Save Your Soul

 The prophet Micah didn't know anything about Heaven and Hell.  It wasn't part of the Old Testament framework.

Yet, he went on to define what was good.  This is interesting to me because in my  Evangelical faith heritage, we didn't really talk about being good... we talked about having faith.  Pretty much the only time the word good came up was to remind us that nobody was any good.

So why did Micah tell people how to be good?

He wanted to save their souls.

Not some wispy energy that lives on after mortal life.

He wanted your heart and mind to be whole in this life.  For your benefit and the benefit of others.

How did he say to be good?

Act justly, love mercy, walk humbly.

Sounds like a good way to save my soul.

Patriotism

I think it depends on how one is using the word.

I am proud of my school and want it to succeed.  But I have felt that way about every school I have worked at.

I love my neighborhood and I felt that way about my previous one.

I didn't become anti-Michigan when I moved from there to Utah.

I can love Utah while also recognizing the areas where it needs to do better.

When people view their country with religious zealotry and lack the ability to view it with a critical eye, that is a problem.

We need to have a collaborative mindset, not a competitive one.

Don't Assume

Here's the thing - Biden is a centrist.  Conservative, shock-jock, media has Grandpa and your crazy uncle from Thanksgiving thinking he is the Uber-Liberal... but he is a centrist.  Just a hip-bump to the Right and he could comfortably reside in former GOP territory.

Trump isn't even a conservative... he is just a walking @#$%-you to liberals (who, again, aren't as liberal as MAGA imagines, they just have 24hr media telling them so).

I say that because I believe the reason most conservatives hate Biden so strongly (Let's Go Brandon!) is because he is the guy who opposes their candidate.  It wouldn't matter WHO it was, their reaction would be the same.

One might assume my hatred of Trump is based on a similar response... but then one would be wrong.  My hatred of Trump started long before he ran for president, long before he was saying crazy things about Obama, long before his attacks on the Central Park 5.  

In my twenties, I was buried neck-deep in religious patriarchy.  I had a knuckle-dragging view toward women and I was a classic homophobe.  Yet, when I clicked through cable one evening and watched Trump interviewed by Howard Stern on E! television I thought, "This man is a pig!"

I wasn't just conservative at the time, I was a fundamentalist... and even then, there was something in me that knew that Trump was a contemptible human being.

This is why I don't buy the argument made by many religious folks that they HAVE to vote for Trump because Biden is so much worse.

No.  Not even the same category.

At the end of the day, Biden is a pretty run-of-the-mill president.  If he weren't president, there wouldn't be much about him that stands out.

However, Trump would be an example of a failed human even if he never had political aspirations.

So, Trump-supporter, before you assume my dislike of Trump mirrors your dislike of Biden... no... mine goes much deeper.

Reading is a Worthy Use of Time

I wrote this observation during a 3 week vacation in Mazatlan -

I am going to spend a chunk of today reading the book The Enchanted April, which was the play I was just in. I have done a lot of exercising and put in way more steps in a day than I typically do and I have gotten a lot of sun... So I'm going to have a rest day. 

It occurs to me that I can count on one hand the amount of physical books I have read this year. I used to be someone who devoured physical books left and right. However, in the past few years I have found that I multitask. I listen to a book while I clean the backyard. I put on a podcast while I organize the basement. I stream something while I do the dishes. I have fallen into the habit and the mindset that just sitting and reading alone was somehow a waste of time. Even as I sat down here on the patio to read this book, I felt that I should be out doing something. Seeing the city, going for a walk, visiting someplace I haven't been before. I stopped myself realizing how backward this thinking is. 

In the book and play, the Enchanted April, two women feel guilty about wanting to take a vacation. They feel there should be more effective use of their time and money. Of course, they overcome this and have a life-changing experience. 

I don't know if I can blame this on my time in Evangelicalism, but there definitely was a message of "redeeming the time". Guilt was commonplace, particularly for anything that was self-indulgent.

So, I'm going to try to just sit on this patio and do nothing but read.

Winter Is Coming

People have some collective amnesia about Trump's term in office. If he gets a second term, it will be like the end of his first term, not the beginning. At the beginning of Trump's first term, he was careful. He brought in people in various areas who would be acceptable. We used to say that there were still adults in the room. 

Toward the end of his term, he had gone through a lot of folks. He had learned that his followers didn't care who he brought in, so loyalty became the test for anyone new.

Think of his choice of Mike Pence. Whatever else you may think of him, he was qualified. He fit the bill of what Trump thought he needed someone in that position to be like.  But in the end, Pence showed loyalty to the Constitution and the rule of law. This didn't make Trump happy. He won't be making those mistakes in term two.  When he selects people this time, the only qualification he is going to be looking for is loyalty to him. 

Democrat, Republican, or independent - that attitude alone should chill us.

Time To Study

I am working on memorizing my lines this morning for a play I will be in soon.  Some of my scenes are now at a point of being “thought perfect” as we used to call it in my bible quizzing days. For example, I just said, “The Bacon-Cateses didn’t invite me for Madame Pompadore.”  It is actually “never invited me”.  

Not that big of a deal, but on stage that kind of flub sets off the lizard part of my brain that starts screaming at me that I made a mistake and it wants to address it… NOW!  It wants to figure out what the actual words should have been.  At which point an internal dialogue starts where I am trying to tell that part of my brain to shut the #$%^ up and that we can deal with this when I am off stage in a few minutes.  I do this while another part of my brain continues with the scene.

One would think that moving beyond thought perfect to word perfect would be enough.  But it isn’t.  You have to go further. I remember watching an interview with the music artist Mylon Lefevre.  He talked about rehearsing beyond getting it right to the point where it is difficult to get it wrong.

I love every part of a show- the rehearsing, the conversations, getting to know the cast, setting up, the production… but not the memorizing.  It gets so tedious.  I get to the point I would rather do ANYTHING than pick up that script again.

But this is a life lesson I learn again and again.  Pretty much anything worthwhile requires work.  Be it mental health, physical health, relationships, career building, education… there are parts that just aren’t going to be cookies and rainbows. 

So, if I want the payoff of all of the good times the memorizing is going to produce…

It is time for me to get back to my script.

What Works In Education?

I remember a study I read in grad school about which teaching methods were the most successful with students. The conclusion? Whatever method the teacher was most excited about.

States and districts are all about the latest gimmick method. They see a teacher or a district have some success with method X... and now they want everyone to replicate it.

The reality is this: if I have some success with an approach, that doesn't mean it will work for anyone else. It probably won't even work very long for me. What is working presently is something that can't be defined on a spreadsheet or within a bullet point. It is a mix of chemistry, personality, and creativity... that works in THIS moment, with THIS class, and THIS teacher, in THIS setting. Look at it too closely... and it's gone

Love Is God

I have a few Evangelical ties on Facebook and in real life. So, at least once a week, I see Evangelicals' favorite verse.

"Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but by me." John 14:6

There are thousands of verses that most Evangelicals have never even read... but this one gets put on T-Shirts, bumper stickers, mugs... you name it.

Evangelicals love it because it is so damn exclusive. Jesus tended to be fairly inclusive, so Evangelicals have to step around and ignore a lot of his sayings. Not this one though. This one they cling to like a rope tossed to a drowning man.

This verse did cause me some consternation during the last years of my faith... it was so un-Jesus. Couldn't he see how those words would be weaponized?

Of course, who knows if he even said it... but let me put on my Christian hat for a second and state that he did. Take it a step further and let's say he was divine and liked to layer things up a bit for those paying attention.

There is a mathematical axiom that states – If A=B and B=C then A=C.  This is called the Transitive Property.  According to this property, A, B, and C are completely interchangeable.

1 John 4:7-8 says, “Beloved let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.”

Notice, it is not that God tries to love or desires to love… it is who and what he is.  ANYONE who loves knows God and is born of him.

God likes math, so let’s use that Transitive Property: God=Love, Jesus=God, Love=Jesus.

Let’s look at that seemingly exclusive verse again.

“Jesus said, “Love is THE WAY, Love is THE TRUTH, Love is THE LIFE.  No one comes to the Father but through Love.”

Now that verse syncs up with 1 John 4… and can no longer be weaponized.  Everyone has access to God through Love.

🙂

Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk.

How To Lose An Ally

"That's the difference between the Democratic and the Republican Party - Democrats are hostage to their crazy minority and Republicans are hostage to their crazy majority." ~ Bret Stephens

I often say that Democrats and liberals have a talent for turning allies into enemies.  The slightest deviance from whatever is the accepted orthodoxy of the moment can get a politician or leader in more hot water than they care to deal with.

I re-read a conversation that occurred on a friend's page last year where this was happening.  Issues of sexuality and gender were being discussed and I would guess that nearly everyone in the thread felt roughly the same way in terms of rights for everyone.  There was one person though who felt a lot of frustration with any variance away from her "pure" view... and that was translating into her doling out some pretty harsh rhetoric.  People who should have been allies were in her crosshairs and she did not question pulling the trigger.

I have met a lot of liberals like her over the years... and I am pretty sure they may have motivated as many folks to MAGA rallies as the orange buffoon himself.

Anyway, here was what I wrote at the time... and I still feel this way.  And no, in her estimation, I am just part of the problem.

"Amy I think you are expecting too much from people.

I teach math.  Have you ever tried to do math in a different number system?  It's kinda crazy.  We have done math our whole lives in base 10... probably because we have 10 digits on our hands.  If we had 12, all of our math would probably be done in base 12.

So, for example, in base 3 math 1+2=10.  That's cause the odometer spins after 2 instead of 9.  Get a bunch of adults trying to do math in base 3 and you will see them counting on their fingers to do the simplest equations.  They have been functioning under base 10 all their lives.  Their brains are literally wired for it.

I know "how" to do math in other number systems... but it still feels awkward and I have to REALLY think about it.  It never comes natural.

In the same way, people have been brought up to perceive gender in a certain way... their WHOLE lives...  Then someone explains that, actually, there is a whole new mathematical approach.  It is probably never going to be as 2nd nature to them as it is to you... even if they are trying.

I mentally assent to all of the issues regarding sexuality and gender... but I can't say I "get" them.  I can do the math... but I really have to pay attention.  It can be a little exhausting when people resent me when it does not come as naturally for me as it does for them... as I am sure it is exhausting when they have to re-explain something that, to them, is as clear as day.

My kids are much more "fluent" with trans issues.  I will probably always feel a bit like a right-hander throwing left-handed.

We all want to be heard and we all want to be understood... but I don't think we can demand that of others.  We can demand equal treatment under the law.  We can expect to be treated civilly.  I think though, to describe someone who does not "get" me as "despising" me is not helpful, nor is it accurate."

Historical Jesus?

Someone asked me if I believed in a historical Jesus-

"I think there probably was a Jesus... but everything we know of him is 2nd hand, generations later, motivated retells. So, I take the stories for what they are and what they say... and don't worry too much when Jesus contradicts himself or the Pauline epistles head in different directions.

In the end, those who scream most loudly about the Bible being the "Word of God" usually have a very thin knowledge of how it came about or what it contains. In my sect, Evangelicals, we would regurgitate the same 500 verses annually, while pretty much ignoring the other 30,000.

Ultimately, I think most folks find the Jesus they want in the Bible. I have friends of all different economic, social, and political persuasions... and funny enough, all of them quote Jesus and claim to be followers. Jesus has many faces."