future(6/0)
What I must say
There’s a fear which keeps surfacing in my psyche. It’s the fear that I will be taken away from my children by a society increasingly free to exercise violence towards nonconformity. This fear arises most often when I read articles about the narrow edge our society balances upon with the upcoming presidential election. On a political level, I do not care whether one votes for a Republican or a Democratic candidate.…
Seeking a job change
The Fear That Won’t Let Me Sleep I’ve been sick all week, but that’s not why I can’t sleep. Fear keeps my mind running long past my body’s need for rest. I fear losing my job. Many technology companies, from Microsoft to Google, have laid off thousands of employees. Speculation is rampant, ranging from poor management to union busting to recession planning. But whether blame is laid on the economy or the CEO, the effect on my own security is the same.…
40 questions for the year
Inspired by Stephan, here’s an in-progress list of questions to answer once per year. I don’t know that I’ll ever hit forty of them, but who knows? What did you do this year that you’d never done before? Did anyone close to you give birth? Die? What was your biggest achievement of the year? What was your biggest failure? What hardships did you face? What help did you receive? What was the best thing you spent money on?…
The verge of new parenthood
I’ve enjoyed reading Ben’s work for more than a year now, and his recent thoughts on the verge of parenthood have particularly resonated with me since it was only five years ago that I searched for answer to similar questions. As a means to reflect on my own experience and to give Ben another perspective, here are my responses to his ten questions. Do go read his own answers here, they’re enlightening.…
Parent with a plan
Amie, my grandmother and I watched the story of Richard Williams a couple evenings ago and I haven’t been able to get my mind off of it. Richard pulled two approaches together I didn’t think could be merged. First, he had a thorough, specific and overarching plan for his daughter’s lives. Second, he sought to build into them the independence and skill to choose their own path. His 85-page plan for his daughters might have provoked resentment had he pressured his daughters to achieve without the family’s investment.…
The now and not yet
Life in the now-and-not-yet-kingdom can be an emotional teeter-totter between the “now” and the “not yet.” When I review world history from the past 2,000 years, there’s little evidence for a triumphalist view of the Kingdom’s spread throughout the earth. Cycles of violence and oppression continue without abatement from the days of Noah to the hour of Ukraine’s invasion. The United State’s self-image of type of Promised Land is unmistakably stained with the blood of Native Americans and Africans alike.…