tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-59555892011-11-27T18:18:21.404-05:00The Wide Eclectic SpaceA blog of who I am: father, husband, creative soul, literary and cultural critic, teacher, learner, seeker, and more. These are my eclectic musings.Jonathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15946061096582878102noreply@blogger.comBlogger641100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5955589.post-40629128592768050732011-05-05T18:55:00.000-04:002011-05-05T18:55:50.607-04:00Being Together
I've had the great opportunity to spend a week with two of my sisters and my Father and Mother punctuated by a good bit of time with one of my nephews who is at the cusp of starting a new life. I may blog a bit later about those luminous moments when we are choosing the road ahead. I've got more to say about that subject.
But for this moment, I want to focus on the fact that Jonathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15946061096582878102noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5955589.post-76780782346281531562010-08-29T21:53:00.001-04:002010-08-29T21:55:58.822-04:00Staring Into the Abyss
Last night we had the opportunity to walk into what could easily be described as one of the recruitment stations for Hell. We had a community event that was being hosted at a conference venue that is attached to a casino. Casinos, working as they are to maximize exposure to the machines so that one will be enticed to spend his or her money, make it so that you have to Jonathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15946061096582878102noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5955589.post-67834156340446171852009-10-08T02:35:00.000-04:002009-10-08T02:35:14.995-04:00Bear With Me: Grace in Community
At a congregational meeting recently two of my fellow congregants casually threw out a phrase to which, I'm sure, they aren't strongly attached theologically, but which, at least in part, stands as a strong foundation of their ethics of fellowship. In both cases it was a part of a statement that went something like this, "but if they don't believe that X, then Jonathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15946061096582878102noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5955589.post-34207293914205786072009-09-22T14:05:00.000-04:002009-09-22T14:05:24.226-04:00On the Edge
I'm currently on the edge of our continental landmass on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. These barrier islands are in geological terms extremely short lived and fragile momentary entities. The human accretions of roads, civilizations, and history must be continually cared for and renewed or they will disappear under the surf or the sand. In other words, as ephemeral as these Jonathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15946061096582878102noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5955589.post-58320708164023173782009-08-27T17:36:00.000-04:002009-08-27T17:36:50.169-04:00On Getting Organized
Anyone who knows me well knows that I fight a continuing battle with the agents of chaos that spring from the implements of life around me. There is, I suppose, a part of me that longs to be one of those Mac-using Feng Shui masters who can live in simple elegance, but, unfortunately, I can't even manage to keep my desk(s) neat. I've looked at several different solutions toJonathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15946061096582878102noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5955589.post-74764137497807749622009-08-26T13:13:00.000-04:002009-08-26T13:13:19.640-04:00For the four or five people who have read my blog over the last few years, I have good news.
I'm back. A friend of my restarted his blog and it has encouraged me to do so, too. One of his reasons for doing so was the fact that in our speaking we enter a public forum and help to define ourselves in the process of exploration. It reminded me that I first began this blog as a way to survey the Jonathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15946061096582878102noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5955589.post-70412136374067065362009-02-14T02:11:00.005-05:002009-08-26T13:08:01.491-04:00Do We Have to Keep the Elite Class In Charge?
I'm a 41 year-old male living in the United States of America. According to most actuarial tables that makes me almost exactly middle aged. One of the rights of passage of being middle aged is to be in the midst of ones best earning years and to realize that, because of the choices you have made up to this point, any sort of change in direction -- Jonathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15946061096582878102noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5955589.post-76853996283853597762009-01-20T15:21:00.000-05:002009-01-20T15:22:11.523-05:00We are full of hope.May we all grow more giving and more full of care.Jonathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15946061096582878102noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5955589.post-16506527792937792512009-01-19T17:57:00.000-05:002009-01-19T17:58:14.095-05:00On the Eve of Obama’s InaugurationYou asked for hope.We gave it.You promise change.We look forward to it.America.Come together.Be the placeAnd the peopleWho:Protect and shelter the wanderer in the dark.Care for those who most need you.Offer hope to future generations,And leave them a land, a planet, a placeThat is not polluted, violent, and full of rapacity. Amen.Jonathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15946061096582878102noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5955589.post-969310995976974252009-01-04T19:30:00.000-05:002009-01-04T19:31:26.696-05:00On Personhood, the Self, and Technology“Who are you?” That is the question that the caterpillar asks of Alice in Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. When I’ve taught Carroll, the lazy student’s reaction to the work is to attack the author and say, “He was on drugs?” or, perhaps, they’ll point out how odd his relationship with Alice Liddell was. This is one of several passages to Jonathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15946061096582878102noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5955589.post-47611737312157545672008-12-16T17:19:00.001-05:002008-12-16T17:19:52.344-05:00On Being RightI had an interesting revelation a few weeks ago. I had been asked to fill in and teach the adult class at the congregation we are attending. This was fairly rare for me, because I’m usually involved in some way in the children’s classes (though I’m not very good at that, I am willing to do it, and that is more than half of the battle). The class was about giving, I think, becauseJonathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15946061096582878102noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5955589.post-79257673442450049982008-11-28T21:47:00.000-05:002008-11-28T21:48:05.704-05:00An Eight-Year-Old’s TheologyI’ve always thought that my daughter was fairly sophisticated in her thinking for her age, but recently my far more active and somewhat less talkative boy has been the one who has been pushing my envelope. In the past four months he’s asked me two questions and posed one philosophical/theological conundrum, all three of which have had me scratching my head trying to Jonathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15946061096582878102noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5955589.post-68058579174884401232008-11-05T23:36:00.003-05:002008-11-06T00:35:16.873-05:00So Obama Won, Now What?If you are prone to politically motivated anger, just skip to the last paragraph.First, to the Democrats:Well you got it. The Republicans blew their lead by kowtowing to corporate greed and excess, by lying to the public, and by insisting upon a foreign policy that also helped to cripple the French an British Empires in earlier centuries.Now you inherit a nation in Jonathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15946061096582878102noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5955589.post-28583707265118365512008-10-28T17:48:00.001-04:002008-10-28T17:50:31.392-04:00On Space ExplorationThe other day my daughter, having obviously heard someone she respected say something disparaging about the amount of money we spend on our exploration of space said, “Why do we spend good money to send things into outer space anyway?”The argument is a good one. When one goes beyond the immediate joys we get from Satellite communication (Google Earth, Television, Around the Jonathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15946061096582878102noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5955589.post-73589261381976048672008-10-17T10:46:00.004-04:002008-10-21T12:48:35.259-04:00On Translating and the Word "Precious"Disclaimer: If you are truly multi-lingual, this post will, most likely be boring. If you are even moderately mono-lingual, you may find it interesting.I’ve been interested in translation for quite some time. I took a class in grad school about translation theory that gave me a framework for thinking about translations that I had been seeking since I firstJonathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15946061096582878102noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5955589.post-86382040405763425702008-10-15T14:35:00.002-04:002008-10-15T14:40:50.566-04:00On Why I’m Going to Vote for ObamaIt has taken me some time, but I’ve finally decided that I’m going to vote for Obama for president in 2008. I was more excited about this year’s choices than any that I’ve had before in the years that I have been a voting citizen of the United States. The choices we had last time between a rich plutocrat from the Northeast and a rich plutocrat whose family has Jonathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15946061096582878102noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5955589.post-86288909023638778352008-10-15T13:44:00.001-04:002008-10-15T13:46:08.743-04:00On the Committee in My HeadA few weeks ago I was on my way back from the other side of the state riding with one of my colleagues. We were about five hours into a twelve hour drive and she asked me a question about something about which I don’t currently have a strong opinion. There was a moment of silence, and then she said, “Well obviously you don’t agree with me.”“Why do you say that?” I Jonathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15946061096582878102noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5955589.post-25272678948251835192008-10-13T21:37:00.000-04:002008-10-13T21:38:05.359-04:00On LadybugsWell, our relatively new house has been beset by a scourge of ladybugs. They’ve descended in a swarm that has to be somewhat akin to the Biblical plagues. It is really quite unpleasant. I don’t so much mind them outside, but for some reason they are congregating in Nathan’s room. They are mostly bunching around his light. Tonight I vacuumed up a little over 100 of them. It was Jonathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15946061096582878102noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5955589.post-85623868289542171242008-10-13T14:10:00.002-04:002008-10-13T14:16:04.454-04:00Greetings all. In the next few days I plan to put up my ruminations about the coming election, about how I think, and about my method of teaching. In the meantime, however, while researching something for a conference next week, I ran into the following clip which had me rolling in the aisles. It may not be as funny to you if you haven't seen the first Star Wars movie and the film Coming to Jonathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15946061096582878102noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5955589.post-16707966521397753182008-10-04T23:43:00.002-04:002008-10-04T23:50:01.127-04:00About PredestinationDisclaimer: This is just my cogitations about a certain religious topic. This isn't a full consideration of the subject, and it certainly isn't something I'd want to force anyone else to subscribe to. In fact, just writing this made my head hurt. I apologize if this isn't folksy and happy, but perhaps it was predestined to be that way (or not be that way).So here I go:For Jonathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15946061096582878102noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5955589.post-72791243917490239742008-08-28T22:12:00.003-04:002008-08-28T22:34:17.423-04:00On HopeI've gone from a goal of blogging once a day to blogging once a week to blogging once a month. I'm telling myself that with everything else that I'm doing, this has got to be good enough. A few entries down, you'll find a post that talks about the problem I have with disappointing people.After a series of big crashes in my life -- of building up the hopes of people and then letting them Jonathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15946061096582878102noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5955589.post-46539054661957741672008-07-23T22:10:00.002-04:002008-07-23T23:16:44.001-04:00JonahIt is a good story. The one I've been told since I was a child is about Jonah being told to go to Nineveh, about his reluctance, about his running from God, and about his being threatened by the storm, swallowed by the fish, and coughed up on dry land to preach the good news (or the bad news, depending upon one's perspective).What I wasn't taught was Jonah chapter 4. Jonah, the whiny, Jonathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15946061096582878102noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5955589.post-23048749236708746362008-06-21T13:59:00.000-04:002008-06-21T14:00:23.963-04:00On AmbitionI recently had a conversation with one of my older uncles at a funeral for one of the members of his generation. I’ll have to say that my history with this uncle is rather mixed. He was one of those older people who opened up their home for large swaths of family and other miscellaneous riff raff numerous times during the years. His relative wealth allowed us all to eat and visit inJonathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15946061096582878102noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5955589.post-58274017162364093602008-05-24T21:43:00.002-04:002008-05-24T21:46:13.885-04:00In the past three weeks I’ve had the opportunity to cover about 750 miles of my fair state of North Carolina, driving through the Western mountains, into the Piedmont (about a thousand feet nearer to sea level) almost into the coastal plains. In the mountains, I was mainly in the region around my home and Asheville, and had the opportunity to drive through the Pisgah National Forest on the way Jonathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15946061096582878102noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5955589.post-80551626746416373722008-05-11T00:49:00.000-04:002008-05-11T00:51:14.382-04:00On Child’s PlayI love to watch my children when they are completely caught up in playing kindly and cooperatively together. Over the past two days (a weekend), I’ve had the pleasure of watching them play together on two afternoons. The first was sunny and in the 70s. The second was a cold rainy day that they had to spend indoors. To my great pleasure, their play was innovative and interestingJonathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15946061096582878102noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5955589.post-67565611567507150202008-03-26T14:10:00.001-04:002008-03-26T14:21:34.118-04:00The Day of a Thousand DisappointmentsFor most of my life I've battled the beast in my heart that wants to complain about everything. I've fought the hyper-critical nasty for at least 30 of my years on this planet (if not more). My cynical nature is to look for ways that different people and events disappoint me and then to criticize them in light of my own (assumed) superiority.Well, not after Jonathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15946061096582878102noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5955589.post-46841050449722789332008-03-11T10:01:00.000-04:002008-03-11T10:03:27.312-04:00Eliot Spitzer, Beowulf (the Movie), and Phallic-Morality-Obstructive Disorder (PMOD)A few months ago I went to see the CGI movie Beowulf. I went for several reasons: 1) I love special effects and wanted to see how far full CGI had come since the somewhat creepy The Polar Express. 2) I teach Beowulf in a British Lit class every summer and was certain that at least a few of my students would Jonathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15946061096582878102noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5955589.post-75617556292244857192008-01-22T10:36:00.000-05:002008-01-22T10:37:02.962-05:00On Keys, Monkeys, and DonkeysI was so pleased in typing the title to my last entry, that I realized that “monkey” and “donkey” are almost the same word but very different animals. If I were a conspiracy theorist, I might be able to deduce that the, Democratic party (Donkeys) is attempting to take the keys of our society and teach evolution in the classroom (Monkeys) (Perhaps with the help of theJonathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15946061096582878102noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5955589.post-40728379355373062182008-01-22T10:35:00.001-05:002008-01-22T10:35:52.674-05:00On Keys in DrawersWe’ve recently moved to a new house and while in the process of trying to get myself organized, I’ve found a great many keys, most of which are useless because I have no idea what, if anything, they unlock. I’ve got old house keys, general door keys, bicycle lock (or coke machine) keys, mailbox keys, strongbox keys, keys to file cabinets, decorative keys, keys for our dormitoryJonathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15946061096582878102noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5955589.post-23128031157223842542007-12-19T15:55:00.001-05:002007-12-19T15:55:16.884-05:00On BoundariesWhen the painters painted the walls of my daughter’s room, they made a choice to paint the part of the wall that intersects the ceiling and the wall at the end of a gable the same color as the ceiling. I found this odd, because in my mind, it seemed as if it ought to be a part of the wall instead.That got me to thinking about the nature of boundaries. As humans much of what we do Jonathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15946061096582878102noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5955589.post-6288267389296948352007-11-28T15:17:00.000-05:002007-11-28T15:18:26.253-05:00On Respect, Honor, and BoogersI’m certain that I’m not the only one who has had this experience:You are having a conversation with someone you respect very much, but there is something incongruously odd, disgusting, or just plain wrong with their physical appearance. I can think of two specific examples. I began a conversation with a coworker who is one of the brightest individuals I know, and Jonathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15946061096582878102noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5955589.post-29139652018442013512007-10-19T13:10:00.000-04:002007-10-19T13:47:43.609-04:00On "Not Giving a Damn"I've always been one to be quite interested in song lyrics, especially if they are clever and thoughtful. The other day I was in the car and at least three of the songs had something in them about "giving a damn," "not giving a damn" or something else of that sort. Now I'm not one who is often given to using curse words except in the most appropriate of situations. I Jonathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15946061096582878102noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5955589.post-38160476948817024072007-10-06T14:37:00.000-04:002007-10-06T15:12:28.056-04:00Ghost StationsIn Berlin during the cold war, especially after East Germany put up the wall, there were a few stations on the underground line that were shut down to keep the two countries divided. "The Wall" as we call it in English, wasn't a straight monolithic structure. Before I had visited Berlin, I had the idea that it was something like the Great Wall of China, but it wasn't. It Jonathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15946061096582878102noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5955589.post-3132491700441666532007-09-28T08:39:00.000-04:002007-09-28T09:25:22.939-04:00I'm getting interested in dreams again. I went through a period in college where I was journaling before and after sleeping and prepping myself to have lucid dreams. It worked to a degree and was interesting. All that fell off of my interest list when I fell in love, got married, had children, stuffed my head with new ideas in grad school, got a job, etc. I barely find time to sleep and to Jonathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15946061096582878102noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5955589.post-34165278688949764712007-09-27T13:33:00.000-04:002007-09-27T13:35:48.579-04:00I'm going to be more active blogging beginning today.This is a piece I wrote a few months ago as a mock ad for a product I can see someone programming.Try the new MicroSupplicant AutoPray (beta) 1.77 Do you ever hear a prayer request and intend to pray for it but forget? Do you ever wonder whether God would have answered your prayer if you had just prayed a little harder or a little more Jonathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15946061096582878102noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5955589.post-1109363499333930422005-02-25T15:14:00.000-05:002005-02-25T15:31:39.336-05:00On Nathan's Odd ObsessionsNathan has, of late, become obsessed with "dying on a cross." It began, of course with his ability to intuit that we wanted some sort of cogent answer when we asked him what his class studied in Sunday school on a particular morning. He realized that he need not really pay attention in Sunday school class, but that instead, we would be satisfied by his answer "Jesus Jonathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15946061096582878102noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5955589.post-1109174227573968602005-02-23T10:51:00.000-05:002005-02-23T10:57:07.573-05:00Hello youenses. Thought I'd blog you an update of how the Wade's is doin' up here North Carolina way.We've moved into the ol' house down by Scott's crick. We're sleepin' hard and fast with nary a twicet thought about movin' here.My pitiful excuse for an imitation of the mountain accent aside, I'm loving my job. AE is making friends at school and church. Nathan is enjoying romping around on the Jonathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15946061096582878102noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5955589.post-1109173771808001632005-02-23T10:49:00.000-05:002005-02-25T15:43:20.683-05:00Boys are boys, and turkeys are turkeys and Nathan loves to chase the turkeys off the lawn at his grandparent's house. Jonathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15946061096582878102noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5955589.post-1109173724689946742005-02-23T10:48:00.001-05:002005-02-23T10:48:44.690-05:00My chillen what's standin' at their pawpaw and meemaws house. Jonathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15946061096582878102noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5955589.post-1109173687496209052005-02-23T10:48:00.000-05:002005-02-23T10:48:07.496-05:00This is Scott's Creek. It runs behind the house. Jonathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15946061096582878102noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5955589.post-1109173650108645362005-02-23T10:47:00.000-05:002005-02-23T10:47:30.106-05:00Another angle on the house. The porch is neater now that the renovations are through. Jonathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15946061096582878102noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5955589.post-1109173608540682162005-02-23T10:46:00.001-05:002005-02-23T10:46:48.540-05:00This is the old farmhouse where we are living. Jonathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15946061096582878102noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5955589.post-1109173570616585172005-02-23T10:46:00.000-05:002005-02-23T10:46:10.616-05:00I'm through Sylva and on my way to the WIllets Community (where we live). The drive is a bit prettier than going down Treadaway in Abilene. Jonathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15946061096582878102noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5955589.post-1109171996303510152005-02-23T10:19:00.001-05:002005-02-23T10:19:56.303-05:00Entering Catamount Gap Jonathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15946061096582878102noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5955589.post-1109171975664150352005-02-23T10:19:00.000-05:002005-02-23T10:19:35.663-05:00I'm beginning the drive home from Cullowhee to Sylva. Jonathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15946061096582878102noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5955589.post-1109171901720474152005-02-23T10:18:00.000-05:002005-02-23T10:18:21.720-05:00I'm turning out of NCCAT onto the main highway. Western Carolina University is just across the street. Jonathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15946061096582878102noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5955589.post-1090379722966937272004-07-20T23:04:00.000-04:002004-07-20T23:15:22.966-04:00On Blogging
I think there is only one other human being besides myself who reads these ramblings. This is an interesting sort of exercise in futility. That is probably why I don't post very often.
But, are my thoughts less important because they are unlikely to be read? Popularity is sometimes a result of great work and beautiful thinking. It is also often the result of the random nature Jonathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15946061096582878102noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5955589.post-1090378972086302412004-07-20T23:00:00.000-04:002005-02-25T15:40:26.356-05:00On Quality I’ve recently had a chance to do some reflection upon the quality of myself. Or, more accurately, the question of quality in relation to the realities of what I live (or what I am). What made me think about this was my incessant internet browsing habit. Some stream-of-browsing-clicking-consciousness something led me to look for my own rating on ratemyprofessor.com. Only one student Jonathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15946061096582878102noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5955589.post-1087626121550310332004-06-19T01:57:00.000-04:002004-06-19T02:22:01.550-04:00On "False Teachers"
It has been strange but several different tangents in my life have combined to make me thing of the idea of what a false teacher is. In the context of these conversations a "false teacher" has been defined in several different ways.
First one has to assume that there is some objective Truth out there to which one can be false. That is a given. So within this context one Jonathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15946061096582878102noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5955589.post-1085342161736259512004-05-23T15:39:00.000-04:002004-05-23T15:56:01.736-04:00On Money:
For some reason I have gotten various "free" subscriptions to several magazines. I think I used airline points that were about to expire to purchase the latest round of magazines. One of those was Travel and Leisure magazine.
It struck me while reading this magazine that there was absolutely no way that I, on a college professor's salary, could ever or would ever stay in most of theJonathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15946061096582878102noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5955589.post-1081260268415735692004-04-06T10:04:00.000-04:002004-04-06T10:08:14.013-04:00On National Identity Cards
Why can't we have an identity card? My family has recently been the victim of identity theft. If we had some sort of biometric card with a number that could only be decoded with a fingerprint or iris check, then it would be a whole lot harder for someone to jack your social security number and pretend to be you. Have a card and don't give people credit unless they Jonathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15946061096582878102noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5955589.post-1081259990079802022004-04-06T09:59:00.000-04:002004-04-06T10:03:35.716-04:00On American Politics
OK, I’m really angry now. Once again we have no one for whom a middle-class moderate can vote in good conscience.
Bush: Ivy League patrician family, Yale, Skull and Bones Society Member, has the interests of the wealthy at heart, talks the talk of the religiously conservative but enacts policies that tell a different story. And what happened to Republican fiscal Jonathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15946061096582878102noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5955589.post-1081259287872182202004-04-06T09:48:00.000-04:002004-04-06T09:51:53.043-04:00On Magic
I’m currently in the UK working with some students on a project about Philip Pullman the popular fantasy writer and his, somewhat vociferous, attacks on Christianity. We struck out after lunch on what was seemingly a sunny day, seeking the “hole in the universe” through which the boy Will goes in the second book of his trilogy. It is described as being between the hornbeam trees near Jonathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15946061096582878102noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5955589.post-1075821680788501832004-02-03T10:21:00.000-05:002004-02-03T10:36:13.763-05:00Keeping A Breast of the Superbowl 2004
OK, I'm just tickled about how angered people are about Janet and Justin and the exposure of a breast covered by a wee bit o' metal (which she was conveniently wearing I might add). What tickles me is that everyone is so righteously indignant about it and yet the entire spectacle was filled with the same sort of sensationalized sexuality. It really isn't Jonathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15946061096582878102noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5955589.post-1074279991993807062004-01-16T14:00:00.000-05:002004-01-16T14:08:26.546-05:00I was looking around today at the trees that are not evergreen and at the cacti which are still green, but in the cold of winter seem to have shrivelled a bit, and I was reflecting upon the nature of my chronic migraine headaches in light of my belief in a loving God. All that to say that it struck me that perhaps the creation does "cry out in praise" of God at all times and in all ways, but Jonathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15946061096582878102noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5955589.post-1070295692608472272003-12-01T11:21:00.000-05:002003-12-01T11:22:06.160-05:00On China
I think most of us in the USA have been so concerned with the middle-east that we haven’t really been paying attention to what is going on in China. While the rest of the world has been in the economic doldrums, China has continued to grow. There are many reasons for this: China is a maker of a large amount of the world’s cheap mass-produced goods and in hard economic times cheaper Jonathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15946061096582878102noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5955589.post-1069277511407898762003-11-19T16:31:00.000-05:002003-11-19T16:32:22.113-05:00Random Neural Firings
OK. I can’t help it. It has finally happened. The other me, the one with occasionally zany thoughts, has taken over and has decided to post. I’m afraid it won’t be the last time. Well, here goes (he says as he let’s go of the steering wheel.)
It just hit me the other day when I was browsing through the Sunday morning sales ads. The costumes for the Wiggles ™ are Jonathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15946061096582878102noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5955589.post-1069103798520623842003-11-17T16:16:00.000-05:002003-11-17T16:16:44.870-05:00On Teaching
What does it mean to be a teacher?
Are we simply supposed to make sure that certain information is disseminated and mastered? Are we sources or conduits of knowledge that need to be tapped? If so, why is it that we remember so little detail from specific courses? If we are simply information sources, why not replace us with software or “Dummies Guide To….” books?
Are we Jonathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15946061096582878102noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5955589.post-1067354010401474352003-10-28T10:13:00.000-05:002003-10-28T10:13:34.486-05:00On Laughter
It seems to me that laughter is a blessing from God. Giving in to the lure of the comical and the absurd and going through the admittedly strange aural and physical contortions related with laughter somehow makes the soul lighter if only for a moment.
There is an ethical question related to laughter: the question of subject matter.
Personally, I find that the easiest sort of humorJonathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15946061096582878102noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5955589.post-1067283689651647782003-10-27T14:41:00.000-05:002003-10-27T14:42:41.963-05:00On Iraq
We’re as polarized as we’ve ever been about Iraq. Why can’t we just admit that we were snookered by the Bush administration and then decide what we owe the people of Iraq now that we’ve stepped in and changed the regime. The “liberals” may argue that the war wasn’t necessary. Well, so what? We’re in there now. What do we do about it? We can’t very well bomb a country into the stoneJonathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15946061096582878102noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5955589.post-1067283666268387182003-10-27T14:40:00.000-05:002003-10-27T14:41:06.886-05:00On Bush and Texas
As a person who was born and raised in Texas, I do NOT understand how we have fallen for the Bush family. Old George is a carpetbagger who lusted for our electoral college votes and then managed to convince us that he had some sort of Texas connection by coming here and throwing around some old money in the oil fields. Sure George W. has more connections with the Lone Star Jonathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15946061096582878102noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5955589.post-1066763532241423442003-10-21T14:31:00.000-04:002003-10-21T15:23:16.456-04:00Elder Brother Syndrome
I've been thinking recently about the Parable of the Prodigal Son that Jesus tells. The focus, in most retellings of the story, centers either around the return of the Prodigal or the forgiveness of the father. Very rarely have I heard anyone focus upon the elder brother, and yet, the elder brother is a real religious archetype: the "good" person who rarely does Jonathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15946061096582878102noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5955589.post-1066412721987898592003-10-17T13:31:00.000-04:002003-12-03T09:40:25.200-05:00I have a wide variety of interests fueled by insatiable curiousity. There are very few subjects about which I wouldn't want to know more and think about more deeply.
No one else knows the extent of my quest for knowledge, so I decided to make a list as of today of the periodicals that I regularly read:
Daily News:
Every day: The Dallas Morning News, The Financial Times, Yahoo News Headlines
Jonathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15946061096582878102noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5955589.post-1066405637118808102003-10-17T11:44:00.000-04:002003-10-17T11:53:13.756-04:00Apologia pro blog Meo
This the first of me
Mind wandering
Self
Alone
Together
Meshed into others
To answer the questions:
Who?
What?
Why?
How?
Humanity in the swirling whirlwind of reflection and experience
So begins my experience as a blogger. I have heard of the phenomena. I have wanted to try it, but I haven't found the time until now. And here I begin my attempt to place my person in Jonathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15946061096582878102noreply@blogger.com0