Friday, January 19, 2007
Whu. . .huh? Where Did My Week Go?
It's Been One of Those Weeks
You know, the kind of week that you hope won't strike until late February/early March? You know, the week where you watch your carefully-planned New Year's Resolutions fade into that middle distance called "Next Year"? Yep, the resolution revolution ended a bit early this year. I've only been successful on one count. I'm on a 30-day diet; so far, it's going pretty well; I've already lost 19 days. (Betcha didn't see that one coming, did ya?).
On to the Really Hard Issues
OK, so I'm an OT teacher/guy/dude, but I don't get this news item in Slate today. Conservative Judaism just decided last month to allow openly gay men to enter rabbinic schools; now, they're going to allow persons with only Jewish fathers (I assume that means their mothers are non-Jewish) in. And now the gloves come off; it's a BIG fight now! Wow, it's a strange religious world when your birth-mother is considered more important than your sexual orientation. Does anybody else think the American religious scene is looking a little strange? Looks like our world has moved beyond the, "You mean you've never cut your hair?!" era-WAY beyond! But, it's been a long week, and I'm tired, so I'm just grousing. I'm never very satisfied with the way anything's going at 10 o'clock on a Friday evening.
"Natural" Options
So, my wife scheduled us last week for our Lamaze class (why does the name include the word "amaze"?); it's kind of weird to go because my wife's doctor has pretty much outright said that she'll have to have a C-section (for reasons I really don't understand, but my wife does). Which my wife has become more excited about, the more she reads birth stories. "I was in labor for 975 hours before the baby came! He was already talking by the time he finally came out," or whatever. Anyway, it's only strengthened my wife's resolve.
But still we get that question: "So, are you going to have a natural birth?" Like the "Who's your mama?" issue above, I just don't get it. Actually, I don't get how to answer it. Do I say, "No, we'd really prefer an unnatural birth! In fact, we're hoping it's not even a natural child, but some sort of cross between a gremlin and an elf." WHAT KIND OF QUESTION IS THAT? OF COURSE, I WANT IT TO BE "NATURAL". (For those of you who don't know, ask my students; I like to yell, particularly about hypothetical stupid questions). I WANT IT AS "NATURAL" AS IT CAN BE.
Or so I thought, until I read Michael Lewis' meditation on a "natural birth", Berkeley, CA-style. Here's the best (or worst) part:
"The ideal Berkeley birth has probably never actually happened, but if it has, it happened far from civilization, in the woods, without painkillers or doctors or any intervention whatsoever by modern medicine. Along one side of the birthing mother was a wall of doulas wailing a folk song; along the other, all the people she has ever known; at her feet, a full-length mirror, in which she watched her baby emerging; at her head, a mother wolf, licking and suckling. Incense-filled urns released meaningful, carbon-free odors. The placenta was saved and, if not grilled, recycled."
OK, if I know anything about my wife, that is not her picture of a "natural" birth. Painkillers and doctors are foundational to doing it "naturally", just like you would "naturally" go to the dentist to have a tooth pulled-you wouldn't ask your spouse, "Grab 'em 'ere pliers, and dig out this rotted thang, fer me, will ya?" Because, naturally, you don't want to die writhing in mortal agony from a botched tooth extraction when, for a few hundred bucks (or less, with insurance), you could spend an hour or so in blissful laughing-gas Nirvana. That just makes sense!
Our baby's wailing will be fine, no doulas necessary. Incense will probably make my wife's allergies act up, so that's out. The suckling she-wolf sounds either corny of horror-movieish, I can't quite decide. Full-length mirror? Ewww . . . I'll be quite happy with the finished, mucus-free product.
So, now, someone aks, "So, are you going to have a natural birth?", I snap, "Define natural!" To me, it's real basic; safe wife, healthy baby, and whatever happens in the interval to make that a reality-why, that's just "natural"!
Questions, comments, concerns? Please feel free to E-mail me!
You know, the kind of week that you hope won't strike until late February/early March? You know, the week where you watch your carefully-planned New Year's Resolutions fade into that middle distance called "Next Year"? Yep, the resolution revolution ended a bit early this year. I've only been successful on one count. I'm on a 30-day diet; so far, it's going pretty well; I've already lost 19 days. (Betcha didn't see that one coming, did ya?).
On to the Really Hard Issues
OK, so I'm an OT teacher/guy/dude, but I don't get this news item in Slate today. Conservative Judaism just decided last month to allow openly gay men to enter rabbinic schools; now, they're going to allow persons with only Jewish fathers (I assume that means their mothers are non-Jewish) in. And now the gloves come off; it's a BIG fight now! Wow, it's a strange religious world when your birth-mother is considered more important than your sexual orientation. Does anybody else think the American religious scene is looking a little strange? Looks like our world has moved beyond the, "You mean you've never cut your hair?!" era-WAY beyond! But, it's been a long week, and I'm tired, so I'm just grousing. I'm never very satisfied with the way anything's going at 10 o'clock on a Friday evening.
"Natural" Options
So, my wife scheduled us last week for our Lamaze class (why does the name include the word "amaze"?); it's kind of weird to go because my wife's doctor has pretty much outright said that she'll have to have a C-section (for reasons I really don't understand, but my wife does). Which my wife has become more excited about, the more she reads birth stories. "I was in labor for 975 hours before the baby came! He was already talking by the time he finally came out," or whatever. Anyway, it's only strengthened my wife's resolve.
But still we get that question: "So, are you going to have a natural birth?" Like the "Who's your mama?" issue above, I just don't get it. Actually, I don't get how to answer it. Do I say, "No, we'd really prefer an unnatural birth! In fact, we're hoping it's not even a natural child, but some sort of cross between a gremlin and an elf." WHAT KIND OF QUESTION IS THAT? OF COURSE, I WANT IT TO BE "NATURAL". (For those of you who don't know, ask my students; I like to yell, particularly about hypothetical stupid questions). I WANT IT AS "NATURAL" AS IT CAN BE.
Or so I thought, until I read Michael Lewis' meditation on a "natural birth", Berkeley, CA-style. Here's the best (or worst) part:
"The ideal Berkeley birth has probably never actually happened, but if it has, it happened far from civilization, in the woods, without painkillers or doctors or any intervention whatsoever by modern medicine. Along one side of the birthing mother was a wall of doulas wailing a folk song; along the other, all the people she has ever known; at her feet, a full-length mirror, in which she watched her baby emerging; at her head, a mother wolf, licking and suckling. Incense-filled urns released meaningful, carbon-free odors. The placenta was saved and, if not grilled, recycled."
OK, if I know anything about my wife, that is not her picture of a "natural" birth. Painkillers and doctors are foundational to doing it "naturally", just like you would "naturally" go to the dentist to have a tooth pulled-you wouldn't ask your spouse, "Grab 'em 'ere pliers, and dig out this rotted thang, fer me, will ya?" Because, naturally, you don't want to die writhing in mortal agony from a botched tooth extraction when, for a few hundred bucks (or less, with insurance), you could spend an hour or so in blissful laughing-gas Nirvana. That just makes sense!
Our baby's wailing will be fine, no doulas necessary. Incense will probably make my wife's allergies act up, so that's out. The suckling she-wolf sounds either corny of horror-movieish, I can't quite decide. Full-length mirror? Ewww . . . I'll be quite happy with the finished, mucus-free product.
So, now, someone aks, "So, are you going to have a natural birth?", I snap, "Define natural!" To me, it's real basic; safe wife, healthy baby, and whatever happens in the interval to make that a reality-why, that's just "natural"!
Questions, comments, concerns? Please feel free to E-mail me!
Tuesday, January 16, 2007
That's a Good Question, Lester Hayes!
The Artful Art of Lester Hayes
Check out this new art show at Triple Candie, a non-commercial gallery in Harlem (preferably before you finish reading the blog; my thoughts might make a whole lot more sense to you and I don't want to "spoil" anything). What a wonderful way for Triple Candie to celebrate Black History Month-by creating a "hero". That's all we need-more manufactured stardom!
BTW, American Idol began its new season tonight. Do you have any idea how that name sounds to an OT scholar?! What's next, calling our stadiums "high places"? Welcome to America, the Christian nation that revels in reviving paganism! Anyway, I digress . . . again. Really, AI thrives on the same basic principle that drives Dr. Laura-the voyeuristic, almost-giddy joy of watching people be humiliated, particularly when the embarrassment is self-inflicted.
Back to my thoughts on the great unknown artiste Lester Hayes. His "work", if you can call it that, really is an exploration of the meaning of "art". What is it? What makes it good/not good? Who decides? So I splatter a car tire with eggs and melted Crayolas and call it My Pregnancy; is that art?
John McWhorter, a linguistics prof at UC-Berkeley and one of my favorite writers, wrote this amazing piece in Books and Culture (a mag that's totally awesome if you are an OT scholar whose hobby is analysis of cultural trends and how they impact the church) about "classical" music, really it's about what makes art, "art". The basic premise: the fundamental criterion of "classic art" is universal appeal-at root, artistic endeavors must be simple enough for the "common man" to understand. Modern art, especially, lost the subject and focused on the artistic media. Modern art wasn't "about" something (this is an oil painting of that tree); it was explorations of what the tools could do (what unique effects can be produced with oil on canvas?). This is commonly called "art for art's sake"!
So, read up on Lester Hayes, then ponder the imponderable: is it art? Share your thoughts!
BTW, speaking of new artists, be sure to check out the upcoming ApTube feature on 90/9; anybody want to do a video of themselves riding a tricycle over a Ziploc bag filled with vanilla pudding and M&Ms and call it Racism? Hey, if it doesn't make ApTube, call Triple Candie!
Questions, comments, concerns? Please feel free to E-mail me!
Check out this new art show at Triple Candie, a non-commercial gallery in Harlem (preferably before you finish reading the blog; my thoughts might make a whole lot more sense to you and I don't want to "spoil" anything). What a wonderful way for Triple Candie to celebrate Black History Month-by creating a "hero". That's all we need-more manufactured stardom!
BTW, American Idol began its new season tonight. Do you have any idea how that name sounds to an OT scholar?! What's next, calling our stadiums "high places"? Welcome to America, the Christian nation that revels in reviving paganism! Anyway, I digress . . . again. Really, AI thrives on the same basic principle that drives Dr. Laura-the voyeuristic, almost-giddy joy of watching people be humiliated, particularly when the embarrassment is self-inflicted.
Back to my thoughts on the great unknown artiste Lester Hayes. His "work", if you can call it that, really is an exploration of the meaning of "art". What is it? What makes it good/not good? Who decides? So I splatter a car tire with eggs and melted Crayolas and call it My Pregnancy; is that art?
John McWhorter, a linguistics prof at UC-Berkeley and one of my favorite writers, wrote this amazing piece in Books and Culture (a mag that's totally awesome if you are an OT scholar whose hobby is analysis of cultural trends and how they impact the church) about "classical" music, really it's about what makes art, "art". The basic premise: the fundamental criterion of "classic art" is universal appeal-at root, artistic endeavors must be simple enough for the "common man" to understand. Modern art, especially, lost the subject and focused on the artistic media. Modern art wasn't "about" something (this is an oil painting of that tree); it was explorations of what the tools could do (what unique effects can be produced with oil on canvas?). This is commonly called "art for art's sake"!
So, read up on Lester Hayes, then ponder the imponderable: is it art? Share your thoughts!
BTW, speaking of new artists, be sure to check out the upcoming ApTube feature on 90/9; anybody want to do a video of themselves riding a tricycle over a Ziploc bag filled with vanilla pudding and M&Ms and call it Racism? Hey, if it doesn't make ApTube, call Triple Candie!
Questions, comments, concerns? Please feel free to E-mail me!
Monday, January 15, 2007
MLK, Leif Enger, and a Way to Change the World
"I have a dream that one daay on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.
"I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.
"I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of the skin but by the content of their character.
"I have a dream today!
"I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of 'interposition' and 'nullification'-one day right there in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.
"I have a dream today!
"I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight; 'and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together'."
-Martin Luther King, Jr., The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, August 28, 1963.
MLK's Day
I know us Internet types are known for the voracious speed with which we consume information, rapidly cruising from site to site, like so many honeybees always looking for some new flower. However, take 5 minutes and soak your soul in the heart of one of the most amazing sermons ever preached. I think the apostle Paul would have said, "Wow."
I am really beginning to dig (African-American slang from the West African verb digga, "to understand") black church history; last March, I presented a paper at the UGST Symposium (that's Urshan Graduate School of Theology, the first UPC seminary) arguing that the major root of the Pentecostal movement, especially the Oneness variation, is the African-American church, extending all the way back to antebellum, plantation days! (For those of you who aren't sure what a "symposium" is; it's where Word nerds go to have fun. And what do nerds do for fun? They read their research papers to each other! So just imagine lockerroom backslapping and cajoling accompanied by, "Yo, dude! Check out this totally awesome Aramaic verb I found in the 2nd chapter of Daniel; it's like related to this other obscure Greek word and it's totally blowin' my mind, dude!") Sorry, the Pastor Winter effect hasn't quite worn off yet. But, yeah. Complete boredom for the halfway normal person, but I like it. I can see my wife reading this praying: "Please let our daughter be like me! Please let her be like me!" Which is fine with me; my wife's the "cool" factor in our family.
Anyway, that's the long way around to saying, MLK/Civil Rights Movement is way up on my interest meter. So, I was remembering today a really weird experience I had last year, right about the time I was exploring the West African roots of Oneness Pentecostal's reverence for Jesus' name. I was conversing with a "ministerial colleague" who shall remain nameless; however, it shall be mentioned that he was from a rather more southernly orientation to the Mason-Dixon Line. So I say, off-handedly, "You know, I'm really impressed by MLK; he really transformed American culture in the 60s." And this beloved brother in the Lord responds, "Yeah, too bad he was such a womanizer."
I admit, probably the main reason I was angry is that he wasn't as enthusiastic about my learning as I was. But when my beloved brother happens to be white, something just really set me off. Now, this man is my elder, so I (thank God!) held my tongue. But, there is a lesson here (maybe); I'm sure Martin Luther King had his failings, his skeletons in the closet, but we remember him not for how he lived but for how he died. History is very forgiving when you devote your life to a cause. Why does the media so despise Paris Hilton (other than the fact that she is an idiot!) yet still so thoroughly canonize Princess Di? Both are, in one sense, "spoiled rich girls", but Diana had a cause (or "causes"); she attempted to do something truly good with her public life, no matter how mixed up personal matters may have gotten. Paris Hilton has a poodle. Or a chihuahua. Or a mole-rat. Or whatever that purse-vermin she totes around is!
Leif Enger and a Great Idea
Because of the inclement weather (which actually turned about to be more "clement" than first forecasted), our church cancelled service last night. However, I was privileged to attend for a third time a new short-story club, co-led by our illustrious editor of 90/9. All members are busy professionals/college students (hence, the short-story club), who have an interest in reading and discussing quality fiction by Christian writers. We only meet once-a-month and the page limit is 20 pages per story, so it's not overtaxing (remember when you quit that book club when the president said, "I just love Russian and American literature. So, this month, let's read Dostoevsky's Brothers Karamazov and next month will read Tom Wolfe's A Man in Full? Remember how you conveniently "forgot" to show up or return any phone calls? Yep, you remember.) And I, as the resident OT guy/person/dude, get the distinct honor of taking every theological rabbit trail I can find; so far, the club members have been good sports. They're saying, "What did you think of this character?" and I'm saying, "She was interesting. But the real question is does Keat's dictum: 'Truth is beauty, and beauty is truth,' really meet the criteria of a Christian aesthetic? Is is theologically accurate?" Thus, they humor me, and I'm grateful to be a part.
This month's selection was a couple chapters from Leif Enger's debut novel Peace Like a River. I promise you, use the 90/9 Amazon link and buy it! As soon as I finish Gabriel Garcia Marquez' One Hundred Years of Solitude (another great read), it's next. He's got the sure, comic sense of story like Garrison Keillor, brilliant verb-construction, and this luminescent faith in God that glows through every crevice of the book. Often, the "witness" in Christian writing has all the subtlety and attractiveness of an interrogator's flashlight in the eyes. (Sorta like this: "The only way that you will escape this maniacal killer who's in the car behind you," screamed Julia, "is if you repeat the Sinner's Prayer after me! It goes like this . . .") The message is so, well, "forced", that it even turns me off as "corny". Enger's not like that; the Christianity in the book is like the soft shimmer before sunrise, almost imperceptible, always growing stronger the longer you look, and-most importantly-natural and flowing!
What has most amazed me about this "story club" idea is its stark simplicity; literally, anybody could do something like this. You don't have to do specifically "Christian" stories (there aren't a whole ton of serious "Christian" authors"); you could just do your favorite stories and discuss why you like them so much. I would so love to see story clubs like this pop up throughout the movement; it's a perfect way to begin the long journey to truly engaging our culture. And if any of you are doing this or something like it or have done something similar in the past, please let me know. This could be a great non-threatening evangelism tool-it could be a million things! My mind is bursting right now with the potential of this concept; I think I'll have to sleep on it. Let you know if I get any major revelations tomorrow. G'night!
Questions, comments, concerns? Please feel free to E-mail me!
