Friday, October 12, 2018

Gun Violence






In the Face of Evil, Prayer is the Most Rational and Effective Response, David French

"Either you believe that God intervenes in the affairs of men or you don’t. And if you do, then you know that no one and nothing is more powerful than the creator of the universe. That means that while prayer is not the only response to evil, it is both the most rational response and, in all likelihood, the most effective response. This is a very old truth."

RJ and Sexual Violence

Interesting read on how things might be different. Interestingly, sexual violence is one area that even some RJ practitioners struggle to work in. How do you bring those experiencing harm face to face with those who are the cause of it? Why is it harder? 
"I wanted what Ana María Archila Gualy, the survivor who confronted Sen. Jeff Flake when he stated he planned to vote to confirm Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, described: 'The way that justice works is that you recognize harm, you take responsibility for it, and then you begin to repair it.'
But for this to happen, everyone impacted by sexual violence needs to feel they can speak openly. Expulsion hearings, tribunals, or courts of law are not designed to do this; rather, these forums disincentivize truth-telling because those who harmed us know they’ll be punished if they admit what really happened. The risks are also high for survivors, who face social stigma for coming forward about their experiences and are often forced to undergo painful questioning."
(Emphasis mine.)

Tuesday, September 11, 2018

Judge a person in the context of their times...

"A person is good not by avoiding those evils he already finds horrible, but by avoiding those evils that he finds attractive and available. We must measure a person's virtues by his circumstances, not our own." -Marc Barnes, First Things, December 2017

I read old copies of First Things as I am able, passed from my father on to me. This short article by grad student Marc Barnes expresses well something I've struggled to put into word myself- the concept that "a generation is good or evil according to its genuinely possible actions." Barnes argues that "Moral arrogance and historical ignorance reinforce one another. To ennoble ourselves, we make irrational barbarians our of our ancestors and ignore the complexities of their times."

There's something dissatisfying out of my own explanation, where I often find myself saying something along the line of- We ought to judge a person in the context of their times...

Read the entire article here.

Monday, August 27, 2018

"On Weight" YorkFest 2018

YorkFest 2018 Adult Literary Contest
Asahel Church
1st Place Non-Fiction


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On Weight

Perhaps we were all born to fly. But gravity and mass make for a formidable opponent. And the negative connotations of the word ‘weight’ surprise me. It conjures thoughts of excess and disability, Twinkies and electric scooters. There’s also the seriousness that the word weight conveys. It literally sits heavy on your tongue.

My relationship with weight has been mixed. I come from a family of small people. Throughout my adolescence and early adulthood I was too skinny. I used to sleep under a large heap of blankets, the steady pressure from above keeping me safe and warm in our drafty attic. Much later in college, sailing on blustery fall and spring afternoons through the daunting Lake Michigan chop, I was always twice as cold and twice as bundled up. But I was small for a reason. Small crew made for fast sailing and quick action in tight spaces. I bailed water from the bottom of the boat furiously, fighting weight.

Miracles have always surrounded the successful defiance of weight. The Egyptian pyramids, wonder bras, and airplanes. In the early 1700s, Connecticut colonists traveled for miles to observe a “floating rock” –a several ton boulder that inexplicably moved up the slope of an embankment. I used to dream, re-occurringly, that I could fly. Or float, to be more accurate. The dream seemed to be a combination of a childhood aspiration for piloting, and the deep impression that a particular “Diving Tony” left on me. He was a 2 inch plastic replica of Kellogg’s Tony the Tiger mascot that due to some unknown physical (or metaphysical?) property would dive to the bottom of a recycled two liter coke bottle when it was squeezed. That squeezing action, combined with my desire to fly morphed into a vivid dream that by squeezing the right muscles in my body, my rear end as I remember, I could float up above the houses much the same way that Tony dove to the bottom of the coke bottle. Weightlessness- that was what I dreamed about. And it became so real that I more than once found myself testing out my new found ability after waking.

Excess weight. Underweight. Dead weight. Large boxes that tempt you to over pack. Large suitcases frantically re-configured at airports.

My friend Bryan bought a wood laminate boat last year. We joke that the work involved in keeping up with it is worth it in exchange for the misty looks and nostalgic complements of observers. We’re not likely to win a lot of regattas with the old lady, but she is beautiful. It sits heavy on its trailer and in a light breeze displaces the water sluggishly, the boom and slack lines tangling and bumping into our heads as we crouch inboard trying to keep the boat flat. But in a breeze, on the edge of a summer Chesapeake storm or in a blow after, when the sky clears and the clouds are puffy, the dinghy lifts up out of the water and fairly skims. Bryan clips in to the harness and we hike out hard, abs and hamstrings screaming and souls thrumming. Then we fly.



"Racists Like Me" The Phoenix, EMU 2017-2018

As a graduate student at Eastern Mennonite University I was happy to be the winner of their flash-fiction contest and included in the 2017-2018 edition of The Phoenix.

https://issuu.com/easternmennoniteuniversity/docs/phoenix


Monday, February 26, 2018

Bathroom and Basement Remodel 2017-2018

I tore out our half-bath summer of 2017 to kick off a long planned re-model. It sat for a while until late fall when I put in some insulation. Now on winter break, I've made some significant progress with the help of my father-in-law.

BATHROOM IN MOSTLY ORIGINAL STATE








Old shelving, toilet and sink, cabinet all torn out.




The bathroom has generally been very cold, so I wanted to insulate the exterior wall. 









I also wanted to get rid of the track electric on the wall and put the main light back into the ceiling. I started opening some holes to figure out what was going on with the electric....and suddenly the whole ceiling was torn out. Perfect chance to insulate though, in the place that matters most! My brother Aijalon helped out during these steps. He also did a nice job of cutting some inside trim for the window.
























Also this winter, Laura suddenly warmed up to the idea of "re-finishing" the basement to make it into a playroom. Since we were lining up some professional help to work on the bathroom electric, we had Gladfelter put in new lights in the basement as well. The transition is going to be pretty pretty dramatic actually. So glad we are making this space usable.


Bye bye vintage floral and Winnie the Pooh!

The addition of new recessed LED lighting made a drastic difference,
and we were just getting started!





























Reading nook! (Our favorite part)