Kundai's Ketchup

Rhetoric: my reviewed definition

2008-03-05T21:59:00.002-06:00

If you've endured my ramblings about rhetoric and orality thus far, this might well be overdue. However, as I was thinking about the post right before this one, I realized that I never shared my definition of rhetoric with you. You already know about primary oral cultures, those in which no writing exists.

I have previously subscribed to definitions that privilege "effective symbol use." In light of what I said in my last post, I think I will now include notions of publics and public when I think of defining rhetoric. As an example, I consider rhetoric to be the effective symbol use in public. The focus of my current research can be considered as being centered on the effective public use of symbols in public as represented in Zimbabwean folklore.

I probably needed that clarification more than you.

Publics, public spaces, and rhetoric

2008-03-05T19:32:00.005-06:00

One of the tougher distinctions to make in the communication discipline is the line between persuasion and rhetoric. Both rhetoric and persuasion involve attempts to influence attitude change. Both involve a degree of premeditated intent. That is to say both involve intentionality. Intentionality is important because it is what distinguishes persuasion and rhetoric from the broader conception of those human experiences and endeavors commonly known as "communication."

Fair enough.

But what distinguishes rhetoric from generic persuasion? I am not thinking here about a distinctive attribute in the polemic sense. My interest here is to establish an area of conceptual cleavage so that it is possible to focus specifically on rhetoric.

In my thinking about such a line, I have now been convinced by other rhetorical scholars that there are two aspects that are necessary for a communicative transaction to be signified as "rhetorical." Let me reiterate; I am not trying to delineate a concept of rhetoric that is separate from persuasion (that would be impossible to do).

The public is the first aspect I think is indispensable to a rhetorical act. A speaker can write a speech, or even perform one, without a public, it remains speech not a rhetorical act. This is not say that all rhetoric is spoken or verbal. So how is a public defined in this conception? Is it immediate as in the case of an audience to say a speech? Or is the concept of public more dynamically conceived?

I do not think a rhetorical public can be a narrowly conceived public. The rhetorical world, heck the real world, is much to complex too allow for a static concept of a public. What I am saying here is that one cannot say that a public is simply a group of people attendant to a rhetorical act.

The immediacy of a public can be problematic; consider for example John Jay Chapman's famous Coatesville Address delivered on 18 August 1912. Edwin Black in Rhetorical Criticism: a study in method astutely observes that only two or three people attended the actual performance of the speech. The speech went on to receive much critical acclaim long after the actual event. In a sense, this speech went public or more correctly, found its public indirectly, as a opposed to directly.

This example demonstrates the fluidity of the notion of the rhetorical public. The Lincoln-Douglas debates for their part were witnessed by an immediate public. So one can reasonably assert that the public that constitutes a rhetorical public is established in relation to a particular work of rhetoric. In other words the public is not an attribute of rhetoric; it is part of what defines rhetoric. Rhetoric does not assume the pre-existence of a public; rhetoric can only exists in the public sphere. This is unlike persuasion which can and does occur privately.

Perhaps the second aspect, public spaces, will make the first one more sensible. Public spaces, to simplify, are those spaces that are considered to be in the public domain. That is to say they are places or locations accessible to the public. If a public is a defining characteristic of rhetoric, public spaces become the irreducible venues for the rhetorical event. It is important to note once again what I am thinking of here is not a narrow concept of public spaces in relation to rhetoric. The Coatesville Address which went public mainly via transcript is another good example of the pliability of public spaces across different spectrums, not just the physical/geographical sphere. In the internet age, this post you are reading could be considered rhetoric on the basis of cyberspace as a public domain even though cyberspace is a far cry from physical space.

To summarize then, the relationship between publics, public spaces, and rhetoric, one can say that rhetoric is accessible to the public (publice event) because it is constituted in public spaces.

Christianity and consumerism: the dubious nexus

2008-03-04T19:19:00.004-06:00

Apart from the function of rhetoric in oral cultures (because I come from a highly oral culture), I'm also fascinated by the often ignored relationship between our faith and capitalism. I tend to think that there's more causality in the relationship than we acknowledge. There are things in the modern expression of Christianity that are essential to not only to the succes of capitalism, but to it's establishment basic survival. Likewise, modern Christianity is largely influenced by what's going on on the market place. One need only look to the modern church's dependence on money, a key building block for a capitalism.

I don't think it coincidental that the exponential spread of Christianity has been closely matched by a similarly exponential growth of market capitalism. When the British colonized Zimbabwe, they rationalized western imperialism by claiming that colonialism brought the "Three C's" to the "dark continent": Christianity, Civilization, and Commerce. Maybe I am just a bitter post-colonial thinker.

Or maybe not.

It is striking to note that the mammon is the most frequent subject that Jesus talked about. He talked about it more than anything else with the exception of the kingdom itself! That those two rank one and two on Jesus' most talked about subjects doesn't suggest that they are or ought to be complimentary. On the contrary, Jesus talks about them because their antithetical to each other; they ought not to co-exist. Since I am not a theologian or a biblical hermeneutics expert, I will leave this subject to those worthy experts whose terrain this is.

I bring all this up because it there exits a dubious connection between our faith and rampant capitalism not only in our present epoch, but throughout time. In fact, there's a fair amount of evidence suggesting that the Christian work ethic and the Christian notion of complete emotional engagement were critical in establishment of conditions conducive to the emergence of the hyper-capitalism under which we live. Rodney Clapp, in this 1996 essay which appeared in Christianity Today eloquently frames the issues. Here's an excerpt:

Several essential features of today's capitalism were either unimaginable or positively condemned throughout most of Christian history. We no longer question the legitimacy of making money with money. But throughout church history, up through the Reformation, the charging of interest was proscribed. In earlier eras, the church would have regarded stock market speculation as nothing more than profligate gambling. We suffer no crisis of conscience, nor even a second thought, about consuming goods or experiences solely for relaxation and amusement. Yet Puritans and our Christian forebears of other strains understood consumption principally for pleasure as sinful indulgence....

...Much later, in the Boston of 1635, a Puritan merchant was charged by the elders of his church with defaming God's name. He was hauled before the General Court of the Commonwealth and convicted of greed because he had sold his wares at 6 percent profit, 2 percent above the maximum allowed by law.
One more example should suffice to drive home the point that capitalism and consumerism have not always been with us. Max Weber argued that while modern capitalist employers depend on the principle of increased "piece-rates," or more pay for more production, such a thing was not at all second nature to a traditional or precapitalistic way of life. Again and again, he says, employers in the early capitalist period found that raising piece-rates did not automatically raise production. For example, Weber observed that if a hired hand were offered an increase in wage per acre of hay mowed, he would not increase his production but would rather work until he made the same amount to which he was accustomed, actually reducing his production. "The opportunity of earning more was less attractive," said Weber, "than that of working less."...
...All this meant that, in the Christian-influenced West in which capitalism originated, for capitalism to succeed it required a theological foundation and legitimation. Capitalism had to be learned. Many important factors in addition to theology were at work, of course: technological innovations, the growth of cities, and other developments were necessary for capitalism to be born and to thrive. But pervasively Christian polities and people did not-in fact, could not-suddenly one day simply assume the rightness and goodness of profit-making, of taking interest on loans, of consumption for pleasure, of the accumulation of resources exceeding immediate needs.

The great article is here.

More on orality

2008-03-03T22:11:00.002-06:00

I have been very intrigued by a discovery I have made regarding the shaping of discourse under either orality and literacy. In the section I'm reading in Eric A. Havelock's Preface to Plato, Havelock emphasizes the point that in literate societies, the written from of language embodies the highest form of linguistic expression. In other words, the prosiac nature of written discourse in literate societies becomes the prototype for how literate people tend think and express themselves. We don't go around reciting sonnets or evoking epic imagery.

In primary oral cultures, the poetic and epic--the easily rememberable--are the default formats. So the poetic form in the discourse of oral peoples is not (like we like to think) an out of the ordinary phenomenon. It is the archetype for self expression; it is ordinary, and not extraordinary.

This is an important disctinction to be aware of especially for those of us who are interested in understanding the function fo rhetoric under orality a condition different from that which we live in.

Practice as epistemology

2008-03-02T20:41:00.003-06:00

Since my last post, I have been thinking about the practical implications of epistemology in primary oral cultures or what Walter Ong dubs "oral noetics. Think of a world bereft of text; no computers, no books, no pens, and no memory. Everything that is known is kept between the ears.

No external memory. That is to say, there is no knowledge without the"knower." There is no separation between knowledge and people like we have it now. All knowledge is personal but not in the same way that we think of "personal." In primary oral cultures, personal does not mean private, it means "involving a person."

For all the times that you "looked up" something today, you would have to have engaged a person. Every single time you have relied on anything incorporating writing, you would have had to talk to another person. In the absence of "text" there'd be no cell phones so talking to someone literally means face to face communication.

That changes things. It makes me reconsider my faith.

I happen to think that the most radical change would occur our experience of God. Imagine (for some of you this might seem sacrilegious but indulge me) Christianity without the Bible (for there would be none under orality!). This is not too much of a stretch; there are many Christian who have no literal knowledge of God around the world today.

In this conception, John 1:1 (Amplified version) becomes meaningful in way that it cannot be under scriptographic/typographic Christianity:

IN THE beginning [before all time] was the Word (^[a]Christ), and the Word was with God, and the Word was God ^[b]Himself.^(A)

Again: in orality there is no knowledge apart of the embodiment of that knowledge. There can not be a knowledge of God separate from God, "in the beginning was the Word..."

Here's another verse I think assumes an enlarged depth under orality. 1 John 4:8 (Amplified again):

He who does not love has not become acquainted with God [does not and never did know Him], for God is love.

There can be no knowledge of love apart from love. To know God is to love God; to love God is love humanity. People become as Buber encourages "Thous" and not it's. There are no love letters to be written, no conferences or big speeches on love. Love becomes not a thing but an act; a perennial abiding act.

In orality, you speak and act what you know. The greatest homage one can pay to any wisdom is to literally "re-call" that wisdom. Without separate repositories for all that we know, what know assumes a real world immediacy unknown to our times. Dan Taylor in his statement on character in Tell me a story hints at this idea when he writes, "Character is values lived" (p.53). Word is "act" as it is in the Hebrew dabar.

I don't often think of the activities of my life as acts of knowledge per se. Perhaps there's a sense in which I can learn what I know from observing the things I do and things I re-call (i.e. say).

Knowledge is not dead, it is real, lived, and experienced...Hence in orality practice is epistemology.

Word: a media ecology critique of the "technologizing of the word"

2008-03-02T13:00:00.007-06:00

Over the last few weeks I have spent a lot of my time reading about the concept of the word. By word I don't mean isolated forms or specific languages/diction; I am thinking much more generically about the importance and function of language as relates to humanity's existential quest. Let me clarify what I am thinking about here more clearly. When I say "language" or "word" most people (self included) immediately jump a conception that is based on something (linguistic, text, literary, whatever) that is other than people. In our modern sensibilities, we tend of think of language, of the word as an abstract construct; something that exists independent of and (most importantly) in isolation from people's lived experience. This peculiar condition is the result of modern humanity's impact and use of words, it hasn't always been this way.

Legalistic tendencies in contemporary societies are extreme manifestations of how cold, calculated, and closed our autocratic ideas about language and words have become. As an example consider how Christendom treats the Bible as literally the Word(s) of God. Hence, the Bible in many Christian circles is parochially defined as the complete manual and or standard by which Christian ought to live their lives. The impetus to "live by the book" has become the ultimate standard for many a Christian.

I'm starting to disagree with this set up more and more.

The Bible is not God; it cannot and does not contain the entire spectrum of the experience of Christianity. As a matter of fact, those leather bound books filled with somewhat cryptic notations put there by a printing press, are just that dead symbols. They are merely indicative relics of the existence of an encoder/source (of the symbols) and a decoder/receiver. I realize that by evoking the sender/receiver model I have conjured up notions of the Sender/Message/Receiver model of communication. This is not at all what I intend to show. My present focus is the simple, but oft overlooked fact that, the dynamism (Greek: dunamis) of the "The Word," and indeed every word/language depends something/someone outside of it for its creation, encryption, and decryption. In other words, the intrinsic value of words is extrinsically sourced. Words are symbols.

Humor me with a brief exploration of the etymology of the term "word." According to Fr. Walter On in Orality and Literacy (p.32) the Hebrew term dabar means both "event" and "word." Walter Fisher in Human Communication as Narration (p.5) provides the Greek equivalent, logos, which meant "story, reason, rationale, conception, discourse, thought." Both these classical forms of our contemporary term ("word") connote a sense of the term much wider than our current use.

What happened? When exactly did the dunamis of the word separate itself from the action, from the "story, reason, rationale, conception, discourse, thought" of humanity makings words objects unto themselves, in a word, creating the logocentric reality?

Recede with me to quaint antiquity all the way back to the middle of the 4th century BC. There we a find a world unencumbered by a task you and I find mundane, hardly noteworthy, indeed a task so trivial that the contemporary world has automated it and made it as painless as possible; this task is simply writing. Yet it is not a minor or disposable task; writing is one thing our society cannot do without.

It is the task that called out Gutenburg's printing press from the higher recesses of the human mind; this printing press quickly gave rise to capitalism, reformed Catholicism, and Protestantism all in which in some form are at the core of human existence in many parts of the world today; the printing press also heralded the arrival of what Neil Postman in Amusing ourselves to death fashions the "typographic" era in which books became ubiquitous and as a result indexing came to being. Indexing is important to this discussion as it the predecessor of the dictionary which as we know embodies the final step in the separation of dunamis of words from being anthropocentric to being logocentric. In short, writing gave us words, at least in the sense that we understand them today.

While writing brought many benefits to humankind, it also wrought unnumerable, irreparable damage to the intrinsic worth of our species. Peter Preuss notes in the introduction to Nietzsche's On the advantage and disadvantage of history for life that:

Man, unlike the animal, is self-conscious. He is aware that he is alive and that he must die. And because he is self-conscious he is not only aware of living, but of living well or badly. Life is not wholly something that happens to man; it is also something that he engages in according to values he follows. Human existence is a task.

It is my contention that words (in the dabar, and logos sense) are tools for the task of humanity's existential quest. In letting their original dunamis evolve from something outside of ourselves (i.e. from words themselves as in logocentrism), we surrendered an important part of what distinguishes us from a herd of cattle or a swine of pigs. In a sense, writing debased us.

The efficacy of these words that you are reading right now is in you and not in the words on the screen. Without you they are mere vacuous symbols.

Difference

2008-02-27T19:46:00.001-06:00

I was involved in two conversations that centered on the subject of differences between people. Which got me to thinking.

In the earlier conversation we discussed the question of difference as it applied to the church context. It is no surprise that Sunday morning is probably on the most segregated time in America as churches gather (and this is ironic) to preview what will be like in then end. Often times congregants think and speak nostalgically about the time when people from every tribe and tongue will finally get along.

Question: if the ultimate goal will be lived mutually with people from diverse backgrounds, why aren't we interested in engaging that aspect of the future now? I know you've heard the other critiques about the foolishness of racial discrimination in the church so I bore you with that.

The other party in this conversation hinted that there is a sense in which an appreciation for that which is different permits minimal contact. We were talking here about phenomenon that is happening at churches across the Twin Cities metro where caucasion congregation meet in the morning and a non-white group uses the facilities for services later on in the day.

The other conversation I was part focused on the processes and experiences of being an outsider in the confines of a social majority. Those of us who happen to be outsiders in this particular context were asked about what insiders should know to ease the process.

This brought me back to thoughts I've had in the past about the relationships in a communal community. Here's an excerpt:

The community paradigm is a much better model of operation. From the very roots of the word—common unity—there is a deep regard for the value of each being. You can’t have common interests if you don’t individual interests. Notice, it’s about unity itself not unity around something else. Whatever community you can think of exists for the reason of unity. This allows the community approach to be more inclusive than the team approach: anyone, regardless of how or what they can do for cause is open to join the community because it exists for the unity of the interests of all individuals. Implicit in this is the idea that each individual and the premium they place on the goal is important. The community idea, because it draws from those things that you and I have as human beings, lends itself accessible to all people regardless of ability, race/gender or creed.

These thoughts together with Buber's opinion on the actualization of the "Thou" in human interaction have me thinking that the best appreciation of difference in community comes when we can welcome, nurture, and appreciate difference in community. This demands close proximity and sacrifice.

We should value difference from close up. What say you?

On contigency

2008-02-25T20:38:00.002-06:00

I've recently gained a new appreciation for the ability to hold one's tongue in the midst of contentious and controversial discussions. Part of this appreciation is a direct function of the reality that many of my friends are intellectuals who are engaged in the consciousness of being human. This often means that arguments and agreements often abound in our conversations.

Sometimes, one can only listen and contemplate, left behind in the debris of fast moving conversation. I found myself in such a place yesterday.

The topic at hand was the issue of the multiplicity of doctrine and dogma in Christianity. "Why can't we all just understand things the same," was the question that was asked. Why is "truth" so contentious? Being the rhetorical scholar, this got me thinking about the possible value that contingency has in spurring engagement.

The value, in fact the very existence of rhetoric (however you want to define that term), relies on the existence of uncertainty. Politicians and marketers can spin messages at us in attempts to influence to vote for them because they cannot guarantee they have our support. Conversely, people don't by ad time during prime to broadcast their views over the possibility of the sun rising tomorrow. Once an understanding of the earth's orbit around the sun was established, that issue spoke for itself. Gone were the days that people sat around and debated the issue. In other words, rhetoric (regarding that particular matter) became obsolete.

Rhetoric imposes on us in ways that we cannot avoid. It invades our psyche with a pervasiveness that our best rationalizations sometimes cannot outlast. Rhetoric transforms our emotional state. This transformative nature of rhetoric demands we engage it; that we find reasons of our own either to go along with rhetorical appeals or resist them. In short, reasoned thoughts are the antidote to rhetoric. However, when rhetoric evanesces the needed to protect oneself from it dissipates too. You and I don't go around conjuring ways of rebutting arguments that the sun won't rise tomorrow because no such appeals are addressed at us.

It is this engagement, this need to respond to contingency that makes contingency valuable. If there was no variance of vision for what the ecclesiastical community ought be like, why would we care about engaging the question of what the church ought to be like? If, hypothetically speaking, this country knew for sure that Ralph Nader is going to be the next president, what need would there be to listen to any of the other candidates?

It is precisely in the contingency, in the uncertainty that you and I find impetus to engage in the issues of our day.

Discrete rationality

2008-02-21T06:54:00.000-06:00

Over the last view days I've become increasingly aware of notion of discrete logic and how in some ways, many ways, my life is comprised of a confusing mesh of an unending number of mutually exclusive rationalities rather than being a symbiotic amalgam of ideals all flowing from one core. To demonstrate what I'm trying to describe I offer this hypothetical: Lets say I go out to lunch and decide to order takeout. On my way back to the office, let's say I encounter a homeless person who forcefully relieves me of my lunch. How am I to react?

On the one hand, I'm instinctively incensed because of the violation of my person and the fact that my sustenance is jeopardized by the loss of my food. In fact the whole notion of restitution upon which much of our society's legal system rests encourages that I not only be incensed, but also go ahead and a payback for my losses. Yet on the other hand, I'm called to be sacrificial; rejoice in that I've been able to relieve the suffering of another human being and that's an honorable thing to do.

Still the question; what to do in that situation?

In the persistence of that question, we are forced to address a narrow ethical dilemma. This dilemma is "narrow" in that there isn't much else in the way of pre, con, and post-text to the hypothetical situation I just proposed. There is no room to contemplate the situation from a broader perspective. The entirety of my person is parochially reduced to the status of being an ethical being; nothing more. Information about whether and when I would had last had food would shed an interesting light on this situation. Likewise, finding out more about the person and their story would aid one's analysis of the situation.

This is not how we are trained to think. Society indoctrinates children with discrete logics about language, math, science etc. starting at a very young age. Interestingly, it seems to me that little effort is put into acquainting these kids with notions about a holistic outlook in life. The same is true on the job for adults, very few companies take cross training as seriously as they take divvy up the task at hand into spheres of specialty. "Niche marketing" is the term given to the development of discrete sales pitches. The whole field of ethics is contest of discrete ethics that sometimes are at odds with each other

Who's responsibility is it to tout the whole, the non discrete? How do we keep ourselves from falling witlessly into the parochialism that dominates our world today? How far back do we need to step back?

I hope these questions are not only rhetorical, but can also serve as guides for the times when we're pressed into a discrete take on a situation.

Here and There

2006-05-20T09:48:00.000-05:00

The past week has been filled with a lot of exciting events happening, as you would guess, here and there.

Under the here category:

We had a water softener installed. The important detail is that I had to stay up till 2:30 in the morning Thursday night to help the guy finish off the project.
Found and purchased two really nice mountain bikes, a large tent, and camping stove on Craigslist all for under $140!
Lani took her last college final Friday. She has a free week of coasting before commencement, then real life commences for her
This week's highlight, Munya's (I grew up with him) parents arrived safe and sound for his graduation. We had the whole family over for dinner Friday night. Had a solid time, lot's of laughter and reminscing.
In other "here" news, our friends Tim and Anna whom we feel win every contest they enter, won a free hotel night's stay at a very nice hotel in downtown Minneapolis. We're all green. (BACKGROUND: They've basically won something everytime they've called in to the radio. We on the other hand, have never won a mite in any contest all of our lives. Nothing. Zero, nada.)
At different times in my life, I've benefited from my friends working in jobs that are particularly advantageous to my whimsical interests e.g. Justin worked at Dunn Bros. for a couple years. During that time I got a pound of fresh coffee beans every single week for free. Needless to say, that made me a coffee snob, but that's over now. Anyway, this Saturday evening is the occasion of another opportunity for us benefit from having friends in right places. My friend (shall remain nameless to protect the hungry) works in another prestigious Minneapolis hotel where he has ample access to numerous complimentary dinner meals at many of the cities' prime eateries. We're on the receiving end of one of these and aren't complaining.

There:

Eric my man, is proudly in the motherland at the start of his six week tour of duty with Africa Inland Misssion (AIM). So excited for him!

Annivesary Weekend

2006-05-15T06:44:00.000-05:00

This weekend was not only Mother's day, but also the first annivesary of our wedding. Our intention was to be able celebrate the day withou getting in the way of mother's day indulgencies, and it looks like we managed to pull it of.

We didn't do much to celebrate, just went out for dinner at cool restuarant and gorged ourselves. We ate a lot, what else are you supposed to do when they offer appetizer and desert buffets in addition to humongous sized entrees?

But the weekend is over now so we go back to business.

The Ultimate Human Quest

2006-05-12T09:17:00.000-05:00

I got to hang out with one of the coolest people I know last night. Eric is quite possibly one of the funniest people I know, he's an all around phenomenal guy. On Monday he leaves for Canada, Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Sudan and Zanzibar, so this was our final rah-rah before he leaves. It was a good time.

We spent a good time of our time talking about the ultimate human quest and how God fits into that. Lately, I've come to the realization the ultimate quest that you and mutually strive for is a quest for significance. Deep beneath the charade you and I wear everyday in order to survive this calloused world we're in, lies a sharp pang for recognition and acceptance. This struggle is so vivid that many times you and I are running. We waste a lot of time striving for what the world dictates to us are the benchmarks of success because we think that if we attain those things, they'll be our fast track to acceptance by family, friends and the like. In the end this quest becomes a obsession to forces us to turn our backs on the two places that we're supposed to find that acceptance and love we so deeply desire; ourselves and God's story.

I happen not to think that this quest for significance and belonging is a bad thing. I think it's a God planted thirst in us. You and I are designed to be a part of something that is much bigger than the confines of the selfish horizons of our lives; we're made to be a part of God's story. Dan Taylor, one of my biggest inspirations, contemplates shalom as "the result of what happens when you and I find and abide by the roles God's scripted out for us." I think it was Shakespeare who talked about the world as "a stage and all we like players go about the business of sticking to our part." To me this quest for significance is at it's core not about self, but rather about fitting oneselve into the reality of what God is doing in this world. Not a bad thing at all.

Where I know I've gone wrong many times (and I think a lot of people also stray), is when it comes to setting and discovering milestones or benchmarks in this quest. Too many times, I've been so repudiated with grossness of my frailness that I've sought justification for God's love for me through doing stuff like being the everything person in my home church before I came to college. I've been guilty many times of thinking that if I do enough good things to outweigh all the bad things I do, that might tip the balance in my favor and qualify me for God's love.

Even worse, I've also thought (with the help of some of my family and friends) that if I get enough education, a good job, a family, a house, a car, cool clothes, speak the right language etc., people will recognize and appreciate my significance. So I 've wasted a lot of time running towards those fake ideals. Like an aborted pregnancy, each time I thought I had found it, I've been frustrated by the stillbirth of more dissatisfaction. That longing is still there, unfulfilled and even more profound.

Remember I still don't think the quest is in itself a bad thing.

I think our best path to finding that satisfaction and that acceptence we want so badly begins with an acceptance of self. Who we are is critical to fulfilling the purpose of our existance here. It's not a mistake that we're made with skills, passions and idioscyncrasies that distinguish us from the next person. We should relish in our uniqueness. Once we do that, it'll free us and enable us to reconcile who we are with what God is doing in and around us, and consequently, with how we fit into that. Once we accept ourselves we stop "doing" and start "being."

Eric calls that "discovering God as our portion." That doesn't have the same resonance that a health and wealth gospel would attach to that.

It was a great conversation.

Relax (Part 2)

2006-05-10T21:03:00.000-05:00

...I'm still alive, just another looong hiatus. I know, I know. I've been horrible about keeping up this here blog.

I honestly don't feel guilty. Not because I don't want to let y'all in on the inner workings of my mind and life, but because I feel I've been doing better at concentrating on bigger and better things than my puny life. The other blog has sort of evolved into a whole other project that is doing a lot of cool stuff and has really helped me meet a ton of folks with great minds for justice and activism that way. Email me if wanna hear more about what's going on with that.

Explaining all that away makes me feel like I should make this really more of summer thang. Come to think of it who has time during the fall and winter to read blogs and catch up on other people's lives? Yet during the summer on the other hand, there's a lot going on and I'm anticipating having having a little more down time for this kind of thing than during the school year. What do you think?

Other than that, we bought and moved into our first home over a little over a month ago! Exciting! We got a townhouse in Shoreview, it's seriously like three minutes away from work and class which is great. We had to do a lot painting before the move, and we like our colors. I'll have to get pictures up on here for your viewing pleasure sometime soon.

Oh, oh, wait for it...I got to see Tyler Perry live on stage this last weekend. He was up in our neck of the woods touring his latest play, Madea Goes to Jail. To say it was great is an understatement. This guy is really onto to something and does a great job of reconciling faith and reality. Incidentally, he's premiering his sitcom House of Payne in ten select markets this week. Regina, New York's one of 'em, you should check it and let me know what you think.

I'm back, I'll be here all summer long to let you in on the intricacies of my mental musings when time and space allow. From my heart to yours, embrace the story that's unfolding in and around you.

Royal Fiber

2005-09-23T20:47:00.000-05:00

This morning Beth and I were cleaning the women's bathrooms as usual. Once again we had to wait to enter a restroom for what seemed to be about half a day, but was really only about 5 minutes. When this happens we often peak into the restroom to make sure someone didn't escape without us noticing only to find they're still in a stall doing their thing. This provoked a discussion about going number 2. For me, taking a crap is quite a simple and efficient task. Bam! In and out. Beth agreed that it's the same for her unless she's not feeling well. We decided that too many people are not getting the fiber intake they need to allow this process to run more smoothly. What results is a campaign for the Royals at Bethel to increase their daily fiber intake. We are going to make posters and post them in the restrooms that say:

OPERATION ROYAL FIBER
We, the custodians here at Bethel have noticed a good number of you are having trouble doing your buis-nasty. You may not be aware that this is often due to a lack of fiber in your diet. Your body needs 25-35 grams of fiber a day. The following are some examples of foods high in fiber:

Whole-grain foods (such as bran cereals) and breads (those made with whole wheat grains).
Fresh fruits (including the skin and pulp).
Dried or stewed fruits (such as prunes, raisins, or apricots).
Root vegetables (such as carrots, turnips, or potatoes).
Raw or fresh vegetables, such as cabbage. (Lettuce is actually low in fiber.)

Happy eating and smoother crapping.

I think this is really going to positively impact some students. I'm just glad to help out.

Back to speed

2005-09-21T20:58:00.000-05:00

There's a thing in higher education, well, all of education really, called the summer break. If you've been through any part of the education system or work in such an environment, you completely understand what I mean when I say I LOVE SUMMER.

It's the season when all the students are gone from campus, and it's quiet. It's the season when I can come in a little later (err, I should really say later than I normally come in) and the bosses bat narry and eyelid. It's the season when I can take days off and it can either be a Monday or a Friday and it's NOT a big deal. No events, very few prospective students visiting. Little to no (application) file reading, hardly any frantic phone calls from parents who want the assurence that their child is going to be treated like they are the only freshman coming to BU.

There's the opportunities, many of them, to go up to the north shore and go camping. Or to take in the beauty of God's created world from a local state park or on a bike trail on the road to nowhere. (I got to do a lot more of this last summer seeing as I was away from work for a while).

You get the idea: I love summer's slowness, nature's full blossom, and the tranquility of living/working under very little pressure.

Well the school year/fall is everything that summer's not. And it's back with a vengeance. Here's a good example. In the month of October, I'm only going to be in the office for a grand total of one working week. The rest of the time is split between south-west Minnesota, Colorado, and south-east Minnesota. It's going ot be interesting.

I just shudder when I think about how in two weeks my life is going to look very different from what it looked like two weeks ago and I thought I should share that with you.

p.s. Hang in there Beth, you'll be alright.

I gave in

2005-09-12T18:41:00.000-05:00

Alright, I wanted my first official blog post to be really official with a grand presentation on how I feel about a topic I'm really passionate about. But I didn't exactly get my thoughts out into writing the way I wanted. Enough excuses.

I recently started my masters in counseling psych program at Bethel. It's pretty cool so far. It keeps me busy, but I suppose it wouldn't be much of a program if I didn't have much to do. For those who care, the classes this semester are: Ingegration of Psychology and Chrisianity, Research Methods, Microskills and Ethics, and Psychopathology.

Work has been wild, except for today. Today was our first day in about a month that I wasn't running around crazy. I think things are starting to settle in for the semester.

News Flash, I am on a fantasy football league team! Yah, me of all people. I'm on a team with my friend Angela and her friend Kara. The league is with the admissions office. Our team name is Threee Divas (the three '"e"s are not a typo!). We picked our players according to how cool their names are. I think people are annoyed by our strategy, but I don't care. We're in it for fun. We even made tshirts. Today Angela taught me a bit more about the strategy of playing the different players. It's pretty cool. I'm gunna try and get into it. I think my sports-loving husband would appreciate it.

There you have it. My first post.

Foolish Friday

2005-09-10T22:55:00.000-05:00

Foolish. That's what I am and right now, I'm going to go ahead and admit that I'm proud of my folly.

Let me explain.

Didn't have much going on Friday, the day started off normal. Checked the wires for news from home, went blog trolling for a while then finally settled for watching some tennis. At about 12:30 Justin called, commence foolishness.

He and I have taken to biking over the last few weeks. Typically, I'll either go down to Minneapolis where he lives, or he'll come up to Roseville (where I live) and we'll hop on one of the many bike trails in either neighborhood.

After going out together early last week, Justin and I hadn't ridden together all week. I'd finally figured out how to get onto the Getway trail from my house earlier in the week, so when we got to the point of deciding where we were going to ride I eagerly suggested getting onto the Getway trail.

A few minutes later Justin shows up and off we go. East on County B to Lexington; south on that to Roselawn; east on that into the park; out onto Dale; further south to Larpenteur; east on that to Jackson street; one block south onto Wheelock parkway; and finally east on that across 35E to the Gateway Trail.

The Gateway trail is just that; a gateway or better yet, a get away from the cities. You could take this thing all the way up to Duluth if you felt so inclined, we didn't. What we did though, which isn't much better, is decide foolishly that we were going to ride on the trail "for a while".

It was before two when we started riding, I had nothing going on that afternoon, neither did he. He only had to be back at his house at six to leave for a retreat in Stillwater. Stillwater is 21 (highway) miles from the cities.

The trail is beautiful and not too hard to ride on. So Justin and I kept going, and going, and going. Paying no attention to the reality that we had to turn back around and come home at some point, we soon had gone 18 miles! At that point we saw a sign that said "Stillwater 4 miles." The trail veered off to the left and kept going north at this point--away from Stillwater and all civilization for that matter.

Feeling hungry and dehydrated (we'd plundered my lone 23oz. bottle of Propel Fitness water along the way), we decided to ditch the trail and head for Stillwater. "I know there's a Dunn Bros. there," cooed Justin. He works at Dunn Bros. in south Minneapolis, and that has conveniently become a source of many caffienated products in my life. At that point, we both were envisioning an ice cold peach iced tea (iced tea with peach syrup.....heavenly).

"Let's go for it," I urged.

Never before has my resiliance and endurance been tested like it was over those four miles. Along with the trail we ditched, we also left behind the relative smoothness of the terrain. All the way to Stillwater it was up one hill and then down on the other side only to be confronted by yet another torturous incline. We both were worn out and tired. Flooded with lactic acid, every muscle in our legs burnt with each revolution of our peddles.

And then we unravelled.

We realized that Justin and I deal with excercise pain (you know the burn you feel when you work out) differently. He responds by working harder and faster to get it over with. In my mind this causes more pain, but whatever. My response to "the burn" is to slow down; scale down the intensity and hopefully the pain will scale down too. He ended up almost half mile ahead of me.

Thankfully, we finally made it into town and had to decide on a POA (plan of action). The first order of bussiness was (obviously) to find the Dunn Bros. in town. We searched, and searched, but hunger was just too intense. Finally Justin burst out, "I just want to find a place to eat and drink, I don't care whether it's a Dunn Bros. or not!"

We found a coffee shop, ordered sandwiches and (you guessed it,) peach iced tea. We had to teach the girl how to make it since she hadn't made one before. Let me just say, I've never been so thankful to have food and beverage in life as I did then.

Then it hit both of us both we're foolish. But oh well.

By then it was almost six, Just wasn't going make it back on time. We knew we weren't going to try bike back home. So I sheepisly called my awesome wife (to whom I'd boasted earlier "we're just four miles away from Stillwater.") She agreed to come pick us up.

Remeber when I said Stillwater is just 21 miles away from the cities, that's highway miles. We figure we rode almost 30 miles between getting to the trail, the trail and getting to Stillwater. We were dog tired.

Anyway after the food we walked around waiting for Bren to come. Rejuvinated, we realized that we'd been nothing short of foolish.

Thankfully it's something we can brag about.

*Sponsors note: This Foolish Friday story brought to you by the makers of Propel fitness water. Propel Fitness Water is a trademark of the Gatorade company.

I'm still here

2005-08-30T22:36:00.000-05:00

Relax! It's only been 18 days! Summer's hot. A little room to relax please? Thanks.

Ok, now that I've mollified your intense disdain for my inability to update my blog, allow me to point out there are bigger things in life than my musings and developements in my lifesstory. Check out the other blog.

I've spent a lot of time helping a friend build a log house over the past month or so. I've learnt so much during that progress, it's impossible for me to begin to unpack. I will share more with you later.

Praying for the helpless victims of the hurricane.

Other than that no big thoughts at the moment, just thought a post-Katrina post would be nice!

Drop a me a note in my comments let me know how you are doing.

"Is retributive justice justice at all?"--An evening with Justin

2005-08-12T08:23:00.000-05:00

I'm still here. I have just not posted much on here because of two reasons; a major case of blogger's block and general businesses that has kept me away from my computer over the past 10 days or so.

I finally got together with my man Justin Fogel on Tuesday night. It had almost been a month that ain't right. He brought over some marinated chicken, garden fresh green beans from his mom's garden (in North Dakota). We grilled, had a sumptuous dinner before heading down to the AQ (Artist's Quarter) to check out their new organ player.

The guy who left (whom we loved) is called Billy "The Legend" Holloman, the new guy's called "Downtown" Bill Brown. Both names start with a "billy" and end in "n" which I think is cool. We liked Downtown, but he's just not The Legend. Decent show. By the way this is about jazz (the only music type you'll find discussed on this here blog).

Justin and I now habitually use these escapedes to share and discuss our mental musings. For several reasons, the issue of prisons and retributive justice was at the fore of my mind, so that's what we discussed. Lately I've come to think that prison and sending people there is contemporary society's failed fantasy of how justice should work.

Someone commits a crime so we commit them to prison in order to reform them and to payback society for their wrong against it. As reality would have it, things don't work like that. First off, the prison system is failing dismally at reforming criminals. In fact prison have become accesories to some of the most hienous crimes today.

But second and even more importanly, the idea of retribution is just logically defective. A prison sentence or even capital punishment doesn't payback anything for anyone. It doesn't restore a crime victim's former dignity and it certainly does not give the criminal 'what he deserves.'

What do I mean, let mean illustrate this point using the analogy I gave Justin. Let's you have a ten dollar note and I take that money (committing a crime). The fact that I give it back to you (payback/retribution) doesn't absolve the fact that I violated your ownership of that money. Further, me giving back your money, doing time or whatever doesn't equate to me enduring suffering tantamount to my violation of your dignity and ownership of the money. Hence I say that the idea of retributive justice is inadmissable logically.

Society today is caught up in the mental trap of retributive justice, people are going to prison by the hord to give back the proverbial ten dollar bill back to society. Sadly, it's not solving the crime problem.

See, injustice is a violation of human dignity. It's lot more than just physical loss/damage. Therefore, I think, soceity must graduate our mentality about justice, retributive justice in particular, to engage the deeper problem.

Hopefully by looking deeper into the problem we can solve it effectively because the idea of retribution just doesn't work.

There you have it, my latest thoughts.

Fort Snelling State Park

2005-07-31T11:18:00.000-05:00

We hiked for over five miles yesterday in Fort Snelling State Park, across the road from the Minneapolis-St. Paul International airport. This park is really cool for two reasons; it's really close by, and the confluence of the Minnesota and Missippi rivers is in the park. Here are some of the sights we beheld while walking. We sat down to a picnic dinner overlooking the Mississippi after hiking for about three hours.

Check out the pictures here.

By the way, feel free to download any of the pictures you find here for desktops etc.

Are we all leaders?

2005-07-27T07:12:00.000-05:00

Yesterday I spent the day with my work colleagues at a retreat. We'd all taken the Strengthsfinder strengths inventory before hand. So we spent the day getting to know our own strengths and those of the rest of the group. Good stuff.

Having done the Strengthsfinder before, I think it's the best inventory out there by a longshot. But I couldn't help thinking as I sat there listening to myself and others talk; are we all leaders. I mean should we all we all be striving to be leaders. Better put, I mean it this way; should we be idealizing leadership as the optimum level performance in one's life.

I don't think performing at my full potential, necessarily involves me leading. I think God's purpose for my life is for me to do what He has purposed for me to do and do it well. I wonder then, where we get this idea that leading is ideal? Why do many people (myself included) get all quizzy once the idea of leadership is mentioned yet we conteptously loath following? Why so many leadership development programs and hardly ditty said about following?

Think about it, leaders don't lead leaders: they've got to have followers. In fact there's more followers in the world today than there are leaders. And, as a matter of fact, we are called to be followers of Christs (that's what He said he'd make us).

So, why so much about leadership and not so much for following in our world today? And the question in the title again: Are we all leaders?

What do you think?

Camping

2005-07-24T21:23:00.000-05:00

Our friends Liz and Eric together with Bren and I went camping over the weekend. We went way up north, just fifty miles south of the Canadian border in Cascade River State Park. It's beautiful up there.

There's nothing quite like dipping ourselves into the frigid Lake Superior. It was chilly, but it felt great.

We all had a good time.

Check out the other pictures from the trip here!

She's back!

2005-07-12T23:56:00.001-05:00

My beautiful sister, Lani is back from Zimbabwe. She arrived yesterday late in the afternoon in one piece and high spirits. I'll be posting some of the pictures she brought on here once I'm done going through them.

Thank you to all of you who prayed and gave towards her trip. She had a real good time out there. She even got to get a sneak preview of what being a real nurse is going to be like when she worked at the hospital she and I grew up at for a week.

Pregnant

2005-07-12T23:56:00.000-05:00

God is real good y'all.

RELAX! It's not us that are pregnant. Gosh!

Actually it's my very good friend Lindsey from Springfield, Ill. She is an awesome woman of God. A real trooper and fighter if there ever was one.

Anywho, why do I mention her bizness over here you ask. Quite frankly, because indirectly, I/we played a part in this. This from the latest post on her blog;

"I found out last week that I am pregnant. Quite pregnant, actually. Since the weekend of, or thereabouts, a certain wedding in Minnesota in May. We are expecting at the end of Jan/beg of Feb of '06. This news was quite unexpected but we are starting to get excited. I am on information overload with reading all the books, articles, etc. that I can get my hands on.

So, two dogs and a baby, all in a month. It's been a busy couple of weeks. :) The Lord is good and he will provide for all this growth and expansion and change. What is he doing in your life?"

Head over to her blog and read about how busy she's been over the past few weeks!

Oh, and one more thing; CONGRATS Linds & Logan!!!!!

TPW: Tyler Perry Weekend

2005-07-11T07:20:00.000-05:00

This weekend was a Tyler Perry weekend at our house. "Tyler Perry" you ask, "who is he?" Tyler Perry is the playwrite, producer, director, songwriter and actor behind some the funniest christian on stage productions out there.

He has written, produced and acted in six blockbuster plays that have toured across the country in the past seven years. Fortunately for us, five of the six plays are now on DVD (and available at Blockbuster). All his shows carry an obtusely christian message and push the messages of forgiveness, perseverance, and hope. I know you're wondering how I could handle sitting through on-stage bible-banging in the name of theatre. My answer; check this man out. His work real and it's about real life struggles. That's the reason why I enjoy his stuff.

You might have heard of the movie Diary of a Mad Black Woman. That was done by Tyler Perry. The movie is a cinematric rendition of the theatrical production, and it's excellent. It's much deeper than you expect going into it. I know I went in expecting the classic rumbunctous-over-the-top-cliche black comedy. I was surprised, nay refreshed to find the message of forgiveness and love so well interwoven into real life. Again, check it out.

After meeting Madea (the funniest, craziest grandma you'll ever meet played by Tyler), we just couldn't get enough. We also saw I can do bad by myself, Madea's class reunion-the class with no class, Madea's family reunion. We're going to watch Meet the Browns tonight.

What is it I like so much about Mr. Perry's work? There are several reasons why I enjoy his work but I'm just going to give you the top two. First, as I've already said, it's the message that he's presenting. This message comes through clearly through a crisply woven presentation that draws on by both music and acting but it is not overboard. I was tempted to think that the message was a message intended and targeted at an African American audience only because that's where Tyler draws his largest fan base (and he's African American himself). It's not. The message he speaks is a universal message that every single one of us needs to hear and be reminded of.

Second (this is something I haven't talked about yet), is the talent he uses. All of the shows we've seen have featured some of the biggest names in music including members of grammy award winning groups like Sounds of Blackness, Silk and Kirk Franklin. So the music has been powerful.

If you held on through that sales pitch. That was our weekend;)

On Freedom

2005-07-06T06:05:00.000-05:00

Bren and are back our first vacation with her family since we got married. It went well.

We left Friday afternoon for Kansas and spent the long weekend there with her parents and older sister. We ate a lot and did a whole lot of nothing. We're back now, just thought you might want to know;)

Oh, by the way, since last weekend was about celebrating this country's freedom, it might be worthwhile for me to mention I got my freedom from the inability to water ski on the 4th! Pretty cool huh?

Humbled

2005-06-28T12:48:00.000-05:00

I'm absolutely humbled by the faith testimony of this man, Roy "Pachedu" Bennett. He was just released from Zimbabwe's maximum security prison today after eight months of an unfair sentence.

I'm not ashamed to say it, I was moved to tears listening to his interview. He is part of my great cloud of witnesses.

Please take a look at this timeline which details the events from Roy's life and then listen to the interview (windows media player).

Here are pictures taken at his release.

Great fun was had by all

2005-06-23T10:56:00.000-05:00

Brad, Bren, Heather, Justin, Obang and I had a blast last night at the Oliver Mtukudzi concert. The place was packed out and it was sweltering hot in there, but we had a good time.

Bren and I watched a great documentary on sex ed in Texas the other night. Check this out too. What do you think?

11:21 Update: Here's Focus on the family's response to the documenetary.

The madness continues

2005-06-21T14:16:00.000-05:00

Remember this? Take a look a this. Which is crazier?

Hat tip: My wonderful wife, the beautiful, the vivacious, MaiChirindo!

The "U" and "I" in Community

2005-06-21T12:28:00.000-05:00

As I promised a couple weeks ago, here the throwback post. I originally published this post on my old blog.

"To which would you rather belong, a team or a community? Which of the two demands more sacrifice, more loyalty? Is team or community better for all those involved?

The subtle endorsement in our society today favors the team approach. Think of all the different uses you hear for the word “team.” “There’s no ‘I’ in team,” the Romania spring missions team, president’s leadership team, the (insert the department you work in here) team, taking one for the team...and so forth. All these casual references intimate that the “team approach” is the ultimat prizm for our daily operation.
I beg to differ.

At the heart of this approach is the disgusting assumption that we’re in competition with each other. Doing better than or beating out other people is the goal of the team approach. So regardless of how we’re really doing in life, we’re constantly looking over our shoulders to see who’s closing in our performance. Proponents of this approach stress emphatically that it engenders unity between people as it affixes our attention on attaining the goal above all else. The incredible fallacy of this proposition is the very reason why I disagree so sharply with the team approach, and subsequently why you’re reading this entry.

Think about it for a moment, how can we promote unity by stressing a blatant disregard of the individual and the uniqueness therein? How can there be a team if there’s no “I” in team? Stripping the ambitions, abilities, and aspirations from individuals for the sake of unity does not promote unity. What it does is to encourage lagaar mindedness and/or groupthink, but never unity.
The proverbial sports team illustrates my point well. Imagine you’re on a team whose sole goal is to win a championship. Subsequently all the time and resources available to everyone on that team is directed at the goal. The only thing that matters to that team is the championship and all the necessary routes of getting to it. Nothing else can be as important, not even the very people who work hard to deliver that championship to the team. So the man-made goal (championship) supercedes men in importance.
That’s very frightening; unfortunately this team ideal is rampant in our capitalist society today. People everywhere, myself included, are constantly latching onto some cause so they can fit into some team. Any deviance from this mind set is quashed by the anti-individualism retort.

But here’s my biggest conniption with this idea of team, it does nothing for humanity. Because, as illustrated above, the team approach elevates the goal of the team to pinnacle importance above the value of the people on the team, team does nothing for the people. At the same time the team exploits those individuals who are part of it with minimal endorsement; it does little or nothing for those outside it. Due to the fact that the idea of victory is pivotal to the team approach, teams are either going against other people or merely excluding them. If you ever tried out for a sports team, you know exactly what I’m talking about. The dejection and rejection is so repugnant, you almost believe that you’re not good enough.

Therein lies the problem with the team approach: because goals and not the uniqueness of each human being on the team are the most important things to a team, peoples importance and value to the team is predicated upon what and how they can further the team’s pursuit of those goals. That is at odds with the biblical idea that you and I have insurmountable value simply by being creations of God the most high. Psalms 139 tells both you and me that we’re fearfully and wonderfully made. There’s a fear and an intrinsic wonder that accompanies your being that should never be taken for granted. The team approach is in direct opposition to this, remember, “there’s no ‘I’ in team.”

The community paradigm is a much better model of operation. From the very roots of the word—common unity—there is a deep regard for the value of each being. You can’t have common interests if you don’t individual interests. Notice, it’s about unity itself not unity around something else. Whatever community you can think of exists for the reason of unity. This allows the community approach to be more inclusive than the team approach: anyone, regardless of how or what they can do for cause is open to join the community because it exists for the unity of the interests of all individuals. Implicit in this is the idea that each individual and the premium they place on the goal is important. The community idea, because it draws from those things that you and I have as human beings, lends itself accessible to all people regardless of ability, race/gender or creed.

I humbly implore you to elevate your thinking above the groupthink of goals to focus on what we all have in common as people and to use those things to promote a coming together of our human family.

For the “U” and “I” in community."

It gets me pissed

2005-06-16T10:15:00.000-05:00

In light of these poems from Beth and from Brad, here's my new offing that's been brewing for a while;

It gets me pissed

It gets me pissed
That Christians act like Pharisees; judgmental and self-righteous
Feigning reality and waxing poetic
Yet always cautious
That the charade will unravel, it’s pathetic
His grace is real you hear?
When your fake reel stops spinning
His angels will still surround you in front and the rear
No need to run from yourself,
He’ll carry all the burdens you can’t bear

It gets me pissed
That black people scream about racism and prejudice
While we look at the world through the same lens
Even worse, we treat ourselves like black ain’t the thing to be
Pointing out darker skin and toma ‘bout nappy hair
While our kin suffer and die in the penitentiary, urban slums and the motherland,
We don’t care
C’mon, get hip with this tip, let me give you a hand;
“The darker the berry, the sweeter the juice” and
“The darker the skin, the deeper the roots”

It gets me pissed
That my father died before I became a father
Just like his father before him
And now, there’s none other
To show me how to be a man and all the things I’m supposed to do
But I just said I do

It gets me pissed
That we can’t get over our leader
Even though he’s taking the country to the feeder
It gets me pissed that
We don’t even know what rights are ours
So with their reign calamity pours;
Two hundred thousand homeless, families helpless, little kids loveless
All this because someone thinks we’re less?
And yet we still don’t stand up
We wince but remain tearless,
And there’s still no hint that none of us fearless

It gets me pissed
That I can’t do a thing but sit here and wish,
That my words will change things with a swish
But I have no magic wand
So like the psalmist I must say,
“My life is in your hand.”

Cynic

2005-06-14T06:58:00.000-05:00

You know me right, I'm very sceptical. Well, think again. I think this is pretty STUPID!

Hat tip: Brad

Homeward bound!

2005-06-11T08:33:00.000-05:00

After the second of two sessions on what we should be teaching students at Christian colleges from Steven Garber (Author of The Fabric of Faithfulness), we're headed home. We anticipated a twelve hour drive with an ETA of around 10-11 tonight.

I mention this last session because it had a lot good question, but got me thinking and left me with a lot to unpack. It was also during the sessions that I learned of Tom Wolfe and his apparently perceptive writings on American cultures. Anyone who know's anything want to fill me in?

Back to Minnesota it is!

It's Friday!

2005-06-09T23:17:00.000-05:00

Day two in Grand Rapids went well. Started the day with a great service and a speaker who reminded me that Christianity is not about us, it is about God. She admonished the modern church movement for self obsessing by letting our differences on how we should worship (style) get in the way of whether we worship at all.

She also used a great illustration to point out the interaction that should be going on amongst Christians. She said it should be like rocks sitting on each other: None of them the same, not fitting perfectly together and sometimes grinding abrasively against each other. She went on to admonish the "lone ranger" Christian mentality saying that if we are rocks building on each other, if one of us decides to do his/her own thing, they compromise the integrity of the whole.

I thought that was really cool and well put. Her point was this, "We must be before we can do." That is, everything we do must flow from the very core of who we are. We shouldn't be engaging the world because we have or because "that's what we're called to," it is who we are. You and I are the very presence of the living God on this earth today. So all we do must flow from that.

Since it got me thinking so much, this talk reminded me about an article I wrote a while ago which I'll put here soon.

Other than that, I got to spend some time with my wonderful team on the beach of Lake Michigan in a town called Holland. Bren you'll be happy to know that this town is the home of the largest tulip festival and largest parade in the country (besides the Rose Bowl Parade). It was beautiful out there.

Have a great day!

She's there!

2005-06-07T23:59:00.000-05:00

I just talked to my sister Lani, she's in the Harare International Airport! She made it there safely. In her own words, the Harare landing was by far the best. Just thought you might want to know that.

In other news I'm in Milwaukee tonight en route to Grand Rapids Michigan. We take the ferry across Lake Michigan at the crack of dawn. I went to Miller Park tonight to watch the Brewers beat the Yankees. Good game, great stadium overall good night.

By the way, it's also my first night away from home and my wife since we got married. I'm sharing the room with two other guys. This feels...familiar, I'm sure I've shared a room with guys before:)

On the road

2005-06-06T23:02:00.000-05:00

I leave for a work conference in Michigan for the rest of the week. I'm not looking forward to being away from home especially with so much going on that I must paying attention to. My friends geladean and Beth have great posts on their blogs. Stop by and check them out. I'll keep you posted throughout the trip whenever I can.

Oh, by the way, my sister Lani is on her way back to Zimbabwe for five weeks. It is really cool that she finally got to go. I can't wait to make that trip myself. Thanks to all of you for praying for this trip and for being so concerned.

"What if I want to?"

2005-06-02T23:22:00.000-05:00

"My" day is almost over. Let me catch you up on what has happened since the last post. I got another card, six phone calls (one from the UK, one from New York City and another from New Jersey, one from the parents-in-law in Kansas, and the sister in law in Omaha, and a local one), a great dinner from my WIFE, and a couple really nice messages on my blog! This is way more than I wanted, I wanted very little, in fact I was hoping for nothing.

See, truth be told, I struggle with kindness towards me and appreciation from other people. I just can't handle it. Why? Because I can't do it back, I feel like I could NEVER be as nice as the next person has been to me. I feel inadequate. So I try my best to avoid being on the receiving end of someone's kindness, yet I know I give and will sometimes FORCE my kindness on others.

Bren has a really great retort for those obstinent moments in my life when I try and block her kindness to me with my classic, "But you don't HAVE to do that for me, I don't need..." In her most authentic and emotionally genuine voice (and sometimes with tears in her eyes,) she says, "Kundai, what if I want to do it for you?"

At that moment, I'm left stone cold. Helpless and hapless, I must surrender and indulge her kind affection. All of you have had these moments with me, some maybe more than others.

I need to work on that for all you my dear friends.

I know you've probably been frustrated beyond comprehension at my desperate attempts to avoid your kindness. I apologize, Tom, Melissa, Justin, Brad, Bren, Ang, and everyone else that's tried to be kind to me and I've tried to dodge it.

I realize now and will try to keep in mind that (in Bren's words), "...you wanted to do it for me."

Birthday so far

2005-06-02T17:10:00.000-05:00

...I've been to two party's at work (one during the Admissions staff meeting and the other in Communications and Marketing); received two cards,an e-card, and one text on my phone; had lunch waiting on my desk when I got back from the staff meeting (from my wonderful wife), and have talked to my wonderful mom already. This is perfect, I'm utterly satisfied with how the day's going so far.

It's my Birthday today!

2005-06-02T10:43:00.000-05:00

Leave me messages in my comments!

Casual day

2005-06-01T09:40:00.000-05:00

It's casual day! This means I get to wear jeans to work. Ya Brad shutup, you don't need special days at your work to wear jeans. Speaking of special days, these are special days at your work. How's all that going so far. Let me know! Brad, you know your inquiry, I'm following up on that an important link in that case will be at my house soon. So expect more info.

Ok back to me and my casual day. The cause for this casual day; a celebration in our office. A celebration for what you say. Freedom in parking. See when you work at a college, parking is a real skullbreaker. You can't go back home to pick up the important item you forgot, you can't leave campus for lunch, you can't come in late ALL because if you do any of those you lose your parking spot. You're then left to circle around in the parking lot with the other vouchers looking for someone else's spot to scavenge. When summer comes along, as it has, the students leave and the parking crunch eases up. Then and only then can you enjoy "Freedom in Parking." So we celebrate.

We only work half the day then stop for lunch and a movie in the latter half of the day! You're off to work, I'm off to party!

Photos

2005-05-30T23:37:00.000-05:00

The hallmark of this era of my life lies in the fact that just over two weeks ago I got married. Bren and I spent most of this past weekend working on putting together a wedding album for my mother. We also put up a digital photo gallery. You can see digital photos from our wedding here.

In other news, we're working frantically hard at seeing my sister off of to Zim. Later!

Finally

2005-05-30T20:33:00.000-05:00

Ok Regina, Linds, Esther and all my cool friends, here you go. I've been forced to set up a PERSONAL blog now. After reading the stuff I post at my other blog, you wanted me to have blog that's friend-friendly. Check back here often for updates on my personal life.