Categories Everyday Life

Petty Prejudices

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My sister’s a jewelry lady (she sells it with Premier Designs), and we were sitting around the lunch table one day when she mentioned that the other jewelry ladies say she should never leave the house without five or six pieces of jewelry on.

My knee-jerk-reaction (which, of course, I said out loud–will I ever gain control of my tongue?) was to say that I don’t like people who wear that much jewelry. I really can’t be friends with people who have so little style.

Not surprisingly, my dinner companions were aghast at my statement.

Really? I judge people that harshly?

One friend made a crack about her own lack of style, diffused the situation.

But the incident remained in my head, kept me asking myself why I reacted in that way.

The truth is, I sometimes (often?) have abominable style. How is it that I might hold others to a higher style-standard than I hold myself? Or do I really?

It took much rumination to get to the bottom of my reaction…but I think I finally figured it out.

My perception of people who wear tons of jewelry is that they’re trying really hard to be fashionable. I don’t try very hard to be fashionable. In fact, I regularly flaunt fashion and wear downright ridiculous apparel (particularly when I wear my pajamas to Bible study–a pink polo dress, white leggings underneath, a huge white sweater over top and fuzzy brown moccasins?)

When I see people that I perceive to be trying really hard, I presume that they would be embarrassed by me–so I never even give them a chance.

Sure, I’ll greet them when we’re introduced. I’ll say a nice hello. But I won’t really try to be their friend. If I see them in the hall, unless they approach me or somehow acknowledge me, I’m not going to acknowledge them.

I assume that I’d only mess up the image they’re trying so hard (and, in my opinion, failing) to project.

But is that really a fair assumption?

No. It isn’t.

That’s letting my flesh take preference over brotherly love. It’s petty prejudice and it’s ugly.

So, with my eyes now open to my own petty prejudices, I’m out to love the world–even the world who’s wearing five or more pieces of jewelry.

Categories The Week in Words

WiW: Secular Callings

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My Facebook friends list is littered with seminarians, my blogroll full of homemakers raising children for the glory of God. Missional believers from all over have started in-house non-profits, have worked in church-based soup kitchens, have adopted orphans from overseas and stateside.

I can be tempted to feel inadequate, so secular.

I don’t have a noble religious calling. I have an ordinary sort of calling.

I’m a dietitian.

Sure, others have secular callings. The missional manuals encourage those to start a sacred mission either within or in addition to their secular work.

The prospect exhausts me. It’s enough I can do to just be a good dietitian. I want to serve the people at my workplace, but there’s only so much I can do and still do my job.

Matt’s comments (found here) help me put things in perspective:

“One additional word on skill: If you show love by being the first to order the pizza, or drive the van, or do whatever to serve people, but aren’t good at what you do, everything will fall flat. You have to be good at what you do. Good intentions are not enough…

If we want to glorify God in our workplaces, we need to learn from the best thinkers in our fields, whether they are Christians or not. And, this creates a better testimony to the gospel.”

God does not demand that I set aside my job or set aside my field in order to be a witness for Him in the workplace. In fact, He asks just the opposite.

To glorify God in my workplace is to be the best dietitian I can be. To glorify God in my workplace is to love my coworkers by doing my job well, to love my residents by caring for their nutritional needs in the best possible way.

Yes, it is not enough that I merely be a good dietitian–I must still share the gospel, must still demonstrate love in my interactions. But being the best possible dietitian is a primary means by which I can be a testimony in my workplace.

The Week in WordsDon’t forget to take a look at Barbara H’s meme “The Week in Words”, where bloggers collect quotes they’ve read throughout the week.

Categories Everyday Life

Snapshot: Route 66

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I’m thrilled to be teaching the 2nd and 3rd grade Sunday School (about a dozen kids, mostly boys!) at my church.

We’re going through the books of the Bible with a curriculum called “Route 66” for the 66 books of the Bible.

Road Signs for Sunday School

In order to facilitate our quick trip (only 36 weeks) through the Bible, I’ve decorated our room with a road–with corresponding road signs.

In my head, the idea was good–but I was pretty apprehensive about how it would work. By the grace of God, it turned out even better than I expected!

Categories Book Notes

Christianity and the West: Notes from “What’s So Great About Christianity?”

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The following are chapter synopses and short quotes from the second section of Dinesh D’Souza’s What’s So Great About Christianity? This second section was entitled: “Christianity and the West”

Chapter 5:
D’Souza argues that Christianity is originally responsible for the concept of limited government and separation of church and state

“Augustine argued that during our time here on earth, the Christian inhabits two realms, the earthly city and the heavenly city….To each of these realms the Christian citizen has duties, but they are not the same duties….some remarkable conclusions follow….It means that the earthly city need not concern itself with the question of man’s final or ultimate destiny. It also implies that the claims of the earthly city are limited, that there is a sanctuary of conscience inside every person that is protected from political control.”

Chapter 6:
D’Souza argues that Christianity’s conception of the value of the ordinary but fallible individual has led to many of the features of Western civilization that we hold most dear, including separation of powers and checks and balances for governments, and capitalism as an economic system. (He also argues that the value of the ordinary but fallible individual led to giving family a prominent role in society, but I felt that his argument was hard to follow and rather weak.)

“…Capitalism satisfied the Christian demand for an institution that channels selfish human desire toward the betterment of society. Some critics accuse capitalism of being a selfish system, but the selfishness is not in capitalism–it is in human nature.”

Chapter 7:
D’Souza argues that Christianity is fundamentally responsible for the concepts of human rights and individual freedom.

“The preciousness and equal worth of every human life is a Christian idea. Christians have always believed that God places infinite value on each human life He creates and that He loves each person equally. In Christianity you are not saved through your family or tribe or city. Salvation is an individual matter…These ideas have momentous consequences.”

Categories Thankful Thursday

Thankful Thursday: New Computer

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Do you remember when I first mentioned building myself a new computer?

I’m not sure when I first mentioned it, but I do know when I ordered my parts.

The last weekend in May. Memorial Day.

And now, three and a half months later, I finally have a working computer.

Thankful Thursday banner

This week I’m thankful for…

…my extended family for letting me crash the 4th of July with my computer.

…Daniel for lending me an OS disk after mine got ruined, and for regularly checking up on the computer’s progress (or lack thereof)

…Anna for being remarkably long-suffering with my use of her laptop and trashing of the family room (what with all my boxes of components–and the components themselves–all about.)

…Ruth for lending me her computer for a couple weeks in the interim

…Spousanomics for teaching me about loss aversion (and making me willing to cut my losses and just buy a new pre-built)

…Mom for listening to me reason it all out and counseling me that yes it would be wise for me to just buy a new computer

…the Best Buy guy for believing me when I said that, yes, I was familiar with computers and, yes, I did know how to change out components.

…Jon for lending me a program to recover my files from one of the corrupted hard disks

…Erik for lending me a IDE to SATA adapter so I could transfer said files to my new computer

…God for being immutible, unchanging, faithful, reliable–unlike computers.

Categories Book Reviews

Book Review: “Big Girl Small” by Rachel DeWoskin

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Judy Lohden is a sixteen year old girl who’s starting out at a new elite performing arts school and she has all the drama that goes along with that situation–making new friends, finding her niche, liking a boy, wondering if a boy likes her, going to parties, facing peer pressure. All the usual sort of things, except for one thing: Judy is a little person, which amplifies everything.

Instead of just being “the new girl”, she’s the new dwarf.

While most of Judy’s classmates act awkwardly around her, a few people don’t seem to make a big deal out of Judy’s being a little person. It just so happens that one of the ones who doesn’t make a big deal about it is the boy Judy has a crush on.

Score!

Life seems to be going exactly as Judy wishes it when she auditions straight into Senior Voice as a Junior (which means she’ll be in the same class as her crush, Kyle), when Kyle offers to take her home after school, when Kyle wants to sleep with her.

But her “everything’s-going-my-way” life comes to a sudden stop when IT happens.

It’d be bad enough if it had happened to anyone–it’s even worse because Judy’s a dwarf, and therefore pretty recognizable.

Judy takes off to a sketchy motel where she hides away from her family, her friends, and the media.

This is where Big Girl Small opens: with Judy in her motel room, playing over the events of the school year again and again.

I don’t know exactly how to sum up this book, or how to express my feelings regarding it.

I liked how the story was told: in first person, flipping back and forth between the present (in the motel) and the past (during the school year). Judy’s voice portrays what she is: a smart but still definitely teenaged girl.

The storyline was coherent, was engaging in a “morbid curiosity” sort of way.

The content was… overwhelming.

This isn’t a YA novel, but it’s similar to YA in that it’s full of tense topics and shocking actions. There’s sex, underage drinking, marijuana use, lying… and, um, gang-banging.

All of this is treated as completely normative, except for the last bit, which is sort-of discouraged (by way of encouraging boys to homosexual encounters.)

Which is why…

I can’t really say what I think of this book, or whether I would ever recommend it to anyone. It’s definitely a very mature book–but I’m not sure that it has enough redeeming value (even in terms of entertainment value) to overlook the “mature” content.

Rating: ?? 2 Question Marks
Category:YA-like adult novel
Synopsis: Judy Lohden (a little person) is hiding out in a motel after a scandal disrupts her junior year of high school.
Recommendation: I don’t think I’d recommend this, but I’m not sure.

Categories Everyday Life

Punctuation Matters

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The DOT is working on the highway between here and Grand Island–the highway I use for my bi-weekly commute.

Four times a week, I see the signs set up on either side of the worked-on stretch of highway:

No
Passing Zones
Not Marked

Every time I pass the bright orange signs, I wonder whose bright idea it was to not include punctuation.

As it is, I have no clue what the sign is trying to say.

Is it telling me not to pass because the zones are unmarked?

In that case, it should read:

No
Passing. Zones
Not Marked.

Or perhaps it is just an FYI, to let me know that the no passing zones are not marked so I’ll have to use discretion when passing.

May I suggest:

No-Passing
Zones Not
Marked

Or better yet:

No-Passing
Zones Are
Not Marked

As it is, sans punctuation marks, this sign means nothing.

I do whatever I please.

Categories Book Reviews

Book Review: “Beaten, Seared and Sauced” by Jonathon Dixon

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Martha Stewart, The Cooking Channel, and Food Network have made foodies of us all.

Okay, so we haven’t all become food snobs, but the ranks of food-o-philes have certainly swelled.

For many of us, that means we salivate over cookbooks, avidly watch cooking shows, and indulge our imaginary gluttony via online recipe blogs. Some of us clip those recipes and give them a try in our own kitchens, purchasing flavored vinegars and exotic spices, trying new varieties of vegetables and grains; while others of us only dream of the luxuries of saffron and quinoa and goose.

Jonathan Dixon has been a foodie for years, enjoying cooking in the privacy of his own home while passing through a collection of dead end jobs. He dreams of being a better cook, and even takes some cooking classes; but he’s still pretty discontent with his life.

Then a family friend urges him forward. Why not enroll in chef school? Why not just do it?

And so, on the cusp of his thirty-eighth birthday, Jonathan takes the plunge and enrolls in the prestigious Culinary Institute of America.

Beaten, Seared, and Sauced is Jonathan’s memoirs of his experience of becoming a CIA chef.

This book appealed to my inner foodie and made me itch to go back to school myself-except not.

I loved hearing all about how the student chefs learned to cut a perfect dice and make a perfect bechamel. I loved reading of how they learned to tell by touch whether a roast chicken was done. I loved that they learned how to determine when a piece of produce is perfectly ripe.

I want that knowledge. I want those skills.

But I definitely don’t want to go to culinary school.

Dixon’s memoir makes that perfectly obvious.

Culinary school is a mess of sleeplessness, yelling instructors, and hard-to-get-along-with class/work-mates. It’s intense.

And this girl is reaching the age where she’d fit the “non-trad” bill–and Dixon’s difficulties with his (younger) fellow students and with assimilating rapid-fire data already start to hit home. I’m too old to go back to school–at least, too old to go back to that sort of school.

So I’ll indulge my fantasies vicariously, through Dixon’s memoir–and keep dreaming of someday embarking upon a self-study program to give myself even just a fraction of the skill Dixon describes.

As a food person, an avid learner, and project memoir junkie, I greatly enjoyed this memoir. My guess is that fellow foodies and/or project memoir lovers will enjoy it as well.

Rating: 3 stars
Category:Project Memoir
Synopsis:38 year old Jonathon Dixon chronicles his experience of becoming a chef at the Culinary Institue of America
Recommendation: If you’re a food junkie and/or a project memoir lover, you’ll probably enjoy this title. If neither of those is quite up your alley, this book probably isn’t either.

Categories Book Notes

The Future of Christianity: Notes from “What’s So Great About Christianity?”)

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I’m cheating somewhat and just using my book notes from What’s So Great About Christianity? for this week’s Week in Words.

The following are chapter synopses and short quotes from the first section of Dinesh D’Souza’s What’s So Great About Christianity? This first section was entitled: “The Future of Christianity”

Chapter 1:
D’Souza argues that Christianity is experiencing worldwide growth, while atheism is declining worldwide.

“Nietzsche’s proclamation “God is dead” is now proven false. Nietzsche is dead. The ranks of unbelievers are shrinking as a proportion of the world’s population….God is very much alive , and His future prospects look to be excellent.”

Chapter 2:
D’Souza argues that, while atheists search for an evolutionary reason for religion, it is really atheism that lacks an evolutionary basis. After all, the religious are rapidly reproducing their genes while atheists fail to (biologically) reproduce.

“The important point is not just that atheism is unable to compete with religion in attracting followers, but also that the lifestyle of practical atheism seems to produce listless tribes that cannot even reproduce themselves.”

Chapter 3:
D’Souza describes the rise of militant atheism and its desperately offensive (think Hail Mary) “war on religion”.

Chapter 4:
D’Souza argues that atheists attempt to use schools (both primary schools and universities) to indoctrinate children and young adults to atheist ideology.

“For the defenders of Darwinism, no less than for its critics, religion is the issue. Just as some people oppose the theory of evolution because they believe it to be anti-religious, many others support it for the very same reason. This is why we have Darwinism but not Keplerism; we encounter Darwinists but no one describes himself as an Einstainian. Darwinism has become an ideology.”

The Week in WordsDon’t forget to take a look at Barbara H’s meme “The Week in Words”, where bloggers collect quotes they’ve read throughout the week.

Categories None

On Arguing

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Once upon a time, I loved to argue. Give me a topic and I would argue it. Polemics were my thing. I enjoyed polarizing issues, getting a rise out of someone. There wasn’t a fight I didn’t like to get into.

But somewhere along the line, my tastes have changed.

I find that some arguments leave a bitter taste in my mouth and a sour pit in my stomach.

Not that I don’t enjoy arguing anymore. In fact, there’s little I love more than a spirited discussion of some issue.

But a certain sort of argument, one I once considered my life’s blood, has lost its allure.

I have become more irenic in my approach–and more likely to shut my mouth if I see that my opponent does not prefer that approach.

So, wanna argue with me? Here are a few tips for getting me to engage:

1. Search for truth
Where I used to enjoy the sparring of two individuals who were firmly established in their opposite positions with no desire or willingness to change their minds, I now find such argument intolerable.

I want to know truth. If you are a fellow truth-seeker, even if your ideas are different than mine, I’d love to debate with you. I’d love to let your iron sharpen mine as we grapple with issues (and our differing viewpoints on them) together.

If all you want to do is refute my viewpoint or prove your own, I’m probably not interested. This sort of debate is usually pointless, a regurgitation of all the (often weak) apologetic points of a certain position without true dialogue or discovery.

2. Be Humble
Absolute truth exists. I believe it.

But, believe it or not, no one person has a monopoly on truth.

Yes, the Bible is true–but that doesn’t always mean that your interpretation of the Bible is true. Yes, science is true–but that doesn’t always mean your extrapolation from science is true.

If you wanna argue with me, please get off your high horse and recognize that you’re a fellow truth-seeker, not the final word in truth.

3. Don’t get personal/Get personal
There are two options for every topic of debate: either the topic at hand is deeply personal or it’s little more than an intellectual exercise. I don’t mind debating either.

What I do mind is when an argument turns into a mud-slinging fest. Don’t make blanket statements about people who hold views other than your own. Don’t accuse your opponent of not loving Jesus or not believing the Bible or of teaching false doctrine (unless you have good evidence that those statements are true–and even then, speak the truth in LOVE.)

On the other hand, recognize that just because a topic isn’t deeply personal to you doesn’t mean that it isn’t personal to another. Pacifism vs. Just War Theory may be an intellectual exercise for you–it might not be for the girl with two brothers in the Armed Forces. Please take into consideration who you’re talking to and how they might feel about the issue at hand before you go off on a rampage.

What about you? Are you an arguer? What are your rules for engagement?