partsofspeaking

The birds flitter, fight, swoop, peck, jump, perch, bicker, push, struggle, eat, gorge, fly, hop, flutter, chirp, fuss, fly, nudge, defy gravity and each other, swing, defecate, hang, fall, toss seed, maneuver, protect their space, protect their mate, fly to feed their children, turned their beaks up at the beef suet I lay out for them (my first grade teacher said they loved it, but maybe not in muggy Georgia).  Pigeons, woodpeckers, cardinals, robins, starlings, no-names, thrushes, more cardinals, purple martins, jays, hatches, and more pigeons.   (I have two birdfeeders and they provide soothing moments. The birds really like black oil sunflower seeds, which was recommended for the new feeder.)  This morning the feeders were well nigh empty, and the cardinals were chattering and gathering in a way that reminded me of Walmart shoppers looking for their favorite toilet paper in April 2020. My mother loved "red birds," a common sentiment in Appalac...

One not very helpful or original question asked in interviews is "What gets you out of bed in the morning?" This question is bad because no one is going to answer it truthfully.  Come on. The first reason is the alarm or someone telling you to. The second (acually the first the older you get) is having to use the toilet (I mean, seriously). The third is responsibilities that never go away in some form of another; when they do, that is more sad than a cause of celebration. Responsibilities connect us more than they imprison us.  However, I am reading a book given to me, one I would not pick up on my own because it's by a famous radio pastor and the cover claims he is a New York Times Bestselling Author. The book is really transcribed sermons, but a good read. And he answers this question:  There may be many factors in a person's motivation levels, but I can give you one that overrides all others. When you understand what Jesus Christ has done for you, what He can do fo...

Any workshop/expert/speaker/websitea/article/book on fiction writing, especially novels, will say to be sure that the first two pages develop a hook that would keep the reader turning the pages. I have often failed at that and gone for the Dickens approach of a first-person narrator and trying to create an authentic voice. Author Steven James calls this "starting with the snake," based on a story he tells. (He's not only an accomplished writer but a fabulous oral storyteller). Recently I took a screenwriting class, where one of the bases was that all plots start with "a stranger comes to town" or "a hero goes on a journey." My books tend to follow that, whether I realized it or not. Someone is always moving to a different place, starting a new phase or adventure. I am trying to finish the first draft of a 50-60,000 word novel set in Appalachian during 1918 by the new year. That means a lot of solitude and alienation from others, but that is the price o...

 A few years ago there was a song (used for Joan of Arc TV show, which I liked) What if God were one of us,  just a stranger on a bus just a slob like one of us.  Trying to find his way home.  Those are haunting, if somehwat irreverent words. Of course, the easy answer is "God was one of us, but even though he didn't ride a bus he probably would have, and he wasn't a slob." Slob here, I think, was not meant as a hoarder or dirty, disheveled, disordered person, but a working class, non-elite person with no special qualifications or prestige or anything to distinguish him.  God did become one of us, although we will never in this life really understand the mystery of the incarnation. We want to know God knows what it's like to be human, and he does know the physical pain, the loneliness and rejection, the misunderstanding and frustration, of being human. And, I'll credit Dallas Jenkins here in his portrayal of Christ in "The Chosen," he knows interpers...

Beyond knowing this story well for historical and background purposes, what is the reason for digging into Exodus? Surely this account has no relevance to Gentile Christians in 2021, especially in Advent.  Ah! Wait. As Moses said, Do not fear (just as the angels did), stand firm (not still, but firm), and be quiet to see what God will do.  I refer to I Corinthians 10:1-13.  For I do not want you to be ignorant of the fact, brothers and sisters, that our ancestors were all under the cloud and that they all passed through the sea. 2  They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. 3  They all ate the same spiritual food 4  and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ. 5  Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them; their bodies were scattered in the wilderness. 6  Now these things occurred as examples to keep us from setting our hearts on evil t...

  All the news on cable is about Joe Manchin. He declined to support the Build Back Better social infrastructure bill and its pretty hefty price tag, and some of his colleagues in the House are calling him, essentially, a racist, especially one African American fellow from New York. That seems to be especially non-collegial. Manchin’s pretty clear about the financial implications. However, some elements of politics right now have no problem throwing insults at members of their party who won’t get in line. This is as true of Dems and GOP; in fact, it may be more true of GOP, given the lunatic fringe that represents my district, one in Colorado, and others.   But this easy application of the “race card” or “racist epithet” has got me thinking, as I have been for awhile, about the subject of victimhood. We have an epidemic of victimhood status and the desire to get it, maintain it, and trumpet it. And I’m not going to lay the blame to politics. I see it especially in higher e...

  Big Idea: Follow God’s direction when it isn’t easy. I was in a church back in the 1990s that tended to be very insular and cliquey. It is hard to penetrate the relationships and friend groups of such churches. I remember how they were praying for, and stating so from the pulpit, that a member would not have to be transferred for his/her job to a city in North Carolina. The members treated it as if moving was the worst possible thing that could happen to this person. In the end I think they got out of it, but I’m still mystified why such a big deal was made of it. What if this was actually a beneficial step in the person’s life? What if God had something better for them? What if it would have meant personal, financial, spiritual, or social growth? This church purported to believe in missions—wasn’t that a form of mission? It’s an odd example, but to me it’s analogous to the Israelites’s situations. Common sense would have said, follow the Via Maris, the coastal trade rout...

 I am into the 2600s on my posts. I recommend a deep drive. I blog my life and thoughts in depth and breadth, and there is a lot here, on almost every subject (not genetics or nuclear physics, of course....) Opening Thoughts: Does extra-Biblical history verify the dramatic story of the Exodus/Deliverance? Yes and No. From some research: Too many people expect the historical record to verify the movies or popular conceptions more than the Biblical text. Ramses is the example here; Pharaoh is not named that. On the other hand, the cities that are mentioned in the text have been found. Relatedly, people don't generally understand archaeology, again because of movies. It's slow, painstaking, sometimes inexact at first, and the study has only been around since the very late 1700s and Napoleon's time.  Second, there are written text in Egypt (which are limited by our standards) where details of the plagues are mentioned.  Third, standards of ancient historical records are not t...

A   poem is a puzzle reconstructed by every reader. A diamond turned ever way and inside out. A forest and a leaf. A petal and a garden.   It moves like a cat through a dark alley downtown   and sits, calm in the sunny window.   A poem must mean and be motionless and rise like the moon, Or so Archie claimed. Or maybe not. A poem remembers and questions and prophesies And disagrees, even with Archie.   A poem flies and dives and lands and flies again.   A poem continues.    Note: This poem is an inside joke, or has one. I am not a serious poet, but sometimes it just appears. 

 After reading N.T. Wright's lengthy volume, The New Testament and the People of God , and his shorter How God Became King , I have taken on a different view of the "gospel." Not anything different from I Corinthians 15's opening verses, but something more historically based, deeper, and beyond the typical evangelical application to personal meaning. Wright is brilliant (how much can a person write?) but sometimes opaque in the sense that he explores the concepts in such depth and such breadth that one revels in it at the time but comes out with one's head spinning.  The major points: the gospel is about the glory of God and the restoration of the earth and God's order in the universe, not mainly about an individual's experience. Related to this question is the one of how the gospel Jesus preached/preaches before the cross might be "different" from the one Paul and/or apostles preached and wrote. With that question in mind, I bought John MacArthu...

https://frenchpress.thedispatch.com/p/the-wounds-politics-cannot-heal?token=eyJ1c2VyX2lkIjoxNzExNjU1NywicG9zdF9pZCI6NDU3MDI0NTcsIl8iOiJLOGk2ayIsImlhdCI6MTYzOTk0NjA4MywiZXhwIjoxNjM5OTQ5NjgzLCJpc3MiOiJwdWItMjE3NjUiLCJzdWIiOiJwb3N0LXJlYWN0aW9uIn0.X5DS6L3qgVBQgpgYK1cY8WsBWRua_TyknGJ0pJbdaUY

 First, because that is what the angel announced to the shepherds: 13  Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, 14  “Glory to God in the highest heaven,      and on earth peace ( L ) to those on whom his favor rests.” 15  When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.” (NIV) In short, the Messiah is here, glory to God and on earth peace. That is the blessing; that is the future. A blessing like that from God is not a wish, it is a prophecy.  But why peace? Because men are at war with themselves and God. I heard a recommendation for the book A World Undone: The Story of the Great War (from David French). I got it as a birthday present to myself. Of course, it is over 700 pages and I'm only up 66, but I also recommend it. WWI has always mystified me:...

I used to think this was just an example of Hebrew parallelism, but last night I realized it’s more.   The Child Jesus was born. The Son (of God) is given .   There is a chronology here. A birth, a given sacrifice of the only one possible to save, the Son of God, and then…later….   "And the government shall be upon his shoulder, and His name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace."   These names are, in a sense, in the time future, but we worship God who is outside of time, so it is happening and not fully realized at the same instant.   So we can sing it as if it has happened because in a way, it has.

 This article comes from https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/12/12/why-brian-broome-hates-christmas/?utm_campaign=wp_post_most&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&wpisrc=nl_most&carta-url=https%3A%2F%2Fs2.washingtonpost.com%2Fcar-ln-tr%2F35815fc%2F61b627059d2fdab56bc34d8e%2F6026a5999bbc0f73f6319ce6%2F17%2F73%2F61b627059d2fdab56bc34d8e   Now you might wonder about this post, especially the second paragraph. I don't hate Christmas. But I do have a real ambivalence about all these trappings, expectations, stressors, expenses, commercialism, schedule-crunchers, and nonsense. This short essay resonated with me quite a bit. My childhood memories often involve my father's drinking and/or almost losing his job for it. At Christmastime there is a lot of dark outside, too.   Since I don't monetize this blog, and I'm linking the original, I don't think I'm violating any copyright laws here. I can feel it now the way a buzzard can smell carrion ...

Then the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy , which will be to all people. For there is born to you, this day in the city of David, a Savior who is Christ the Lord.”   I recently posted on Facebook to a friend’s initial post: “Why do we refuse to embrace joy?” Because we do.   We do not give into it; we stop ourselves, waiting for the “other shoe to drop.” Pure joy can’t be possible, we fear. The real world is still there, in the background, pulling us back from real, unadulterated joy.   There have been a few times of that kind of joy for me. Yet I wonder why there are so few. I’m happy a lot. I’m joyful far less frequently. As most well-taught, or well-indoctrinated, Christians know, happiness is not the same as joy. Well, maybe. I don’t think they are all that different; as some say, is it a distinction without a difference? Yes, it is a difference, but perhaps in quantity but not quality. On...

This lesson is going to look at the first chapters as an overview, except for what Pat taught last week because she covered the burning bush and I AM revelations very well. Exodus is all narrative, historical account,   until chapter 20, when it becomes the law for 11 chapters and then returns to the narrative. And it’s a super interesting story, one that has spawned movies but nowadays I think the WOKE Hollywood would have trouble for it. The Ten Commandments: What did they get right, and wrong. The Prince of Egypt: Very Biblical, a little too hyper, but a great watch. You can see it on YouTube, or at least the song portions, which are wonderful. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZ9CJIlFGOQ   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-WimijgGEU Ithink, though, his mother had more sense and put him in a place where he’d be found.   Four words for Exodus: Readiness: how did they get here, how did Moses get here? Revelation: I AM the Covenant Go...

Just saw that Kathy Lee Gifford has a book out, The Jesus I Know. I think she's got that out of order. Or something. Jesus is far more than "what we know." Pres. Biden, after meeting with the Pope, said he was a decent guy. And this from a supposedly good Catholic. I think he's supposed to believe the Pope is the vicar of Christ, which is a little more than a decent guy.  Had a conversation with a woman yesterday who claimed to be a Christian, but she's living with her boyfriend and I heard her later talking about voodoo with someone. Her conversation partner said the voodoo woman was "nice" because she was welcoming to people in her store. The whole point of voodoo is to put curses on people, but I guess this one was an entrepreneur. Later that woman said another woman was her mother in a past life. OOOOKAAAAYYY.  In the words of Donald Trump, Sad. 

 Since the release of Dune (highly recommended if you have read the book; not sure otherwise, and I don't recommend much) I have decided to get up to speed on sci-fi.  I read Ursula LeGuin's Lathe of Heaven on one weekend after getting the COVID Pfizer booster and not feeling like facing the world (such ennui bordering on depression!) Probably not her signature work but a good read, quick one for me, and probably a good introduction  Then I got Hyperion , the 1989 novel by Dan Simmons which has a set of sequels, like Dune. So far I have gotten to "The Poet's Tale" section, where I'm bogged down in the dirtiness of it (he's foul-mouthed at every turn--I'll go back to it eventually, but I'm taking a break). "The Priest's Tale" was brilliant, reminding me of Shusako Endo's Silence , "The Soldier's Tale" seemed overlong, but he is a powerful writer. However, it is very, very dark compared even to Dune . The central figu...

Jude may strike some as a strange little book. First, it is little; 25 verses. It's tucked away behind the "Johns" and seems like a drumroll before the apocalypticism of Revelation  And it cites two (somewhat odd) noncanonical incidents; it's very Jewish and Old Testament focused; Jude isn't talked about anywhere else in the New Testament, but appears to be Jesus' half or stepbrother; and he seems to love the word "ungodly" (four times in one verse).  But we need him.  He reminds us of grace and the upholding, protective hand of God "who is able to keep us from stumbling." He reminds us to be eternally careful; there are many out there actively wanting, for some reason I don't understand fully, to destroy our commitment to Christ. He reminds us only God is going to get us to the end and stop trying so hard to do something you can't do anyway: "...who is able to ...present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exce...

 This is excerpted from The Morning Dispatch (big fan here) for Dec. 9, 2021.  It is firewalled so I'm not sure a link would work.  A Clinical Psychologist on Social Media and Mental Health In light of Mosseri’s testimony before Congress, we wanted to better understand the existing research on whether there’s a connection between social media use and mental health—and if Instagram’s proposed tweaks would have any effect. So we called Dr. Jacqueline Sperling , a psychology professor at Harvard Medical School and director of the McLean Anxiety Mastery Program at McLean Hospital in Belmont, Massachusetts.  Our conversation is below, edited for length and clarity. TMD: Could you summarize what we know about the relationship between social media use and mental health? Has it been around long enough to be able to draw some conclusions? Dr. Jacqueline Sperling: Research has shown links between social media use and negative impacts on one’s mood, like depressio...

Watching a Hallmark movie last night. Female character says "I broke up with Vanessa six months ago." Later, she tries to pick up some random woman at a restaurant. I changed the show. Wokeness has hit Hallmark.   Okay, before anybody thinks I'm rejecting or being unkind to a certain segment of the population, I'm really making fun of Hallmark. If you haven't seen the Holderness family videos on YouTube where they parody Hallmark, you are missing some laughs (don't go down the rabbit hole too much on those, but a couple will do).  In this particular Hallmark movie, I think they were trying to check all the boxes anyway: the three daughters were adopted, so one was Asian (this helped with casting, so they didn't have to find lookalike actresses); she was married to a black fellow; the newfound love was black, too, and this was set in Natchez, MS, for the Southern demographic, which meant a lot of references to things to make sure we knew they were in the So...

I don't think I can say anything profound about God's love that has not been said before. We need only reflect how much the words "love of God" or "love of Christ" or variants appear in the Bible. Or the beautiful Hebrew word "chesed" for lovingkindness. Or the bold statement, God is love in I John 4:8 and 4:16. At advent, we light the second candle for love. I looked for an image of love. They were all the typical heart shape (which comes from the shape of a frog's heart, so it lacks meaning for me) or the cross (more appropriate) or people hugging (or something even more intimate). I liked this one since it was none of those, despite its total lack of reference to advent.   Addendum Sunday evening: At church this morning the second candle was celebrated as peace, but my sources (Internet) say it is love.  One thing I am pondering is why we love candles. I enjoy burning them, even though I cannot smell them. There is something peaceful and kin...

 The Coordinator of International Education at our college sent out an announcement/invitation for faculty to apply for a Fulbright Scholarship. I asked permission and am doing so.  It's rather involved, like applying for a doctoral program. My application is for Norway, and the month-long seminar is in July/August. Not great timing for me. I doubt I will be awarded it anyway, but I want to visit Norway and have long wanted to do a Fulbright.  Not that Fulbright himself and I would not have had pretty strong political disagreement (he was a a great admirer of Woodrow Wilson, Wikipedia states). So be it. It would be a life experience to be in a socialist democratic Nordic country from which my 1000-years-ago ancestors came (to Scotland, I'm sure).  For those interested, this is what is required. Keep in mind, it's assumed the applicant is an educator. 1. CV 2. Two letters of reference, one from a colleague and one from a supervisor.  3. Three essays, one about wh...