This happened last Spring and I never got around to posting it.
That's my boy!
Thursday, August 23, 2012
Wednesday, August 15, 2012
Tuesday, July 24, 2012
Sunday, July 22, 2012
Sunday, May 13, 2012
Betsy
Posted: 13 May 2012 06:41 AM PDT
As our fifth child crowned early Friday morning, the uniquely beautiful lives and faces of our other four kids flashed before me: Suzy's rambling mind and empathetic heart; Eli's fierce anger and hilarious one-liners; Isaac's quick wit and scheming bent; Leeli's grunting hugs and stubborn stares. What joy in studying them, teaching them, laughing with them, and training them.The blessedness; the givenness of life itself came to me dressed as these 4 kids.
Next thing you know, there's a head emerging. Then a neck with a cord wrapped round, choking as the tiny baby came further.
And just as quickly had come the weight of life's blessedness came the truth of its fragility. I feared for the baby's death and I knew from my other kids all that stood to be lost.
In my fear I looked up at my Beth's exhausted, sweating face. She had once more given more than she has for her family. Thanks for her, beyond what I can express, filled me and broke me.
And while I looked at Beth and cried, Dr. Kara's hands untangled the umbilical cord, and her voice cried out, "and it is a girl!," Then came Beatriz Ann Stipp's first breath. Then her piercing cry. She was alive.
Alive!
|
Monday, April 30, 2012
more from Wendell Berry
Last week, Wendell Berry delivered a speech to the National Endowment for the Humanities. All who have ears can give it a listen by watching the video here.
I'm cautiously heartened that Wendell Berry's work is lately getting attention. The fact that he gave this speech at an event put on by our federal government, and the fact that he was chosen to write the forward to Prince Charles's book about feeding the planet sustainably means that more people will hear his thoughts. And we need to hear what Mr. Berry's been prescribing for the last 40 years; from the way we eat, to the way we pattern our weeks, to the way we raise our kids, to how we think about where we live. It is ancient wisdom, wearing (semi-)modern lenses, and spoken in a Kentucky accent.
I was struck in listening to the speech, how consistent Mr. Berry's message has been throughout his career. The book that put him on the map, and the one that first captured my thoughts, is a collection of essays called The Unsettling of America: Culture and Agriculture. Much of what he said in his speech last week is a reworking of the same themes he developed in that book, which was publishing in 1977.
Below are some excerpts from the book that grabbed my attention right away; they struck me as both startlingly different from anything I'd heard before, and startlingly true.
Here is his first paragraph:
One of the peculiarities of the white race’s presence in America is how little intention has been applied to it. As a people, wherever we have been, we have never really intended to be. The continent is said to have been discovered by an Italian who was on his way to India. The earliest explorers were looking for gold, which was, after an early streak of luck in Mexico, always somewhere farther on. Conquests and foundings were incidental to this search – which did not, and could not, end until the continent was finally laid open in an orgy of goldseeking in the middle of the last century. Once the unknown of geography was mapped, the industrial marketplace became the new frontier, and we continued, with largely the same motives and with increasing haste and anxiety, to displace ourselves – no longer with unity of direction, like a migrant flock, but like the refugees from a broken anthill. In our own time we have invaded foreign lands and the moon with the high-toned patriotism of the conquistadors, and with the same mixture of fantasy and avarice.
A few paragraphs later, he goes on:
If there is any law that has been consistenly operative in American history, it is that the members of any established people or group or community sooner or later become "redskins" - that is, they become the designated victims of an utterly ruthless, officially sanctioned and subsidized exploitation. The colonists who drove off the Indians came to be intolerably exploited by their imperial governments. And that alien imperialism was thrown off only to be succeeded by a domestic version of the same thing; the class of independent small farmers who fought the war of independence has been exploited by, and recruited into, the industrial society until by now it is almost extinct.
I'm cautiously heartened that Wendell Berry's work is lately getting attention. The fact that he gave this speech at an event put on by our federal government, and the fact that he was chosen to write the forward to Prince Charles's book about feeding the planet sustainably means that more people will hear his thoughts. And we need to hear what Mr. Berry's been prescribing for the last 40 years; from the way we eat, to the way we pattern our weeks, to the way we raise our kids, to how we think about where we live. It is ancient wisdom, wearing (semi-)modern lenses, and spoken in a Kentucky accent.
I was struck in listening to the speech, how consistent Mr. Berry's message has been throughout his career. The book that put him on the map, and the one that first captured my thoughts, is a collection of essays called The Unsettling of America: Culture and Agriculture. Much of what he said in his speech last week is a reworking of the same themes he developed in that book, which was publishing in 1977.
Below are some excerpts from the book that grabbed my attention right away; they struck me as both startlingly different from anything I'd heard before, and startlingly true.
Here is his first paragraph:
One of the peculiarities of the white race’s presence in America is how little intention has been applied to it. As a people, wherever we have been, we have never really intended to be. The continent is said to have been discovered by an Italian who was on his way to India. The earliest explorers were looking for gold, which was, after an early streak of luck in Mexico, always somewhere farther on. Conquests and foundings were incidental to this search – which did not, and could not, end until the continent was finally laid open in an orgy of goldseeking in the middle of the last century. Once the unknown of geography was mapped, the industrial marketplace became the new frontier, and we continued, with largely the same motives and with increasing haste and anxiety, to displace ourselves – no longer with unity of direction, like a migrant flock, but like the refugees from a broken anthill. In our own time we have invaded foreign lands and the moon with the high-toned patriotism of the conquistadors, and with the same mixture of fantasy and avarice.
A few paragraphs later, he goes on:
If there is any law that has been consistenly operative in American history, it is that the members of any established people or group or community sooner or later become "redskins" - that is, they become the designated victims of an utterly ruthless, officially sanctioned and subsidized exploitation. The colonists who drove off the Indians came to be intolerably exploited by their imperial governments. And that alien imperialism was thrown off only to be succeeded by a domestic version of the same thing; the class of independent small farmers who fought the war of independence has been exploited by, and recruited into, the industrial society until by now it is almost extinct.
Sunday, April 1, 2012
Immanuel Approach continued
Much of my thinking about God and man lately has stemmed from using the Immanuel Approach to Healing Prayer. I learned about this approach at a conference held by Dr. Karl Lehman back in November, and have been testing it out on my (daring) friends since then. I knew some things about healing prayer going into the conference, but the new stuff I learned there excited me. I hoped as I left the conference that this slightly different approach to helping people pray through pain and trauma was easier to use and more effective than the approach I had used before (something similar to Theophostic prayer).
I have not been disappointed. For all the sessions I've done (barring those where the pray-er had to hurry and catch a train or something) the people have heard from Jesus directly to their hearts in really powerful ways. In some cases, people who haven't felt the presence of Jesus in years have been able to receive breakthroughs. Before you think in your mind that I'm doing something altruistic here, I have to say that watching Jesus show people what He has to show them is fascinating for me personally. It's like watching a true movie about the truest thing there is, but told in a different way, and to a different person with every session. All of this goes a long way in enriching my own faith walk.
Dr. Lehman wrote up a brief description of the Immanuel Approach, that I think is clear and succinct. I haven't found it online anywhere, so 'm typing up and posting it below for people who want information about Immanuel prayer. Also, if you life near Illinois, Tennessee or Kansas here is a list of people (all of whom are more qualified than I) who you can contact for help in removing the barriers between you and Jesus.
So here it is in a nutshell
The Immanuel Approach:
The Immanuel Approach to Emotional Healing:
I have not been disappointed. For all the sessions I've done (barring those where the pray-er had to hurry and catch a train or something) the people have heard from Jesus directly to their hearts in really powerful ways. In some cases, people who haven't felt the presence of Jesus in years have been able to receive breakthroughs. Before you think in your mind that I'm doing something altruistic here, I have to say that watching Jesus show people what He has to show them is fascinating for me personally. It's like watching a true movie about the truest thing there is, but told in a different way, and to a different person with every session. All of this goes a long way in enriching my own faith walk.
Dr. Lehman wrote up a brief description of the Immanuel Approach, that I think is clear and succinct. I haven't found it online anywhere, so 'm typing up and posting it below for people who want information about Immanuel prayer. Also, if you life near Illinois, Tennessee or Kansas here is a list of people (all of whom are more qualified than I) who you can contact for help in removing the barriers between you and Jesus.
So here it is in a nutshell
The Immanuel Approach:
- Immanuel means "God with us" in Hebrew, and the Immanuel approach takes the reality of God's ongoing presence as its primary foundation.
- Thousands of professionals and lay people around the world are applying the Immanuel approach to resolve past pain, deepen intimacy with God, and discern God's ongoing guidance.
The Immanuel Approach to Emotional Healing:
- Shifts the primary objective from "resolve trauma and relieve symptoms"to "help the person connect more intimately with Jesus by removing barriers between her heart and Him." We gratefully accept the resolution of psychological trauma and the associated symptom-relief as side benefits, but the more important priority is to remove blockages that stand between our hearts and Jesus.
- Starts with recall of positive memories and deliberate appreciation, to prepare our brain-mind-spirit systems for connecting with the Lord; and then establishes a living, interactive connection with Jesus as the foundation for the session.
- Is organized around turning to Jesus, focusing on Jesus, and engaging directly with Jesus at every point in the session.
The Immanuel Approach to Life:
- Includes healing for psychological trauma, but clearly recognizes that this is only one part of God's agenda for working in our lives. For example, the Lord also wants to build our capacity, grow our maturity, and spend time "just" being with us as a friend.
- Takes the tools for helping us connect with the Lord outside our special "sessions," with the ultimate goal of helping us get to the place where we perceive the Lords' presence, and abide in an interactive connection with Jesus, as our usual, normal, baseline condition as we walk through life each day.
- Again, identifies the primary objective, the most important priority, as intimacy with God.
Thursday, March 29, 2012
Bluegrass Anniversary
This last weekend Beth and I went to a cabin in the Smokey Mountains for an early 10th Anniversary getaway. It was a really great time to recalibrate our hearts with one another, and to be completely agenda-less.
The lowlight was that we somehow ended up at a mall.
The highlight started with a drive through rural Kentucky, looking for a place we'd read about that serves up live Bluegrass music every Saturday night. We had to call the place twice before we finally wound around the hilly countryside and found the rows of cars parked outside what looked to us like your basic barn. When we got inside, the man at the ticket booth asked if we were the ones who'd called. After we confirmed, he invited us to come in for free.
The inside of the barn had been converted to a countrified concert hall. The front of the hall held the stage with a few rows of seats in front. Behind the stage a sign read, "Bluegrass Music, made in Kentucky, USA, NOTt in China." At the back and sides of the hall, built-in stadium seating reached almost to the ceiling. The music and the crowd was good and enjoyable.
When one of the band members introduced a student of his, Colonel Andy Hunt, things started to get awesome. Colonel Andy is an unpolished banjo picker, a flat-foot tap dancer, and an all-around country entertainer. After Colonel Andy finished his first song on banjo, he announced to the crowd that he wanted to do some flat-footin for 'em on this next song. He was hopin' a feller named Brother Long Legs would come and join him, if he was here. (The crowd applauded in approval of the idea).
From behind us, near the ceiling, a voice shouted out. "I'm rot here. I been listenin' the whole tom." And from in front, "Well come on down here and dance with Colonel Andy, wouldja Brother Long Legs?"
And here, my friends, is the rest...
The lowlight was that we somehow ended up at a mall.
The highlight started with a drive through rural Kentucky, looking for a place we'd read about that serves up live Bluegrass music every Saturday night. We had to call the place twice before we finally wound around the hilly countryside and found the rows of cars parked outside what looked to us like your basic barn. When we got inside, the man at the ticket booth asked if we were the ones who'd called. After we confirmed, he invited us to come in for free.
The inside of the barn had been converted to a countrified concert hall. The front of the hall held the stage with a few rows of seats in front. Behind the stage a sign read, "Bluegrass Music, made in Kentucky, USA, NOTt in China." At the back and sides of the hall, built-in stadium seating reached almost to the ceiling. The music and the crowd was good and enjoyable.
When one of the band members introduced a student of his, Colonel Andy Hunt, things started to get awesome. Colonel Andy is an unpolished banjo picker, a flat-foot tap dancer, and an all-around country entertainer. After Colonel Andy finished his first song on banjo, he announced to the crowd that he wanted to do some flat-footin for 'em on this next song. He was hopin' a feller named Brother Long Legs would come and join him, if he was here. (The crowd applauded in approval of the idea).
From behind us, near the ceiling, a voice shouted out. "I'm rot here. I been listenin' the whole tom." And from in front, "Well come on down here and dance with Colonel Andy, wouldja Brother Long Legs?"
And here, my friends, is the rest...
Wednesday, January 4, 2012
music of 2011
I've been looking for a good excuse to write about some of the music I've been listening to lately. I still haven't found one, but I've decided that the end of the year is occasion enough. So what you've got here is a list of the top 6 albums that have impacted me over the course of this year. I limited it to 6 because that's the exact number of albums that I've engaged in over the year. Before I get into the specific albums, I just want to comment that a few years back I decided to stop listening to isolated songs and instead listen to whole albums. I've found that in listening this way I start to know the artist's heart, and can find themes of thinking running across albums and even across artists' careers that bring much more meaning to the music.
#6 Sara Groves, Invisible Empires.
Sara Groves is one of those artists whose albums I've listened to over time. Some of her work over the years has been brilliant. I wouldn't put Invisible Empires in that category, but I respect her as a poet, and as one who is thinking seriously about God and society, and so I keep listening. She ends the ablum with a song called "Finite" about being a woman in this world of ours, and it's a good'n.
#5 Randall Goodgame, Slugs and Bugs: Under where?
This kids album is about 8 parts goofy, and 2 parts serious. I am thankful for the messages it sends through my home, and hope that they seep into and form my kids understanding of the character of God. The goofiness is about holes in socks, making oneself dizzy, and going pee in the potty - communicating that silliness goes with being a kid, and celebrating that fact. The seriousness is no joke: its about the fact that kids are loved specially by God, and it teaches kids what to do with their own sin. The song "God made you Special" has choked me up more than once. And even though its an album for kids, the instrumentation and production of the album makes it enjoyable for me, too.
#4 Paul Simon, Surprise
This album took me about three hearings to like, and about ten to love. And the more I listen, the better it gets. Each song deserves to be studied for meaning, and enjoyed for it's ambitious production. The album makes me think of a letter that Paul Simon has written to America. He asks the big questions with these songs, and ventures to answer them, too. This review, I think, gives a good picture of the album, if you're interested in reading more.
#3 Josh Garrels, Love and War and the Sea in Between
Like all of Josh Garrels's albums, this mostly sounds like hip-hop, with occasional meanderings into ballads or waltzes. You read that right. Josh's lyrics are truly mind-blowing. What intrigues me most about him is just how deeply Christian he is. He isn't boiling Christianity down to some take-home truths to apply to life. He is clear about the fact that Christ Himself, and not self-denial, or beauty or justice, is the center of our hope and the source of our being and joy.
Give the song below a listen. Notice how in the first verse, he casts a vision of resistance to society like someone who knows that we have to fight the systems that oppress in order to pursue justice, but in the second verse it becomes clear just how Christ-centered his vision is.
The album is free. Go get it.
#2 Mumford and Sons, Sigh no More
I've already written quite enough about this album. I still can't help popping it in when I've got a long trip by myself. The album always reminds me what I care about and inspires me to be who I am.
#1 Ben Shive, The Cymbal Crashing Clouds
Ben Shive plays piano and produces music for Andrew Peterson and several other artists around Nashville. His best work, though, is what he's done with the songs he, himself has written. I met Ben last February and I told him that his first album, The Ill-Tempered Klavier, was my favorite. This is his second work, and it has been no disappointment. This is music like none you've ever heard before. He is producing Christian music that is not a spin-off of any sound a secular artist has made. His music wont gain popularity for just that reason, but I bet he's okay with that. His albums will be most appreciated by people who have ventured to make music or make poetry.
In this album, he's dug every instrument out of the closet. It's clear that beauty and the "right sound" trumped timeliness in every decision. He may use a choir of violins and an electric guitar for just a bridge, and a horns and woodwinds only for a second verse. There are times in the album where it's hard to pick apart how many sounds are coming at you at once, and he still somehow maintains unified themes and variations. Stylistically, he's all over the board. He jumps from sounding like Ben Folds to the Beach Boys, from folk to pop. Lyrically, the songs are about everyday life on their surface, with deep theological meaning underneath. In short, Ben Shive music stretches me in all sorts of ways, and I love it. Maybe you will, too?
Below is a youtube video you can play to hear the song he starts the album with, "Listen!" It's about waiting for a train to come in the middle of the night in a small town. And it's about the second coming of Christ. I suggest you throw some headphones on before you hit play so you can hear all sounds he strings together, and all the biblical allusions, too.
Honorable Mention: I'd also like to add an honorable mention category for the music of Eminem. My students adore him because he seems real to them and because he sings about their lives and their pain. They might not now what life is like outside of their neighborhood, but they know the pain they feel inside, and Eminem's eloquent acknowledgment of his pain somehow validates them. The kids have encouraged me to watch some of his videos, and I have been impressed. Eminem is clearly a deeply unhealthy man, but that is not stopping him from shepherding some of our nation's most needy, lonely and fatherless youth, who are growing up like he did.
Sara Groves is one of those artists whose albums I've listened to over time. Some of her work over the years has been brilliant. I wouldn't put Invisible Empires in that category, but I respect her as a poet, and as one who is thinking seriously about God and society, and so I keep listening. She ends the ablum with a song called "Finite" about being a woman in this world of ours, and it's a good'n.
This kids album is about 8 parts goofy, and 2 parts serious. I am thankful for the messages it sends through my home, and hope that they seep into and form my kids understanding of the character of God. The goofiness is about holes in socks, making oneself dizzy, and going pee in the potty - communicating that silliness goes with being a kid, and celebrating that fact. The seriousness is no joke: its about the fact that kids are loved specially by God, and it teaches kids what to do with their own sin. The song "God made you Special" has choked me up more than once. And even though its an album for kids, the instrumentation and production of the album makes it enjoyable for me, too.
This album took me about three hearings to like, and about ten to love. And the more I listen, the better it gets. Each song deserves to be studied for meaning, and enjoyed for it's ambitious production. The album makes me think of a letter that Paul Simon has written to America. He asks the big questions with these songs, and ventures to answer them, too. This review, I think, gives a good picture of the album, if you're interested in reading more.
Like all of Josh Garrels's albums, this mostly sounds like hip-hop, with occasional meanderings into ballads or waltzes. You read that right. Josh's lyrics are truly mind-blowing. What intrigues me most about him is just how deeply Christian he is. He isn't boiling Christianity down to some take-home truths to apply to life. He is clear about the fact that Christ Himself, and not self-denial, or beauty or justice, is the center of our hope and the source of our being and joy.
Give the song below a listen. Notice how in the first verse, he casts a vision of resistance to society like someone who knows that we have to fight the systems that oppress in order to pursue justice, but in the second verse it becomes clear just how Christ-centered his vision is.
The album is free. Go get it.
I've already written quite enough about this album. I still can't help popping it in when I've got a long trip by myself. The album always reminds me what I care about and inspires me to be who I am.
Ben Shive plays piano and produces music for Andrew Peterson and several other artists around Nashville. His best work, though, is what he's done with the songs he, himself has written. I met Ben last February and I told him that his first album, The Ill-Tempered Klavier, was my favorite. This is his second work, and it has been no disappointment. This is music like none you've ever heard before. He is producing Christian music that is not a spin-off of any sound a secular artist has made. His music wont gain popularity for just that reason, but I bet he's okay with that. His albums will be most appreciated by people who have ventured to make music or make poetry.
In this album, he's dug every instrument out of the closet. It's clear that beauty and the "right sound" trumped timeliness in every decision. He may use a choir of violins and an electric guitar for just a bridge, and a horns and woodwinds only for a second verse. There are times in the album where it's hard to pick apart how many sounds are coming at you at once, and he still somehow maintains unified themes and variations. Stylistically, he's all over the board. He jumps from sounding like Ben Folds to the Beach Boys, from folk to pop. Lyrically, the songs are about everyday life on their surface, with deep theological meaning underneath. In short, Ben Shive music stretches me in all sorts of ways, and I love it. Maybe you will, too?
Below is a youtube video you can play to hear the song he starts the album with, "Listen!" It's about waiting for a train to come in the middle of the night in a small town. And it's about the second coming of Christ. I suggest you throw some headphones on before you hit play so you can hear all sounds he strings together, and all the biblical allusions, too.
Honorable Mention: I'd also like to add an honorable mention category for the music of Eminem. My students adore him because he seems real to them and because he sings about their lives and their pain. They might not now what life is like outside of their neighborhood, but they know the pain they feel inside, and Eminem's eloquent acknowledgment of his pain somehow validates them. The kids have encouraged me to watch some of his videos, and I have been impressed. Eminem is clearly a deeply unhealthy man, but that is not stopping him from shepherding some of our nation's most needy, lonely and fatherless youth, who are growing up like he did.
Thursday, December 22, 2011
so why did you decide to homeschool?
In the middle of answering Math questions about clutches of python eggs, another question came to him. And because no one else was there, and because we were in a safe place, and because there was no reason why not to, he just asked it. "Dad, was Jesus really God's only son? I mean, what about the Holy Spirit?" So we talked about it for a few minutes. And then it was back to the clutches. Now I'm not trying to get all Ann Voskamp on you. (mute your speakers before you click!) But here are some other cool moments from our three week long homeschooling stint.
Wednesday, December 14, 2011
To know a place
"One's connection to a newly bought farm will begin in love that is more or less ignorant. One loves the place because present appearances recommend it, and because they suggest possibilities irresistibly imaginable. One's head, like a lover's, grows full of visions. One walks over the premises, saying, "If this were mine, I'd make a permanent pasture here; here is where I'd plant an orchard; here is where I'd dig a pond." These visions are the usual stuff of unfulfilled love and induce wakefulness at night.
When one buys the farm and moves there to live, something different begins. Thoughts begin to be translated into acts. Truth begins to intrude with its matter-of-fact. One's work may be defined in part by one's visions, but it is defined in part too by problems, which the work leads to and reveals. And daily life, work, and problems gradually alter the visions. It invariably turns out, I think, that one's first vision of one's place was to some extent an imposition on it. But if one's sight is clear and if one stays on and works well, one's love gradually responds to the place as it really is, and one's visions gradually image possibilites that are really in it. Vision, possibility, work, and life - all have changed by mutual correction. Correct discipline, given enough time, gradually removes one's self from one's line of sight. One works to better purpose then and makes fewer mistakes, because at last one sees where one is. Two human possibilities of the highest order thus come within reach: what one wants can become the same as what one has, and one's knowledge can cause respect for what one knows."
He explains a couple paragraphs before this excerpt that though he is talking directly about farming, he is talking indirectly about marriage, too. Go ahead, read it again.
Here, also, is a link to a a recording of Berry reading the whole essay 30 years ago.
He explains a couple paragraphs before this excerpt that though he is talking directly about farming, he is talking indirectly about marriage, too. Go ahead, read it again.
Here, also, is a link to a a recording of Berry reading the whole essay 30 years ago.
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
A Thanksgiving Poem
Saturday, November 19, 2011
The Immanual Appraoch
Last weekend I went to Jackson, Tennessee to learn about the Immanuel Approach to prayer - a method people are using to recognize the presence of Jesus in their past as well as in the present. I wont get into specifics on this post, but I will say that one week in, I've found the Immanuel Approach to prayer and to life to be a very good antidote to the problem most Christians I know have had in accessing and recognizing Jesus' presence in day-to-day life. It's been a good week for me. Karl Lehman is the guy who's spreading the good news of this approach to prayer and inner healing. Here is a link to his website, where you can find all sorts of articles that explain this further.
Thursday, September 29, 2011
Ann
If you're a woman, you might like reading you some Ann Voskamp. I like reading me some, despite my not being a woman. Beth and I get her blog posts sent to our e-mail address almost daily, and everytime I open them, I feel like I'm looking through my mom's Better Homes and Gardens magazine, but enjoying it.
This is the post she sent out today, writing about some of the same things I've tried to write about on this blog, but writing about them better and womanlier than I ever could.
This is the post she sent out today, writing about some of the same things I've tried to write about on this blog, but writing about them better and womanlier than I ever could.
Thursday, September 22, 2011
Classroom Quips, 9-21-11
And also from this week...
Me: I'm gonna tell you guys a scary story. One time I was in Florida,
Lalo: (leaning forward) Oh yeah, Florida's scary.
Me: I've got a point for anyone who can tell me what I'm thinking right now.
Hugo: Man, these kids are getting annoying.
And a couple others that I didn't post from last year...
Javier farted. He looked around for who he might blame, but there were only 2 other students in the room. Realizing he was caught, he said "awww," disgusted, and waved his hand behind his seat to push away the smell.
Me: Who can tell me the capital of Alaska?
Arturo: A
Me: Mmmm, heh heh, and the capital of Virginia?
Arturo (with growing confidence): V!
Javier: Why doesn't this school buy 100% milk stead of just 1%
Javier was supposed to be reading the sentence, "The dog in the bathtub is a mess."
Javier: "The dog in the bathtub is a mouse."
me: Whoa! The dog is a mouse?
Javier: apparently
Saturday, September 10, 2011
Given
I recently finished working through Given, a collection of poems by Wendell Berry. The poems are stinging, funny, prophetic; it's as if they come from a wisdom beyond our age. The second half of the book consists of what he calls "Sabbaths," - poems he writes in the woods on Sundays - broken up by year, from 1998 through 2004. The following is one of the Sabbaths from 2003 (a year in which Berry's Sunday walks resulted in one fine poem after another). Go ahead and read it aloud and slowly.Look Out
Come to the window, look out, and see
the valley turning green in remembrance
of all springs past and to come, the woods
perfecting with immortal patience
the leaves that are the work of all of time,
the sycamore whose white limbs shed
the history of a man's life with their old bark,
the river under the morning's breath quivering
like the touched skin of a horse, and you will see
also the shadow cast upon it by fire, the war
that lights its way by burning the earth.
Come to your windows, people of the world,
look out at whatever you see wherever you are,
and you will see dancing upon it that shadow.
You will see that your place, wherever it is,
your house, your garden, your shop, your forest, your farm,
bears the shadow of its destruction by war
which is the economy of greed which is plunder
which is the economy of wrath which is fire.
The Lords of War sell the earth to buy fire,
they sell the water and air of life to buy fire.
They are little men grown great by willingness
to drive whatever exists into its perfect absence.
Their intention is to destroy any place is solidly founded
upon their willingness to destroy every place.
Every household of the world is at their mercy,
the household of the farmer and the otter and the owl
are at their mercy. They have no mercy.
Having hate, they can have no mercy.
Their greed is the hatred of mercy.
Their pockets jingle with the small change of the poor.
Their power is in their willingness to destroy
everything for knowledge which is money
which is power which is victory
which is ashes sown by the wind.
Look out your windows and go out, people of the world,
go into the streets, go into the fields, go into the woods
and go along the streams. Go together. Go alone.
Say no to the Lords of War which is Money
which is Fire. Say no by saying yes
to the air, to the earth, to the trees,
yes to the grasses, to the rivers, to the birds
and the animals and every living thing, yes
to the small houses, yes to the children. Yes.
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
And it Shone Through a Banana...
Even though it was a day in which one of my 7th graders was pulled to the hallway so a dime bag could be pulled from his shoe. And even though the kid who had given him the dime bag begged the principal for mercy because he was earnestly trying to help his mom pay the bills. And even though another of my students is resisting school and guidance because she is worn out with her reading disability and appears more and more to be biding her time until she can drop out, the virtue still shone through today. And it shone through a banana.
You see, there's this brother and sister at my school. The brother is about as rough as they come, and he and his little sister are late every day, which means they miss the universal breakfast that the other kids get. And it means that the two kids stay hungry most days 'til their 12:00 lunchtime. Well, in between 1st and 2nd period, as the sister walked out of my Special Ed. room, and her brother walked in, the brother took out a banana that he'd gotten from who-knows-where, and split off half for his sister. And before I thought to ask the boy why he was eating contraband food in the hallway, the sister offered an answer to a more important question, "He's my brother, he takes care of me."
Monday, August 22, 2011
Safe Families needed
After the news of Dashiyah's death, we decided it was time to get back into Safe Families again. So last week we had two boys for five days. On Wednesday we will be taking a 2-year-old. Safe Families of Chicago is still looking for a place for his 3-year-old brother. The placement is for 6 weeks.
If you live near Chicago, you can get signed up to be a Safe Families host family for a child or a set of siblings. It's a pretty simple process, and you can dramatically impact a child's life. This video shows Katie Curic's take on the program.
Katie Couric on Safe Families for Children from John Norton on Vimeo.
If you live near Chicago, you can get signed up to be a Safe Families host family for a child or a set of siblings. It's a pretty simple process, and you can dramatically impact a child's life. This video shows Katie Curic's take on the program.
Katie Couric on Safe Families for Children from John Norton on Vimeo.
Tuesday, August 9, 2011
Our Dashiyah
We found out on Sunday that Dashiyah, Joey and one other brother died in a house fire back in April.
We are all deeply grieved and rattled by this news.
Here are some picture of this sweet and playful little girl.
Man, we miss her.
Sunday, July 31, 2011
Arrabon
Sunday, July 31, 9:45 am, Chicago, Illinois
Back home, between the last of the summer trips, and glad to be here. Eli's trying to dribble a full-sized basketball between his four-year-old sized legs, and sticking with it, despite the impossibility. Leeli is sound asleep and almost one. Suzy is on the tire swing under the shade of the swing set, thinking and mumbling thoughts and imaginations. Her words never stop. Isaac is a vampire or a t-rex - he can't decide. His fangs are the outer tongs of a plastic fork, whose inner tongs are surely the newest of our house's perpetual supply of clutter. And for the moments when all we can do is long for the day of All Shall be Well, there are these, the blessed foretastes.
Back home, between the last of the summer trips, and glad to be here. Eli's trying to dribble a full-sized basketball between his four-year-old sized legs, and sticking with it, despite the impossibility. Leeli is sound asleep and almost one. Suzy is on the tire swing under the shade of the swing set, thinking and mumbling thoughts and imaginations. Her words never stop. Isaac is a vampire or a t-rex - he can't decide. His fangs are the outer tongs of a plastic fork, whose inner tongs are surely the newest of our house's perpetual supply of clutter. And for the moments when all we can do is long for the day of All Shall be Well, there are these, the blessed foretastes.
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