Readers of the world unite…well I guess you already did, but no one told me.
In case any other junkie, ahem, bibliophile is not aware of THIS, please remedy that immediately.
Archives for November 2008
I thought you might like a break from Paul pretending to pick his nose. The house is quiet. Christopher and Paul have taken Lydia to a friend’s and Eden is at her cousin’s. Jack has been sleeping on the floor beside me.
In Chinese the character for peace (an) is the character for woman under the character for house. I don’t think they have a character for sleeping dog, but if they did I would put that under the house, because it truly is peace.
I Heart Eugene.
Oh Eugene Peterson! I treated you bad (ly). I made judgments about your work without even reading it. Oh prejudice! Please forgive me for being a jerk.
Yesterday I read what you wrote in the introduction to your book, “Subversive Spirituality”:
The Christian life, in one of its main aspects, is a recovery of what we lost in the Fall. We happen upon, we notice, we reach out and touch things and ideas, people and events, and among these the Holy Scriptures themselves, that were there all along but that our ego-swollen souls or our sin-blurred eyes quite simply overlooked – sometimes for years and years and years.
And then we do notice: we sight life, we realize God and hear his word, we grab the sleeve of a friend and demand, “Look! Listen!” More often than not our friend has been looking and listening all along and treats our sudden enthusiasm with courteous condescension.
I’ve grabbed a few sleeves in my time too.
Keep it up.
Teach your children well.
Paul and I have made a point to avoid talking politics in front of our children, for the simple reason that we didn’t want them parroting our opinions. Neither of the big kids was very interested in the electoral process until this election. Lydia is 11 and Christopher is 13 and Eden…well, Eden is Eden. Early on she decided to “shout” for John McCain. Christopher was for Obama and Lydia reserved judgment claiming that she didn’t know enough to make a wise decision.
With the older two we have begun to discuss policies and politics using a civil and respectful tone. We want our children to know what we believe and why and we want to teach them how to conduct themselves when they exercise their civic duties some day.
It’s so easy to get all het up and to shoot off your mouth, but who and what does that serve? I am working every day to teach my children to honor and respect others, but if I am dishonorable and disrespectful of political figures and their supporters I negate my teaching.
We were playing a game the other week called “Apples to Apples” where the dealer turns over a card with a word on it like “nasty” and the players, who have seven other cards each, choose a word that matches best. Each round there is a new dealer who is also the judge of which word wins. When nasty came up, three of my cards were “Democrats” “Republicans” and “Barbara Walters” I can’t remember the rest. I had an amazing hand. Regardless of my political persuasion I could have scored if I knew Paul’s. Of course I do, but I didn’t want to make that sort of snarky statement in front of my kids.
I was thinking about it later and decided that if I really want to teach my children well, I need to live it, which means never making snotty comments. If I want to ensure that my kids learn to be civil then I need to make sure I am even when they aren’t around.
So I’m working on it.
With that in mind, I found this interesting.
Neither side owns the moral high ground. And yet, each one of us gets to take a stand for respect, civility and graciousness.
Labor Relations Update
I don’t have time to give the details. In summary, it’s gone from bad to worse.
I spoke yesterday and am heading to Lansing in a couple hours to speak again tonight. I will spare you the details, suffice it to say I am not well.
Remind me to tell you about:
- the two teams here at OTJ
- conferences – nature vs. nurture vs. birth order vs. WT…!
- the lunchroom – oh adolescence!