partsofspeaking

https://www.newyorker.com/business/currency/the-founder-of-panera-bread-explains-the-economic-forces-that-led-to-trump I have been thinking this for years. Back in the '80s smart people were saying it about our struggle with Japan; Japan had a long-term view, while U.S. businesses were looking at the next quarter. Possibly the same mentality affects education: if we don't get a desired outcome next semester, scrap the whole approach. 

I.                         Jacob’s biography A.    Family: Born to Isaac and Rebecca as second of twins, brother Esau. Mother received prophesy. that he would be the heir/receive birthright. They believed the outcome but not the process.   Parents had favorites. Jacob cheated Esau for the birthright; he and Rebecca colluded to deceive Isaac for the blessing ceremony; because of Esau’s fury, his parents secretly sent him away to Syria to work for his uncle Laban, Rebecca’s brother. Jacob never saw deceptive mother again. Father lived over twenty years longer. Esau is married to local pagan women but decides to marry a third wife from Ishmael’s family to try to make his parents happy. B.      Lived with Laban for twenty years. Was deceived in the wedding ceremony, later found a way to get back at Laban for more w...

The day after Thanksgiving my husband was watching sports talking heads in the morning. On two occasions a reference was made to pumpkin pie and the other sportscaster said, "No, we eat sweet potato pie." In both cases the sweet potato defenders were African American and probably had Southern roots. Although I grew up on pumpkin pie (and bread-in-the-bird stuffing), I married in the South and a man who wanted Southern food. So I learned to make sweet potato pie and dressing, and I'm glad I did. In both cases the Southern alternatives are much better, and I'm here to tell you why. (I don't say this about all Southern food, though.) First, sweet potato pie is healthier because one doesn't have to put as much sugar in it--it's naturally sweet, plus you're getting the good dose of vitamin A from the sweet potatoes. Second, it's easier to make (if totally from scratch, since pumpkin is difficult to cook), and third, it doesn't have nutmeg and nu...

There is a great benefit in having studied foreign languages for a good bit of my life. I am fairly proficient in Spanish and studied French and German in my youth. I even took a semester of Greek. I'm a grammar nerd, although there are some fine points I have to look up. From this study I learned that English is wonderful in some ways (breadth of vocabulary) and not in others (grammatical precision). Case in point, you plural vs. you singular, which we have lost. Of course, the joke is that in the South we get it right, "you'll" or "y'all," or the Yankee version I'm more likely to use, "you guys," which is really too informal for professional use. But in most other languages it's very clear when you to a group and you to a single person is being used. I recommend this article for a clear explanation:  https://network.crcna.org/pastors/you-%E2%80%93-and-you-%E2%80%93-and-you I also recommend an online Greek interlinear https://bib...

"I speak of theological rather than spiritual core exercises, it’s because Christian spirituality involves more than the human spirit, mindfulness, religious experience, or sense of a generic sacred. Rather, Christian spirituality refers to the Christian life as caught up in the life of the triune God. Theological core exercises concern what we do to participate in what Father, Son, and Spirit are doing in, with, and through us to make us more like Christ." Kevin J. Vanhoozer, in Christianity Today .

https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/so-you-want-be-writer Charles Bukowski starts this wonderful poem:   if it doesn’t come bursting out of you in spite of everything, don’t do it.   He goes on . . . I felt everything was right about his poem.   I spent years of my life feeling guilty about not writing. How foolish!  If it's not eating at you to get out, there's no reason to feel guilty! You're not ready.    Right now I'm in a bit of a rut, blocked, and feeling guilty. No need.

Lately I've noticed a trend in writing where the characters go through horrendous tragic events and death defying adventures and at the end everything is nice and happy again. Case in point:  last season of Stranger Things . I loved the first season. The second was good, but the young people were so normal and happy and untraumatized at the dance in the last episode. Hello! After what they'd been through? (And I just won't forgive them for treating Sean Astin that way! It was as if, "OK, we're going to use him, he's a good actor and people will watch because he's in it but we can't really have him end up with Joyce despite how kind and good and brave he is so we will have the little raptor whatever-they-are creatures eat his intestines."  I'm shuddering now.) They are not the only ones, though. Scarring happenings should leave scars. The characters should be different. There should be something at stake.  This was what I liked about the end...