The history of humankind as resident on this earth depicts lands riddled with the puncture wounds of markers moved and the battles fought to place them. In 1967 alone, there were 67 conflicts underway. In Saigon the Second battle of Bàu Bàng went down in March, the ongoing Vietnam War advanced, Che Guevara’s Ñancahuazú Guerrilla,…
read moreOur bodies are constantly shifting, changing. Eat a piece of candy and you experience a brightening of cognition, a sugar rush. Not enough sleep and muscles are slower to respond, thinking is muddled. A teenager experiences wildly fluctuating hormones that can induce at once utter despair and elation at the touch from the object of…
read moreJourney #with each other so Love is known. Jn17:21-23 #tobeknownistobelovedandtobelovedistobeknown #makelovenotwar Holy Trinity, center me now that I may notice Your creative intention, nest in the broad, safe space of Your presence, and intentionally nurture another with the same. What word or phrase do I notice on which I may center: Eph 5:8-14 For once…
read moreWriting can be a very lonely vocation. The struggle to craft words that faithfully describe thoughts, an epiphany, musings, a deeply formulated conviction . . . and effectively communicate even an approximation of the idea to the reader . . . well, it can be excruciating and exhausting. The process does not even begin to…
read moreA recent study showed that adolescents are influenced by parents’ prejudices—toward immigrants, specifically, and concerning difference, in general. Behavioral research is famously unsuccessful in clearly demonstrating causality. Still, a strong correlation is valuable for insight and consideration. This research happened to be well constructed (consistent measures, valid data, accounting for confounding variables, etc.) Being intuitive that…
read moreIn an isolated system, according to the second law of thermodynamics, entropy always increases. That is, the energy contained in that system becomes increasingly less available to do useful work. When power is contained within a system, entropy always occurs, and usually to disastrous effect. For example, if a room is not tidied or cleaned,…
read moreThe New Oxford American Dictionary defines politics, “the activities associated with the governance of a country or other area, especially the debate or conflict among individuals or parties having or hoping to achieve power.” It is concerned with the theory of governance, but is most often motivated by the status and power of individuals within…
read moreMy son’s army figures have overtaken our bathroom! But, I thought it a fitting (ironic?) backdrop for this quote. “To celebrate the particularity of individuals and cultures is to see and understand facets of God, but no single person or culture can contain all the facets of God in themselves, isolated from others. Rather, it…
read moreA friend recently mentioned the inherent difficulty in helping someone change, particularly if there is a presenting personality disorder (in the friend’s case, narcissistic). Not only is it difficult (some behavioral scientists think impossible) to treat or influence the attitude and behavior of one who displays the characteristics of Narcissistic Personality Disorder, it is very difficult…
read more