partsofspeaking

Last evening at about 6:00 I took my dog for her normal walk at a local high school, since I knew there would be a football game.  6:00 was too late, really, but it allowed me to experience the phenomenon of high school football. I spoke with a police officer as I was leaving, one who admired my pitbull, and he said they were expecting 7,000 people, about 1/8 of the population of the county.  The game was between the high school my son attended and the new kid on the block (in the county), and my son's school has won seven times, and that included last night. What mattered to me, though, was the party fervor of it all.  Tailgating and collapsible tents, soft drinks and tea set out, adults visiting.  Trucks and SUVs galore.  A drum corps my dog and I had to walk through, her not very happy about it and doing everything she could to bolt away to a quieter place.  I am still just a tad stronger than she and kept her under control, but I learned my lesson....

Some people have been putting memes (I use that for lack of a better word) on Facebook implying that the tragic murder, on air, of the reporter and cameraman in Roanoke by a gay black man is "equal" to the Michael Brown killing in Ferguson, MO, and that the media's lack of reporting on it as a hate crime, etc. is an injustice. Well. All murders are equal; all murders are unequal.  All killings are equal but are also unequal.  We cannot measure pain and loss of human life in mathematical terms.  And we should have a long time ago stop expecting the media to report fairly and justly and equitably ON ANYTHING.  I understand the frustration of the persons posting these memes, but they miss the deep complexities of the two.  One person was killed because he was in the process of being arrested and a policeman felt threatened, perhaps justifiably or not; he was left to lie in the street for hours that night.  It is the tip of the iceberg of a long, long pro...

Ten years ago Katrina hit. Chaos theory says that a butterfly in Japan affects the weather in Ringgold, GA.  I don't know about that, but I know Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico affected me and many friends here. One friend's home in Biloxi was spared while the houses in her subdivision literally vanished.  I visited coastal MS for a short disaster relief trip in December of 2008, and we drove through New Orleans (and I have no intention of going back) on horribly hot day in July in 2006 or 2007.  I heard on the radio today that 10,000 homes still have not been touched.  That is hard to imagine. The town we visited for disaster relief was Lakeshore, MS, where the congregation of the Baptist church said they would not rebuild the church until the community's home were restored.  And they did, only within the last two years or so finishing the church.  We were there to help with homes. The pastor of my church lost everything in Katrina and moved away; we h...

--> Today was Ingrid Bergman day on TCM, and she made one film with Ingmar Bergman, Autumn Sonata, which was shown earlier this evening.   This is film at its best, one to watch over and over except not at close intervals because the emotion is so raw and real. My husband asked me if that was common between mothers and daughters.   I said some, but not most.   I don’t think that is the point, that this is a microcosm of all mothers and daughters.   It’s about this one, a “selfish” woman (subjective) who put her career as a classical pianist on tour before being at home with her children, one of whom is disabled in some way (the disease is so vaguely portrayed that it comes across metaphorical rather than real).   The other adult daughter is suffering from grief (from death of child), depression, anxiety, and some deep abandonment from her mother that she interprets as hate.   I am not sure it really is hate, though.   She wants her moth...

When I read the headline of the article linked below, I thought, "Seriously? How can a person who calls themselves a Christ follower be looking for hook ups on this crazy site? http://www.christianitytoday.com/edstetzer/2015/august/ashley-madison-caught.html I am reminded of my thankfulness for people (writers) who are more in tune with God's grace than I am.  My temptation is to just question the reality of someone's faith who would participate in Ashley Madison. This writer calls for repentance, which is really the only call.  A person on that site blew it, intentionally, by his/her own free will, big time.  But God is bigger than that.

Instead of berating myself for not added to this blog every few days, I am going to give myself a break and encourage any interested readers to go back through the archives to find some of the (if I do say so myself) interesting things I have posted over the eight years I have been writing this blog, and to also check out my other blog, Chrisiancollegeinstructor.blogspot.com, which I wish I had named something else in retrospect.  I am trying to write a speech textbook for which we received a large grant, I am writing a play, and this top of a full-time administrative job and teaching three classes because our department is understaffed and the college's enrollment (thankfully) has risen.  And then there is life--homemaking, yardwork, church, worship, ministry, billpaying, dogs, husband, sleep, exercise.  Not, of course, in that order.  The total randomness of that list exemplifies my organizational struggles right now. So blogging has to put aside.  Additio...

Donald Trump is trying to hold the Republican party hostage with threats of being a third party candidate.  Whoever is answering these polls needs to get a grip.