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Categories Recap

Recap (April 11-17)

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On bekahcubed

Book Reviews:

Photo Albums:
In honor of Amy’s wedding this weekend and the reuniting of four of the five “Unveiled Daughters” from Jacksonville STP 2006, I’ve posted some Jacksonville Summer Training Program Photos.

  • Ladies Retreat (We camped for a night in Jacksonville for our “ladies retreat”)
  • Dying my hair (In preparation for my role as “Posh Spice” in the upcoming costume party)
  • Spice Girls (Our team as the Spice Girls for a costume party)
  • Team Time (Miscellaneous pics of my team)

On the web

A Series I’m Really Looking forward to…
As someone who has had the privilege of tutoring an underliterate (my word) student and seen her literacy dramatically improve as she grasped hold of the joys of the written word, I’m really excited to hear about Janna’s experiences tutoring a 16 year old boy who couldn’t write the word “remember”.

Check out Janna’s first post of the series–and go back on Monday for the second.

“We set the date and time for our first session. What would I discover about his reading skills? How desperate would his need be? Would I really be able to make a difference? I prayed and told God I was willing, but that He would have to direct my mouth.

He arrived Monday evening and after answering a few “getting to know you” questions, we got started. I asked him to write the word “remember.” He hesitated, twirled the pen in his long, brown fingers, and looked around. I asked him again and he scrawled three letters. “Keep going,” I encouraged.
He added a few more letters and leaned back.

The paper said, “remomble.””

News to take note of:

Thought-provoking posts:

  • Placing my faith in God, not in His acts. My cousin shares what God has been speaking to her in a fabulous post.
  • An open letter to fetal humans. In this pro-life satire, Joe Carter helps fetal humans understand how to reduce their risks of being aborted.

    From the intro:

    “You have made it to the second stage of life. But you’re not out of the woods, as they say, until you’re out of the womb. In America there are roughly 250 abortions for every 1000 live births, which means that you have (all other things being equal) a one in five chance of still being aborted. Here are four reasons you might be aborted and what you can do to avoid this gruesome fate.”

    From the conclusion:

    “Your best hope is to pray and hope that others are praying for you too. With any luck you’ll survive the fetal stage of development and move on to infancy, adolescence, and adulthood. Once you reach this stage of life you’ll be able to join other Americans in exercising one of our most cherished and incontrovertible rights: the right to kill a fetus for any reason you choose.”

    RT: 22 Words

Videos worth seeing:

  • Mark Driscoll on the four streams of the emerging/emergent church–in which he makes a distinction between emerging and emergent. I had a conversation with our church’s youth pastor about the church while I was going through the book Why We Love the Church here on my blog. Jeremy (our youth pastor) mentioned Driscoll’s distinction between emergent and emerging. I kept it in the back of my mind–but now I’ve finally found the source!

Random:

  • Somehow a tweet I tweeted way back in the day made it on to Joshua Harris’s blog. Weird. Amazing the things you find when you google yourself (or your nom-de-plume, as the case may be.)
Categories Everyday Life

I’m off…

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to Southern California to see a dear friend married.

I have many hours to fly, to layover, to drive. I have brought grading and books and notebooks. I did not bring a computer (I’m old-fashioned that way–I like my computer to stay put on my desktop!) So there shouldn’t be much activity this weekend–and might not be at the beginning of next week either, since I’ll be busy inputting grades and catching up on all my school/work-ish stuff.

Wish me well on my journey and send a prayer of blessing for Amy and Craig as they begin their married life together!

Categories Everyday Life

After the Rain

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There’s nothing more beautiful to my eye and my soul than Nebraska springtime after the rain.

East Campus

I was overwhelmed with thankfulness as I walked into class this morning, beholding the land, breathing in the sweet scent of spring. I’m so thankful to be located on Lincoln’s lovely East Campus, strewn with flowering trees, green grass, and freshly turned fields.

Fields and flowers

As the agricultural campus of Nebraska’s land grant university, we enjoy a bit of farm life right in the middle of the city. Little plats of experimental fields surround the campus. In summer and fall they are green or brown with corn or soybeans or the like. But in spring, they are the dark black of rich, life-giving earth.

Fields and Flowers 2

After a rainstorm, the gravel roads that lead to the fields turn muddy, dandelions pop up seemingly overnight, and the grass grows so green it almost hurts to look at it.

Grass and Dirt, Green and Black

This is my favorite part of springtime in Nebraska–the sharp contrast between the rich dark soil and the startlingly brilliant green grass.

I long to take off my shoes, to run in this grass, to squidge my toes into the earth. And sometimes, I do.

Yesterday I was wearing a pair of shoes that were unkind to my feet. I took it as an excuse to slip them off and to walk on the grass beside the walk instead of on the walk itself. Undoubtedly I looked undignified, wending my way through the grass in my stockinged feet and proper skirt set. When I took off my stockings at home, they were ruined–completely grass-stained. But a pair of stockings is a small thing to sacrifice for the delightfulness of walking (nearly) barefoot on Nebraska’s good land–in the grass after the rain.

Categories Thankful Thursday

Thankful Thursday: TAing

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Thankful Thursday banner

Today I’m thankful…
…for the compliment one of my students unwittingly paid me today
…for two wonderful instructors to TA under
…for the student I was administering a test to this afternoon not showing up to my office hours before I did (I was right on the line and how I HATE to be late. Kind of weird to be thankful that my student WAS late, though!)
…for the decent amount of grading I got done this afternoon while proctoring said exam
…that although the Blackboard course management software eats up large chunks of my life, it is NOT my life.
…that I have a job for next semester (even if I don’t know who it’ll be with–if one of them doesn’t take me, another has already told me I’m her first choice)

Oh, and I just about forgot…

I’m also thankful…
…that I’m leaving on a jet plane
even if I’ll be back again
after a few short days
in sunny Southern Cali
seeing my friend Amy wed
rooming with Veronica
catching up with Sandra
It’s the opposite coast
from where we met
but it’s where we’ll meet again
Another juncture in our lives
as we run this race together

Categories Homemaking

Thursday starts…

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For me, Thursday starts on Wednesday night when I gather everything that I need for the next day, bathe, and pack myself into bed (hopefully not too late.)

Thursday is my “long day”–so named because I’m gone from 7 to 6. Certainly, it’s not the longest day I’ve ever had–one semester, I did two 14 hour days every week–but it’s long enough that I need to be prepared ahead of time.

So every Wednesday night, I put together my Thursday stuff.

Thursday stuff

Clothes and shoes set out, down to jewelry? Check. (I’ll add my glasses as soon as I take them off this evening.)

Bag of books, including graded papers to be returned and lab manual? Check.

Anything extra needed for lab? Check. (This week it’s returning the flour, salt, pastry dowels, and pastry blender I used to make pie crust–and, of course, bringing along the pie crusts I made for demonstration.)

Necessities for afternoon office hours and class? Check. (This week I’m not meeting with my dad for lunch, so I’ll have a spare hour to run home and grab the text and extra tests I’ll be administering during office hours. Usually, I’m a bag lady carting half a dozen bags around campus.)

Computer off. That’s the tricky part.

I’ve got to actually get off the computer and get to bed if I really want to have a successful Thursday.

So, as Thursday starts for me, I bid you good night.

Categories Health

Smokeless Smokes

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Have you ever seen one of these?

Electronic cigarette

I haven’t ever seen one in real life. But I’d love it if I did start seeing them in real life.

That is an electronic cigarette–a battery powered cartridge that atomizes a small amount of nicotine without producing smoke.

It’s a boon to public health, because unlike traditional cigarettes, electronic cigarettes (or e-cigarettes) do not produce smoke–and therefore eliminate the problem of second-hand smoke.

What’s more, e-cigarettes do not produce any of the carcinogens tobacco produces when it is burned–so they’re safer for the “smoker” as well. The only similarity between the output of e-cigarettes and traditional cigarettes is the presence of nicotine. Nicotine is a legal but controlled stimulant that is similar to caffeine. While nicotine has some slight risks, they are few compared to the enormous risks associated with smoking.

This suggests a great health boon to people who have tried to quit smoking multiple times–but without success. E-cigarettes approximate the look and feel of cigarettes, as well as delivering small doses of nicotine through the incredibly sensitive mucous lining of the mouth–but without the risks to self or others.

There are some who decry these little glowing sticks, convinced that nothing that looks like a cigarette could be positive.

Certainly, I’d never encourage someone to induce nicotine addiction in any form. I don’t want anybody to start smoking–or using smokeless nicotine.

But if switching from cigarettes to these smokeless smokes can protect both the smoker and those around him from cancer? I’m all for it.

Categories Reading My Library

A delightful tale, for sure!

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What happens when one silly chicken loses a feather and giggles “The more I pluck myself, the more gorgeous I look”?

Hans Christian Andersen's For sure! For Sure!Not much, except that another chicken hears and tells her best friend.

And Momma Owl hears the chicken friends discussing it and rushes off to tell the nice owl next door.

Who then shouts the news to the pigeon house below.

The story spreads and spreads until the coop where the silly chicken lives hears the dreadful story. Apparently five chickens had all plucked themselves bare trying to prove that they were pining away for the rooster. Then they had pecked each other to death!

Of course the story was true–everyone said so, for sure.

The original silly chicken was an upstanding citizen and roundly renounced the goings on, not realizing that she was the chicken who had started the whole rumor.

Hans Christian Andersen's For sure! For Sure!Hans Christian Andersen’s For sure! For sure! translated by Mus White and illustrated by Stefan Czernecki is a timeless tale about gossip and how rumours spread. I had never heard this particular tale of Andersen’s and was delighted to discover it in my trek through the children’s section of my local library.

The story was told just as stories for children should be told: using straightforward language without overly simplifying sentence structure. The story never once use the word gossip or rumors–but it makes its point clear nonetheless. Many an author could take a note from Andersen’s book and show instead of telling.

Reading My LibraryThe bright, simple illustrations perfectly complemented the text, indicating the delight the many birds were taking in sharing their news with yet another person.

This picture book has definitely got my thumbs up! For sure!

Categories Everyday Life, Reflections

I see a theme

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I didn’t get any sleep last night. Darn this… well, I don’t know exactly what it is that’s had me not sleeping lately.

Anyway, I didn’t get any sleep last night, so I slept from six to noon this morning (with only a half hour or so interruption in the middle). It was actually one of my best “nights” of sleep for the past few weeks.

But not long after I woke up, I read Lisa’s note (tee-hee) on running. She said something that struck me: “Doing nothing when you’re supposed to do something is too risky. ”

I could see a theme emerging.

Last week, I was reading in Mark and commented on Jesus’ sense of immediacy.

Then Anna writes about not hanging out in the contemplation stage.

And then Lisa writes about doing something, about running instead of hiding?

Yep, there’s definitely a theme emerging.

I spent the afternoon grading and reading journal articles and writing.

I didn’t read many blog posts. I didn’t write many blog posts. I didn’t read many books. I didn’t get my house clean.

I did school. ‘Cause right now, that’s what I’m called to run–even if I’d rather hide.

Categories Family & Friends

I don’t read your blog

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I love my siblings dearly. They’re all wonderful, and wonderfully supportive.

But some of them DO NOT and WILL NOT read blogs. Others do and will read blogs–just not MY blog.

Three siblings have blogs of their own and read mine in turn (Anna, Joshua, and Grace). My mom reads my blog faithfully. The other 3 siblings don’t read blogs (except maybe ones very specifically related to politics, the Marine corps, eRepublik, or Husker football). And my dad reads plenty of political blogs but not mine.

I don’t anticipate this changing anytime soon.

Here’s a simple excerpt from an old e-mail to give you an idea for why I might think that way. Daniel writes in an e-mail with the subject “Blog”:

What’s with the multiple color schemes and formatting depending on which page you are on?

I am not reading it … just trying to find out which class you teach … you can check the times … too short to read

daniel

Don’t you love that? He wanted to know what the deal was (I was switching from all html pages to php constructed html pages while changing my blog design)–but wanted to make sure that I knew that he wasn’t reading. And to make double sure, he reminded me that I can check my statistics to see that he didn’t spend enough time on my site to actually read anything.

If you don’t read my blog, by all means, let me know!

Categories Rants, Reading My Library

Universal Rights?

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Reading My LibraryDisclaimer: The book I describe and rant about within this page was read during my endeavor to read every book in Eiseley library and while following along with Carrie’s Reading My Library project. However, the contents of this post are more a political/social rant than a book review. Just letting you know.

I’d never heard of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (adopted by the UN in 1948) until I found a children’s version published in my local library. The book was entitled We are All Born Free: The Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Pictures.

I had relatively low expectations of the book. After all, it’s an ideological children’s book written by a committee (Amnesty International). That doesn’t exactly make for soaring prose or beautiful language. In fact, it usually means it’ll be boring as all get out and clunkier than your first car. And so it was.

But that wasn’t what bothered me. What bothered me was the ideology contained within the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (which I have now taken a look at, thanks to this book.)

We are all born free

I didn’t have a problem with statements 1 and 2, dumbed down for children as “We are all born free and equal. We all have our own thoughts and ideas. We should be treated in the same way. These rights belong to everybody, whatever our differences.” Okay.

So too, the third statement: “We all have the right to life, and to live in freedom and safety.”

The fourth statement, against slavery? Statement five against torture? Yep.

A right to equal protection under the law? Sure. I’ll allow habeas corpus for all. (Statements 6-11)

After this, the statements get a bit sketchier. A few I don’t mind (although I’m not sure they’re followed anywhere–even in the US). Equal rights for males and females. Right to your own property (and against seizure without good cause.) Right to believe whatever we’d like. Right to make up our own minds. Right to speak our minds. Right to peacefully assemble. Right to vote. Okay. I’ll grant these.

But right to a home? Right to enough money to live on? Right to medical care? Right to ART? Right to a job? Right to a vacation? Right to a good life? Right to a free education? Right to learn a career?

Are you serious? In my mind, these things aren’t RIGHTS–these things are things you earn. You work to own a home. You work to earn money. You work to get medical care. You enjoy art because you choose to and you pay for it. You take a vacation when and if your employer allows it–or you quit your job and live with the consequences. You pay for your own education. You choose to do whatever it takes to learn a career. These things aren’t rights. They’re privileges that are earned. Who comes up with this stuff?

We often excuse such blather as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights because we’d love it if this Utopian society it describes existed. We’d love it if everyone had a free education, if everyone enjoyed the good life (Come to Nebraska–we are “The Good Life”), if everyone had access to art, if everyone had a roof over their heads and enough money to live on. We’d love it. We want that to happen. I want that to happen.

But just because something is desirable does not make it a right.

The noun right means something due to a person or community by law, tradition, or nature. If we are to modify the noun right with the adjective universal (which means of, relating to, or affecting the entire world or all within the world), then we must strike out the words “law” and “tradition”, since there is no universal law or tradition. We must define a universal right as something due to a person or community by nature (although I would argue that the modern “nature” is less appropriate than America’s founding father’s explanation of the source of inalienable rights: our Creator.)

In other words, universal rights are things that are due to people for the sole reason of their being people, regardless of who they are or what they do. Notice that term “due”? Universal rights are things that are owed to every person, regardless of their condition. They are the things that we all have a moral obligation to give to one another.

Most of these things listed as “rights” by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights are nice things. Wouldn’t we all love to have a free education? Wouldn’t we all love to have a roof over our heads? Wouldn’t we all love to have a job? Wouldn’t we all love to have enough money to live on? Wouldn’t we all love a vacation? Sure. (At least, I would love to.)

But the question is, do I have a moral obligation to give everyone else in the world a free education? Do I have a moral obligation to give them a roof over their heads? Do I have a moral obligation to give them a job? Do I have a moral obligation to give them enough money to live on? Do I have a moral obligation to give them a vacation? If those things truly are universal rights, than I am morally obligated to do all those things for every other person.

But I’m not. I don’t have to give everyone else an education, a roof over their heads, a job, enough money to live on, or a vacation. Those aren’t universal rights–things owed to everyone for mere virtue of their existence.

Universal rights means that I have an obligation to not kill anyone else (they have a universal right to life). I have an obligation to treat others justly (they have a universal right to equal protection under the law and habeas corpus). I have an obligation to not enslave or torture others. I have an obligation to not steal others’ property. These are universal rights–things due to all people by nature.

The rest? Many are nice to have but not necessarily defensible from a natural or moral point of view. It’s nice to belong to a country–but do I have a moral obligation to give another belonging in a country? It’s nice to have a “good life”–but do I have a moral obligation to give you a “good life”? No, not really. (I might, however, have a moral obligation to not give you a bad life–or to not interfere with your pursuit of a good life.)

Others are not only indefensible from a natural or moral point of view, but are actually contrary to other, clearly defensible universal rights. If everyone has a right to a free education, who pays for it? If everyone has a right to a home, who provides it? If everyone has a right to enough money to live on, who gives them this money? If everyone has a right to medical care, who provides this care? These things are not free. They all have a cost, either in time or in money or both. If these are universal rights, that indicates that they are due to all people REGARDLESS of what they do or do not do. Which means that the only way to ensure that everyone gets what is “owed” to them under this definition of universal rights is to compel another person to give it to them either by laboring under compulsion (slavery) or by giving up their possessions under compulsion (a form of stealing). Yet, slavery and stealing are clearly recognized as violations of true universal human rights.

In the midst of feel-goods about free medical care and education and homes and jobs and money, we forget that for every privilege we wrongly define as a right, we take away another true right.

For the sake of preserving human rights, let’s let our list of rights be short–but strictly observed.