partsofspeaking

http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2013/06/how-reading-makes-us-more-human/277079/ Karen Swallow Prior is an English professor at Liberty.

http://guides.library.harvard.edu/sixreadinghabits I am currently reading Anna Karenina and find myself reading to get through rather than reading to soak in, learn, interrogate.  We have developed bad habits from reading on the Internet.  Literature does not allow itself to be read this way.

Today I am supposed to be excited because Kate Middleton (what is her married name anyway?) is in labor.  I wish her well.  But it really matters little to me, extremely little. Royalty is only interesting to me because it is a part of history, and I love history.  Last night on PBS a documentary on George V was shown.  It explained a lot to me.  The royalty of England for 200 years was German, spoke German, married German, used German titles.  But George V, who was cousin to Kaiser Wilhelm and Czar Nicholas, changed all that.  He adapted the monarchy to the changing times so it could survive, and it's the only one people really know about today.  He eliminated all German accoutrements, changed the name to the house of Windsor (after the old castle), became the people's king, and encouraged his son Bertie to marry a "commoner" (whatever the heck that means--royalty usually acted very common).  He also took his role seriously as the emperor, as did his wife, and they

I heard a liberal commentator say that the real division in this country is class, not race.  I agree.  He pointed out that the three women who were imprisoned in Cleveland for ten years were not looked for because they were working class, not wealthy or famous.  Two were white and one Latina.  Of course, there is intersection of the two, class and race.  Whites are more likely to be of an upper class, but not all are.  Poor whites (often uneducated) can get poor treatment, too.  Rich blacks (a la OJ) can get better treatment.   This was the lesson of Gatsby--wealth made him respectable even when he wasn't.  I was talking about this to my husband and he mentioned the Kennedys.  Joe Kennedy was a bootlegger, but he made a lot of money at it, got to be an ambassador, put his sons in politics, and had affairs with Hollywood stars (Gloria Swanson, for one).  And they were considered royalty, God help us. 

I have to say I was happy to hear the Muhammed Morsi was deposed, although my emotions were mixed.  The ascendancy of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt has been a concern for those who follow the persecuted church in the world.  Christians have been targeted in Egypt, and I would imagine secular Egyptians had their own fears about sharia-type laws. So if the love of the MB was put out of power, I am not going to weep. However, the alternative, a military dictatorship, hardly sounds good, and Morsi was elected democratically, at least in their system of democracy.  A lot of Americans don't get that there are different forms of democracy.  Syria is another issue.  Assad is no saint; one can find little to defend.  But trusting the rebels, and arming them to boot, is a frightening prospect.  I have to part ways with Senator McCain on this; I am not sure where he is coming from.  The deprivation in Syria and the massive numbers of refugees, however, is equally frightening. The

I do not go to movies unless I read the reviews on it.  It's two hours of my life; I want to know what I am getting into.  So I don't see a lot of movies I would consider really bad. One I did see recently was Identity Thief.   I cannot begin to describe how awful it was, neither funny nor with characters I cared about. I do not watch horror or slashers, so those don't get a nod here. Many Adam Sandler movies are bad, but actually not all of them.  If you just want low-brow comedy, that's what you'll get.  You'll laugh but get absolutely nothing else from it. I have heard The Lone Ranger is bad also. Which is the point--I'm only going to go see ones that are good. Ebert, a critic I followed even though I didn't agree with his world view (he wrote soft-core pornography, for one thing) would criticize a movie based on what it intended to be.  I suppose that's all right, but if it tries to be bad and it is, is the movie there good?  Recent

We use the word "glory" and "glorify" a great deal without really delving into its meaning.  Its root means "weight," or "weighty."  We talk about giving God glory (He already has it, but it's still our duty to do so).  Recently I heard a radio speaker talk about how we uphold God's reputation, which got under my skin.  God doesn't need puny us to uphold His reputation.  Our giving glory to God is right because we are commanded to, He deserves it, and it keeps us in the right place spiritually.  But how it will affect the world's view of Him is another matter. In reading Isaiah I was struck by the contrast between our desire for that perfect world and yet our lack of understanding that it will mean the loss of what we so grasp for in this one. "Shalom" we say we want.  But we define this shalom as a "leave me alone" peace, not a peace of community. I heard this song today and was moved by it.  It's &q

Today I was talking with a friend whom I have known about eight years.  She and I go to the same church and are now in the same Bible class.  She is from the Netherlands and recently returned from a four-year stay there; I am glad she is back.  She casually mentioned that she used to teach an aerobics class at a specific YMCA.  A light went off in my head. One day in the late '90s I went to that Y for an exercise class and had an instructor with a (I thought) German accent.  She was thin and direct (blunt) and made a comment about how Americans call the bathrooms "restrooms" and that when she came to the US she thought there would be beds in the restrooms.  That stuck with me for years. I realized that that instructor was my friend standing in front of me.  However, she was not a Christian at the time.  Interestingly, she is one of the warmest and most attractive (in the personality sense as well as looks ways) people I know; that instructor was not so much.  I can se

One woman, a missionary wife, wrote of how she saw a person who needed hope, a friend, or encouragement and walked by him.  A friend wrote, " I wish more people would say..."I yelled at my kids today....or, I chose not to forgive my husband and gave into my flesh instead." Then facebook would resemble real life more and offer authentic connection instead of superficial cyber-reality."   That's the good one for the day. A friend who works in Hollywood wrote the Disney (which he adores) has stopped development of a remake of 20,000 Leagues under the sea "in light of The Lone Ranger" (I assume he means how bad it is).  One of his friends wrote, "No more Captain Rahab," to which my friend responded that he meant Captain Nemo, that Captain Ahab was looking for Moby Dick, and Rahab was the prostitute in Jericho. Another friend wrote that she had a spiritual orgasm in church this morning.  Oh, my. Another colleague posted a photo that

I went to see The Great Gatsby last night at I guess what is called the "second run" theatre.  It now costs $3.75 to see a film there. It used to be one dollar.  Sigh.  But that's better than $8.00.  This was a hip-hop, CGI-enhanced, visually stunning version of the story.  Except for a few additions, it was faithful to the book.  Let me say first that while I think Gatsby is a great American novel, it's not in my opinion (and I have an M.A. in English) THE great American novel.  I put it in the top ten, definitely, but not top one.  I give that honor to Robert Penn Warren's All the King's Men , which bears a lot of similarity to Gatsby--narrative structure, for one, with a self-loathing narrator who orbits around the main character who is very powerful and ruthless.  Maybe because I live in the South, and maybe because I think politics is the life-blood of this country, I put Men first.  Then Huckleberry Finn , then Mockingbird .  Scarlet Letter , Moby D

I sometimes wish I didn't even watch the news or read it on the Internet.  We know we are being lied to and yet we keep sucking at the teet of CNN, Fox, MSNBC, AP, CBS, and ABC.  Or worse, we get our news from Facebook or Jon Stewart.  That is a really harsh comment but I see no other alternative to that opinion. President Obama spent 17 minutes yesterday at a press briefing talking about the case.  I have mixed feelings about this.  First, I do not doubt, at all, what he said about his own experience.  I know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that young black men get treated like that.  I even wrote a novel about it, actually three.  When I chose to have a young biracial man in my books, I knew I had to address him being "profiled" although I didn't use those words because in the time when I set the books, that word was not used.  I have him thinking about how he is watched and followed, and I have a scene where he is hassled and arrested by a white policeman (although

When did "protester" come to mean "hooligan"?

I will be moving permanently into a new office tomorrow because the Communication Faculty are being culled out from the Humanities Faculty.  When the computer is moved, I'm officially moved.  Last week I just dumped all my crap into the new place; tomorrow I start to make sense of it.  I'm ambivalent about it.  What I am not ambivalent about is all my crap.  It's shameful.  I could get rid of half of everything I own and still have far too much.  Books, old files, art work, books, crafts, gifts to regift, gifts I store for future giving.  More books.  Lots of clothes that I still wear even thought they are well over ten, even fifteen years old. I did something today that shocked a few people.  I got on the back of my husband's motorcyle and we went about ten miles around the area.  I will not get on the interstate (I did back in the '80s, but not now--too many trucks).  It was fun once I got past the initial panic attack.  I do not like feeling that I exist in a

We have had heavy rainfall for the last two weeks.  Everything is a deep emerald green; grass is thick, gardens should be happy (but mine is soggy still), and the temperatures are really rather moderate.  So I'm sharing my houseplants.

Sometimes you just see things and they are so juxtaposed that they are unmistakable.   I had one of those moments this week. I drive down a shaded road to get to my job at the college.   There is a sidewalk on one side and lots of apartment complexes on both sides.   An attractive older woman in short shorts and a stylish cap was taking her morning exercise to my left.   To my right two stocky, fully clothed immigrant laborers were putting down pine needles as mulch for the landscaping at one of the apartment complexes.   They were getting their exercise by hard work.   In the same community we have such a range of socioeconomic and cultural diversity.   On one side, people who will do anything honest and honorably to stay here and make a living and enjoy the freedoms of this country (despite the occasional blip, and despite my feelings about our current government, we do have awesome freedoms).   On the other, a woman who may never even given a second thought to question her plac

I recently heard a talk on the Breakpoint radio program about how the advocates of same-sex marriage keep saying they are on the right side of history, as if history had sides.   What they mean is that same-sex marriage legalization is inevitable, so people like me should just give up and stop expending energy on the fight (not that I am, other than an occasional blog).   The Franky planner quote for the day is this one, equally stupid, even if JFK said it (I’m sure he said a number of stupid things):   “History is a relentless master.   It has no present, only the past rushing into the future.   To try to hold fast is to be swept aside.”   Is history inevitable?   What in the world do people mean by history?   History is neither a force, nor a person.   What are inevitable are ideas and their consequences, and also inevitable is the gullibility of people who think they have to change because the talking head on television says they should, or must.

I said I wasn’t going to, but last night I watched, for the umpteenth time, the 1939 film The Women.   One has to watch it at least three times to get all the lines.   It’s hilarious and witty, and the performances are great.   And I love the clothes (although the Technicolor fashion show is bizarre).   That is not to say I agree with its basic message, which comes down to this: “Men are stupid, and women are conniving.” Or more precisely:   Men are incapable of fidelity, so women must either (a) put up with it or (b) fight for their man, to keep him out of the clutches of the other woman.   Women cannot trust other women, who only want another man and will take yours if it means more money or social position.   I say:   Men are capable of fidelity; it’s just that they can get away with it because of (a) immoral woman (it takes two to tango) and (b) women let them.   If a man gets away with it once, why wouldn’t he try again?   A woman who puts up with infidelity encoura

Or is it?   Dr. King said injustice anywhere is injustice everywhere.   No man is an island, unto himself.   So whether we like it or not, we are affected by this at some level.   And of course the media would not let us forget it, although I strongly doubt they are that interested in truth, just drama and ratings. I have two conflicting views on this story.   A young man is dead.   Sure, one side calls him names and says he was a thug and attacked Zimmerman and was beating him up.   We don’t know; we will never know everything.   Zimmerman by his own admission killed him.   If Zimmerman had not been following him, Trayvon Martin wouldn’t have attacked him, etc.   Did Zimmerman have any business following him around the neighborhood,with a gun?   My husband seems to think it was ok for him to do so.   I don’t think so.   That’s what cops are for, and the 911 operator told Zimmerman to leave him alone.   Zimmerman is guilty of stupidity in the first degree.   He should have to pa