . . it might be worth a look.  The theme is a message to all women who try to manipulate men into relationships: “If a guy wants to date you, he will make it happen.” At the beginning of the film it shows a little boy pushing a little girl down and then her mother saying “he did it because he likes you.” What a horrible thing to say to a child--but we do! Abuse is okay, it's a sign of love! The film goes on to explore how this translates into everyday experience in the lies we women tell ourselves and each other, sometimes believing them, sometimes trying to make our friends feel better, and sometimes to be devious. I've been the recipient of such lies and lines, and I know women who have believed them and tried to create relationships that didn't exist. Why? Because we women are willing to...

 My son allows me to use his HBO Max account. I do so with not a little guilt. I used to call, and really still do, HBO "Hell's Box Office" because, really, it has normalized all kinds of behavior we don't need. Blatant nudity, porn, grotesque violence, and the de-inappropriativeness of profanity. (I just made up that word. Words that never would be spoken in public before the '70s when HBO started are now shoulder-shruggers.) In fact, I have it on good authority that the X-rated stuff pays for the more high-quality program--that is their business model.  All that said, I hypocritically watch the streaming service some. I confess--I watched all of Scenes from a Marriage . Perhaps I'll dig into that here later, but I can't recommend it in good conscience despite it being artistically well done. ( Scenes from a Marriage is a misnomer. Each episode is more like a play from a marriage, not just a scene. )  There's just too much nudity and graphic sex, the...

"I had many things to write, but I do not wish to write to you with pen and ink;   but I hope to see you shortly, and we shall speak face to face." This concept is repeated in III John. After COVID, when we have defaulted to mediated communication, we have found it hard to get back to in person-ness. We've all become introverts; at least we've moved that way on the continuum. Electronic communication is too easy.  Well, maybe. If by communication we mean "shared meaning" rather than expression, then no.  There is no replacement for speaking face to face. If you can, do it. It's always going to have better outcomes. In f2f, you can't hide behind a screen, a keyboard, at network, a platform/website and its design, or miles. You are vulnerable. You are you. Your nonverbals speak loudly--not the 93% we are often told, but still a lot. They help and hurt you. The words have weight and context and immediacy and directness.  John wrote a good bit of the New...

When I was in (a Christian) college, someone thought it was funny to post the signs “I John,” “II John” and “III John” on the bathroom stalls.   I remember it as blasphemous at worst and distasteful at best. Why demean the canon? If there were four toilets, would they be Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John? In the words of a teenager, “Whatever. I can’t even.” That’s my introduction to the next series of posts on II and III John. They are very short, clearly written by John, focused in specific church issues in a specific church, very personal, and somewhat mirror each other; well, perhaps more than somewhat. How many sermons have you heard on these books? How much do we seasoned folks know about it other than it has verses that give us an excuse to be rude to Jehovah Witnesses and Mormons who come to our house? Let me remind you of these verses: III John 4 I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth. III John 5 ...

I wrote earlier that Russell Moore is directing the Public Theology Project at Christianity Today but I didn't know what that is. This defines it: Public theology is a purposeful effort to place our faith in the public square and make room for others to join us. One of the best ways to do this is through our own stories of faith. Acting as a public theologian means I intentionally let my theology inform my personal experiences to engage publicly in social issues. My faith is no longer exclusively an internal dialogue with God, but rather a public conversation between myself, God, and society—informed and infused by my experiences. Moreover, I don’t express my public theology simply by sharing my testimony. I also advocate for the vulnerable based on both my good and bad experiences in the church. By sharing the story of my suffering through the framework of my theology, I can help others to regain their view of God, which may have been eclipsed by their own pain....

  I struggle with empathy.   First, with understanding it. Is it cognitive or emotional? Is it understanding or feeling? Or is it just knowing how to respond to people in the best way?   Second, with appreciating it. Is it always needed? Is it the best way to go? Can it every be a bad idea? Counter productive? Totally inappropriate?   Third, with applying it. What if you don’t feel it? Is it ethical to act as if you do when you don’t? Is that authentic? What are the best ways to show it, the most effective, and is asking about effectiveness even empathetic?   Further, is it an either-or matter? Does it exist on a range, a continuum, where a little bit might be enough sometimes but much more is needed—or out of place—in others?   I’ve read Brene Brown. I know what not to say.       Is it possible we have put too much emphasis on empathy when what’s needed is common humanity and common sense? Can empathy be so strong i...

 Amazon indicates I've sold no books in three months. I need some help here, folks. I think you will find my novels as good as what's out there. Check them out.

 In my (small) Life Group of women on the verge or, as is said, women of a certain age, I taught this morning on Noah in Genesis 6 and 7. I started with a 5-question quiz about what we know about the narrative.  1. How many people were on the ark? 2. How many days were they in the ark? 3. True/False: there were only two of every species of animal.  4. True/False: Noah's sons went and captured the animals.  5. True/False: The main sin mankind was being punished for was sexual. Answers:  8, more than 201, False (on two counts: species and kinds are not the same, and there were 7 of the sacrificial clean animals), False (6:20), and False, violence was the sin. For some reason we teach Noah's Ark as a children's story, like it was a floating zoo with precious animals. It was closer to Sodom and Gomorrah on steroids, although that was for sexual sin (or lack of hospitality, depending on how it is read), and the judgment of the flood was about violence.  But back...

 One of my neighbors, at 9:20 a.m., is playing Hispanic music very loud. It's quite dramatic and better than rap or rock, I suppose.  My non-Hispanic, elderly neighbor comes out to his carport to call his dog, which he's been doing since 8.  The children are riding bikes, the squirrels and birds are using nature to its benefits, it smells like fall, and I'm enjoying coffee and breakfast. A humming bird is visiting. I have the Bible in front of me.  What could be better on October 9?

  Show is often more powerful than tell, or as Edmund Burke   said , "Example is the school of mankind; he will learn from no other."

 I felt such cynical glee with Facebook being down for several hours today. Mark Zuckerberg lost a boatload of money.  Yes! Fist Pump! May it happen again, soon and often. We actually survived, people. (Although I did have a message on there I needed to check...) We don't need this addictive, insidious product. It's very interesting that it happened after the Whistleblower Haugen appeared on Sixty Minutes.

Yesterday in the morning church service, a young couple who are returning to the mission field in a part of Indonesia were prayed over and blessed. We learned about their work with medical clinics and other outreaches to start small groups that turn into churches. They have two spunky little girls; the wife was a cheerleader in a public high school, so that gives us hope for cheerleaders! I pray for them regularly and to me they represent the best and brightest we have in the church today.  Every morning we meet for worship, we meditate, or at least are reminded, of the cross-death of Christ, the extreme sacrifice, "for the joy that was set before him" that he endured, "despising the shame..."   If we know anything about church history, we know that the body of Christ has suffered everything from the Colosseum to genocide over 2000 years.  Therefore, you can understand my dismay, my deep anguish and anger, yesterday when someone in my life group said that there was ...