partsofspeaking

 I have been grading assignments from my online class this morning.  Do English teachers not teach about paragraphs any more? I get research papers with paragraphs of 500 words or more. I get business writing assignments that are supposed to be persuasive message emails with only one paragraph.  Paragraphs have power. Yes, this is nerdy. But the more I write, the more I see why paragraphs can improve your writing.  Point one: Academic writing is not the only type of writing, yet it is what is taught in schools as the model before students are untaught it in professional or business writing classes. Academics, first of all, are professional readers. They often have the leisure or motivation to read a long paragraph without being distracted, and to consider the logical development of a topic sentence or focused main idea in depth. That is their job. But, notice that this is the development of one idea.  That is where students and novice writers often get it wrong...

 Actually I did. After seeing a story on CNN that D. Trump was suing E. Jean Carroll for defamation, I said, "what idiots." Then I saw this headline:"We're electing idiots," says Liz Cheney. https://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2023/06/28/liz-cheney-electing-idiots-sot-hutchinson-reax-ctn-vpx.cnn Liz is the woman. She had more courage than her male colleagues (it helps to have a powerful dad, though). She paid the price politically. And she is absolutely right. We have no one to thank for our politicians but ourselves.

I have been deriving great benefit from Psalm 103 over the last few day. Of the first verse, Keil and Delitsch write:   There is nothing the soul of man is so prone to forget as to render thanks that are due, and more especially thanks that are due to God. It therefore needs to be expressly aroused in order that it may not leave the blessing with which God blesses it unacknowledged, and may not forget all His acts performed (גּמל equals גּמר) on it (גּמוּל, ῥῆμα μέσον, e.g., in Psalm 137:8 ), which are purely deeds of loving-kindness), which is the primal condition and the foundation of all the others, viz., sin-pardoning mercy. Bless the LORD, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless His holy name.  Bless: praise with deep affection, emotion, gratitude, intentionality, mindfulness, no reservations, totality--all that is within me. THE NAME I AM THAT I AM, the Holy Name. What is the practical application? See everything through lenses (although I don't think th...

This isn’t about the most recent sale of a Van Gogh and the “price” someone was willing to pay to own something Van Gogh created and touched. (It was this, by the way.) Orphan Man, Wearing a Blouse, Sitting with Pipe Sotheby's (London) 28 June 2023 343 £250,000 - 350,000 My thoughts today are on what my work as a writer is worth to other people. Today I am thinking, "not much." I’m in a funk. And I’m writing about it, of course. I was scheduled to speak somewhere. I drove 1:45 minutes to get there. No one showed up. I am not exaggerating. No one. I sat there for two hours waiting. No one. I’m exhausted now, and the dogs are annoyed with me that I am not walking them. Butter is giving me his Wookie call. I felt like a fool and a failure. Who do I blame? The people at the venue? Myself? Or the basic view that meeting a writer who is not also a celebrity (influencer, actress, politician, sports star) or notorious in some other way is not worth coming to listen to? Especial...

  “The heart of another is a dark forest, always, no matter how close it has been to one’s own.” Willa Cather.

 This strikes me as the perfect short story/short play. A lot of fun. https://www.mit.edu/people/dpolicar/writing/prose/text/thinkingMeat.html

 "Like a digital Tower of Babel, social media is evolving into an increasingly ugly and chaotic space — a real-time repository for our worst impulses, uninspired musings, scatalogical humor and ill-formed thoughts that should be kept to ourselves," Los Angeles Times staff writer Jessica Gelt noted . It is an online Mall of America: vast, vacuous, relentlessly commercial and soul-sucking. And in a time of immense crisis — political, ecological, social — it has become a garbage dump of vile commentary publicly aired because that’s just what we do now." As I have said for a long time, Twitter is a sewer, a cesspool. Facebook probably is, too, except that I only see the images and words my friends post.  Instragram and Tik Tok, limited time. YouTube, yes, addictive.  When will be make the choice to stop it? Or at least cut way, way back on it?  And here I am on social media complaining about social media. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2cqblTDR8w Mattheson's Original Lyrics: O love that will not let me go I rest my weary soul in thee I give thee back the life I owe That in thine ocean depths its flow My richer, fuller be O light that followest all my way I yield my flickering torch to thee My heart restores its borrowed ray That in thy sunshines glow its day May brighter, fairer be O joy you seek me through the pain I cannot close my heart to thee I trace the rainbow through the rain And feel the promise is not vain Then morn shall tearless be  

No, this post is not about that.  I once said, snarkily and yes, inappropriately, that my preferred pronouns are "I, me, and my." I would say they are for everyone.  Which brings me to the use of "MY." I was listening to one of my favorite podcasts, Hidden Brain , with Shankar Vedantam. I recommend it anyone who is interested in motivation and human psychology, although for me a lot of it is a review and redolent of what I've taught for years.  In a recent one a guest told the story of being in a meeting with the Dali Lama and being scolded by him (berated sounds more like it). The reason? the guest, a professor of psychology who studies meditation, had referred to one of the grad students who works with him doing research as "my grad student" and "my research assistant." The Dali Lama took great umbrage with it. "Don’t call her your student."    I would argue here that Tenzin Gyatso doesn't understand idiomatic and colloquial...

 Earlier I posted an essay about an older, allegedly homeless woman who stands across the parking lot from the Shugart Road Home Depot with a sign: Homeless, Anything Helps.  She's not there every time I go by (there's a Walmart on the property, too) but pretty frequently.  Yesterday I decided to ask the checkout lady at the Home Depot what was going on with her. I got an earful, which is fine. "There's a whole bunch of 'em. They lived in that motel over there, I think.  One of them has a sign saying she's blind, but she isn't, and there's an old guy.  They are too lazy to work. I go to work. If you offer them food or help, they won't take it, they just want the money. Some of them were coming in here stealing and throwing it in the ditch and then selling the stuff to contractors for cheaper than we do." My priors were confirmed. But it doesn't answer the question, why do people get in these states in life? Why is living like that better th...

https://www.christianitytoday.com/news/2023/june/saddleback-sbc-women-pastors-appeal-rick-warren-southern-ba.html I'm not sure I completely agree with him, but I'm glad he spoke out. And that there is a 12%.

  John 14:5-7 And where I go you know, and the way you know.” 5  Thomas said to Him, “Lord, we do not know where You are going, and how can we know the way?” 6  Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth , and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. 7  “If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; and from now on you know Him and have seen Him.” Verse 6 and on to 7a is probably one of the most outrageous, extreme, ideology-shaking, and perplexing statements of Jesus. “I am not going to show you the way and truth and life. I am THE WAY, THE TRUTH, AND THE LIFE.” Not a way, truth, and life. The only one, which tracks with the next sentence. “No one comes to the Father except through Me. If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also.” This is a passage to contemplate, ponder, meditate on. Yet let me just pick on one thing. On some TV show a bunch of women were screaming about “that’s your truth, that’s not my t...

  I have been spending some weeks in Psalm 95 and 96. For 95 and related passages, I am working on a short study on entering rest. Maybe because I am experiencing fatigue! But my writing motivation is strong and awake, especially on this subject. It will be on Amazon for a very low price when I get it done.   Psalm 96 starts with “Sing a new song unto the Lord.” I love to parse something like this.   “Sing” – although the musical conventions of the Davidic Kingdom would perplex us and probably not be considered “catchy,” the command to sing has to be so freeing. Not “perform,” but sing.   “A new song.” I think we can look at this new song three ways.   1.     Due to conversion and growth in Christ, we sing a new song. Not a dirge, but a hymn. Not the blues, but a Broadway showstopper (okay, okay, that second one is a bad analogy; I was trying to think of the opposite.) The context of the rest of the psalm means this new song is cel...

 Last night, somewhat against my better inclinations, I watched Matt Walsh's "documentary" "What is a Woman?" Some of it was very good.  Some of it was cringey. I wish he would have cut the snark and provocation and taken the subject seriously. So I can't really recommend it, but I can't really not recommend it, either. The best parts were the serious interviews, one with an adolescent psychiatrist (old school) who explained the Kinsey report and other research that led us to this morass, and the Britsh theologian Carl Trueman who explained how identity and emotion figure into these developments. If you can skip through to those folks, it will be worth your time. Other good points are Jordan Peterson (I just like how he talks, but sometimes he's a bit much) and the Canadian father on the telephone. Also the academic who teaches women's studies but cannot define a woman. And Debra Soh, who has some credibility as a neuroscientist.  (Walsh did not ...

 The lesson that Sunday morning in Life Group was from Luke 4. The narrative was Peter’s call after the miracle of the boatful of fish. The theme was following Jesus call to “follow Me,” fully and without boundaries or limits, no matter what.   A lot of extreme things were said. “Give it all to God.” “Make the sacrifice.”   “Have no fear of what would happen if you give it all to God.”   Yet, that part of me that is intellectually oppositional about almost everything whispered, “But what about….”   And in this case, I had two examples sitting in the room with me.   Two women in our class, relatively young, are widows. Both have lost their husbands, early. I will not get into the particulars to protect their privacy.   I could not help but think, “And some have given all to God and still there was awful, rending loss.   Giving their all really did mean giving their all.”   And I don’t think we really believe that will h...

I moved into this neighborhood 23 months ago. I am very happy here. Like many Americans, though, I have not met all my neighbors, not really (saying hey is not really a formal introduction or first conversation). Yesterday and today I did, and it has got me thinking, deeply.   It is now early June, and in April I found out that a man down the street, whom I will call Tom, would cut my grass for a very sub-reasonable price. One neighbor told him about me and I hired him, although I pay him so little that saying I hired him is incorrect. He offered to do it for me for the low price. Tom came by last night for the sixth time and was even blowing the leaves from my carport as a courtesy. And we got to talking. His adult son was helping him as well.   It turns out that his son has severe hearing loss and attended Gallaudet College in Washington, D.C., even playing baseball for them and coaching. His wife is also hearing impaired (as are two of her five s...

The 37-count indictment of Trump (widely available because now unsealed) is stunning.  The "what about Biden" argument doesn't apply. Two wrongs do not make a right.  Anything that keeps Trump off my TV and computer screen and out of the White House, other than his death, is a good thing. But some will only be strengthened in their support by this news.

 We hear a lot about protesters, activists, and rioters. Not all the same, of course. Protesting peacefully is our right and I've done it.  People who vandalize (and now, masterpieces in museums) are of course a different matter.  As a person who gets up every morning and either goes or starts to work and is always conscious of the paycheck, I have to wonder, how do these people live? Are they paid to protest, are they on the dole, are they trust fund babies, what?

 One gift in the act of prayer is that it is unlimited. And it should be in how we practice it.  It also is not an act that has to be done at a particular time of day or for a particular length of time.  It is, I firmly believe, not something we should be made to feel guilty about for not doing it "right." Or not doing it like John Wesley purportedly did it (getting up at 4 in the morning for three hours of prayer, etc.) People in the Bible prayed all kinds of ways, and such has been the case in the 2000 years of the church.  Additionally, it shouldn't be something that makes us feel pleased and impressed with ourselves, only with the fact that God listens and grants us the grace to talk to Him.  The motivation of our prayers is always more important than the formality of them. Prayers are not to be rhetorical either--public prayer that preaches a sermon or even worse, makes announcements about church events (ha, ha, it happens!) In its limitlessness, there real...

  A person close to me is on another tangent. Women’s roles in the church. (They should be minimized, according to this person. Hummm.) Also this week I interviewed a writer for my podcast who is an ordained minister and is a woman. She has ministered in various ways in churches (youth pastor) and as a hospice chaplain. And, by the way, my daughter-in-law is ordained in her church tradition. Regardless of one’s views on this subject, let’s get one thing straight. As a former colleague used to say, "I've got news for you." These women are NOT in it for fame, power, and money. They are in it to use their gifts humbly and fully, alongside other men and women, for the kingdom of God. So let’s get over the idea that a woman wants to be ordained so she can be the next pastor of a megachurch, have a huge "platform," and have two homes and a jet. Or to put men in their place. Or for a political statement. They are not Beth Moore. They are not mommy-bloggers. The...