Prop 8 is a traveling show: Ref-71 in Washington State

A great quote to remember as we approach November in Washington State:

"First they came for the Communists, and I didn’t speak up, because I wasn’t a Communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn’t speak up, because I wasn’t a Jew. Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn’t speak up, because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me, and by that time there was no one left to speak up for me."

-attributed to Pastor Martin Niemöller

The Energy Crisis and Seven Year Olds

While my sister read her new library book, I came across an article in the Independent about the oil crisis. When she asked what I was reading I said "A scary article about oil".

She laughed and asked how oil could be scary. I told her that everything we do depends on oil and that we're running out.

Can't we make more?

Well, that's the problem Lilly, we can't make more, we have to find it.

Why doesn't God just put more in the world?

I don't think God's going to do that.

Why? He doesn't want to help his people?

....

We're bad people.

Yeah, Lil' we are.

-- we then spent 20 minutes talking about how all sorts of everyday things use oil. --

There are some people who are trying very hard to think of ways to make things without oil.

Do sleighs use oil? Like Santa's?

Well, no I don't think so, Reindeers pull that sleigh.

What about the toys?

I think the Elves make the toys and they use their hands so, I think the toys don't use oil.

What about computers?

Computers use a lot of oil.

Well, I got a computer from Santa.

....I think Santa bought that computer, Elves didn't make it.

Eighth Grade Sentence Diagrams where are you?!

new challenge:

teaching sentence structure to a 7 year old.

and an old maxim that came unbidden to my lips from my past: Answer questions in complete sentences.

Conversations with a Seven Year Old

"Lilly, I want you to practice more breathing while you swim. Pull your head up and take a breath in between some strokes."

"No, I don't want to. Maybe at the end of the summer."

"Well I think you're capable now. Let's just try it a little bit at a time."

~~10 minutes pass~~

"Why do people need air?"

"Well there is an element in air called Oxygen that our cells need to do their jobs."

"But why do we need it? Why do people have to go around breathing? Why can't they just not breathe?

"Well, when we get home, let's get out your giant sketchbook and we'll draw a story telling why we need air."

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A common phrase I hear: out of frustration "Why did mom have to bore you?!"

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"Are you glad you don't have a sister who likes Jonas [brothers]?"

"Why would I be glad you don't like Jonas?"

"If I liked Jonas, would you think it was bad?"

"I'd be upset if you spent a lot of time watching it and wanted to be like them."

"Well I don't like Jonas."

"Why?"

"Because their show is just weird. I don't like them."

Reform Liberal Arts Education

oh the last post was a reaction to reading In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto by Michael Pollan author of The Omnivore's Dilemma.

so F-ing stupid, to listen to food scientists, and nutritionists and all the idiot "experts" literally piece by piece try to retell us what for centuries we've already known and known better. if only we gave any credit to things such as story, and myth, and culture, and convention, and freaking intuition.

We are NOT stupid creatures. We already know how to live in this world. Grow up science and stop being so dang angsty.

plus, progress is not only achievable by science. so don't go accusing me of extreme conservatism.

Sometimes I can't believe how mad I am at Science.

as a kid i remember being so excited and curious and fascinated by science. it taught me about the world, and all the amazing things within it. i had this large picture book of earth science teaching me about rocks and how they were formed, and i took chemistry that taught me why certain things reacted the way they did and it was all magical and amazing.

but then i grew up.

i often feel as though people involved with science, turned on by science, passionate about science are stuck in a twilight zone teenage adolescence.

or perhaps i just relate it to my own life and then pass judgment. I grew up with religious education too. And it was boring, and had nothing to offer me on how I should live my life even though that was its express purpose. The metaphysics of religion seemed hopelessly out of touch (although it was Catholicism *wink*). Moralizing about this and that and generally just blabber.

but then i grew up.

I'm not saying I'm reverting to Catholicism and I'm not saying I'd never listen/trust/or become fascinated by science. But I feel as though I learned the limits of both science and religion. And by religion I mean so many many things. Plus, I don't want this to be a science vs. religion discussion because who gives a shit. (about that debate)

"Religion" for me changed when i went to college. i continue to use the word religion because religion for me has become a clear embodiment or institutionalization or way of communicating all that I associate with the word which could be communicated via these words: culture, history, myth, story, tradition, ethics. In a certain sense, "religion" for me changed to include "humanities" in college. The whole chunk of academia seemed appropriately "religious" hence, my leaning toward and eventual unbridled passion for Religious Studies at Pomona College.

And so, as I continued to learn via science in my courses along that route, and now after college continue to encounter in reading books written in, or criticizing against the scientific paradigm that rules the West, I am becoming increasingly annoyed at the adolescence of science.

Reading science stumble forth in its explanation of the world around us, and reading the history of science in its quest, it no longer has anything to offer me in how to live my life. How quaint science is.

How I live my life comes from culture, tradition, ethics, story, myth, and religion. These explain the world to me in a sense that is relevant. (we also see more and more 'hard science' disciplines growing offshoots prefaced by the word "applied" my reaction: yeah, no shit) what is relevant to living my life comes not from science but from humanities.

Aggravated by the ills science has caused (correction: people fighting under the banner of science), I get all worked up in a huffy and can't stand to have anyone operate under that idiotic ideology. And then, I hear my opponents decrying the ills of religion! How ghastly the crimes of religion! So then it hits me: science, ideology, group of people fanatically although disinterestedly following a pattern of life that sometimes is beautiful sometimes wreaks destruction, really means. Science is made up. And is just like the humanities and there's no dichotomy and to think that Science has any superiority to comparative literature or anything else is just bogus and I can spend all my time and talent decrying an ideology I think is dangerous and manipulative.

And so continues the process of demantling science's ideological remains from my mind.

A List of Things I like (not all inclusive)

thinking about things I like, sitting in the spring sun.

-fingernails clink on fired ceramic
-bookcases and bookends
-reflections in lukewarm coffee
-a well-tailored pant
-yellow lamp light
-succulents
-water in wine bottles
-bitterness and sweetness (dark chocolate, coffee with berries, campari and cake)
-tile
-a nice heavy combed wool blanket
-a good tan
and an unexpected phone call.









spring is coming.