I Speak of Dreams

Grow a boyfriend

I was feeling sort of lonely and sorry for myself, till I saw these guys at the cool store in Sun Valley:

Mary Wanless

Mary Wanless revolutionized the teaching of riding, especially dressage. She has a number of books and videos. If you wish to really "be at one" with your horse, I highly recommend starting with Ride With Your Mind Essentials. It's now available from Amazon for about $16.00. If you've ever wanted to ride better, start here (even if you aren't a dressage rider).

Lots of Christian Blogs on Typepad

I have been doing way too much blog surfing from the recently updated page.

One thing that has struck me is the tremendous number of blogs that are specifically Christian in nature.

This one is for San Gabriel Valley Church of Christ Singles Group

Jeffrey Collins a Joyful Christian.

The Great Separation seems to be in the impending Episcopal-Anglican split.

The Questioning Christian

This fellow ministers to middle school Christians

There are lots more. I'll add them as I find them. Just for fun.

Of course, there is a list of Christian Blogs, the amusingly named blogs4god site.

And as has become customary, a "carnival"--bloggers submitting their best work. The Christian Carnival can be found there.

Myths of Technology in Education

I started this category as a way of keeping track of what other people had thought and written about educational technology, specifically a one-student, one-laptop program. I'm way behind. The school I am interested in, The Girls' Middle School, has put off implementing the program until the fall of 2005 (at the earliest). None the less, there's interesting stuff out there I need to round up:

Seven Myths of Educational Technology or If You Want to Know How to Use Technology in Teaching, Ask a Teacher!

Bill Scroggins, March 1998

Frankly, I'm getting tired of every non-educational (read business, political) organization telling us how to use technology and citing technology as the savior of education. Yes, technology is a valuable tool, but it must be used appropriately, coupled with other needed tools of education, and provided by a trained, supported, empowered faculty. Here are some of the myths others are propagating and how we should respond.

The seven mythsare in the areas of access, cost, development of technology applications, and the focus on learning.

read the rest here

Searching for An Idea

Contemporary popular culture--"Sex & the City", Janet's mammaries, Britney in all her glory, Abercrombie & Fitch's pornalogs, Jackass--makes me sick. The values that are celebrated in popular culture are selfishness, perfidy (think of Survivor), and gluttony (of all the senses, not just filling the belly).

I have been struggling with my religious identity. The Episcopalian liturgy moves me, but I have finally come to terms with it: I am not a Christian. The Old Testament God is a mean, conniving bully. The man, Jesus Christ, may have existed, but he did not die for my sins.

I wish there was a league of decency for agno-episco-buddhists like me.

There is a Legion of Decency, which I specifically would fight, because of the untrue and nasty nature of their beliefs:

Christianity is a very special religion. It is the only true religion and it is the only religion communicated directly from God to man. It is therefore infallible and without error in any respect what-so-ever.
All man-made religions, every religion other than Bible based Christianity (Islam, Buddhism, Sikhism, Roman Catholicism, and the rest of the thousands - if not millions of cults) are simply the product of men's imagination, or worse, the satanically inspired imagination of men who have given way to temptation and the lust to dominate the spirituality of their fellow men and who have been helped by Satan to do so, though not with any knowledge of the true nature of the ultimate price they will pay.

And then there's the The American Decency Association, which I can't fall in with either--too Christian.

I can't be a Bright because I have personally experienced the numinous.

Popular culture is vulgar: the challenge is Civic Renewal.

Ken Sanes, in 1996, argued that popular culture is more moral than it gets credit for.

But when you examine what many of these critics say, it becomes obvious that their view is so restrictive, it misses most of the true moral function of entertainment. Contrary to what they would have us believe, the entertainment industry makes us better people precisely by giving us a taste of the complexities of life.

whoops, my mistake. He's mostly speaking of movies, not the whole tapestry of music, music videos, public spectacles (think of Britney's marriage), advertising (A&F's window displays of naked, lubricious youth) and on and on.

Am I with or agin Michael Medved?

[The "culture wars" in 1991] My correspondent is saying that it's fine for me to talk about a film being in or out of focus, about sloppy or competent editing, about a convincing or unconvincing performance, but Heaven portend tat I should address its moral content! Heaven portend that I should discuss in any way the message that a particular film is sending to the movie-going public!

Any suggestions, other than becoming a hermit?

After I thought about this for a while, there's another question: Is it possible to have rock n roll that has decency and dignity?

Vicarious Travel

I am having a tremendous desire to just roam around, travel, be a constant traveller. These people are both satisfying my desire, vicariously, and tantalizing me:
Idle Words:

SoupBecause soup is served every day, Polish cooking has evolved a great variety recipes, all of them delicious and most practically unknown outside the country: chicken soup (rosół), sorrel soup (zupa szczawiowa), fermented rye soup (żurek), pickle soup (zupa ogórkowa), potato and vegetable soup (kartoflanka), sauerkraut soup (kapuśniak), beet soup (barszcz), mushroom soup (zupa grzybowa), split pea soup (grochwka), barley soup (krupnik), tripe (flaczki), tomato soup (zupa pomidorowa), chilled beet and sorrel soup (chłodnik, also know by me as Pepto-Bismol soup, for its color) and a thousand others, including many regional variants. Whole civil wars would have been fought about the proper way to prepare barszcz, if not for all the invasions.

Chocolate and Vodka has posted lots of photos of an installation at the Tate, in London. My dear stepson Scott (he's the one on the left in this photo) is in London. Wish I was there.

Meet Roland Allen

I ran across Mr. Allen's blog while avoiding doing necessary tasks. I'm going to visit with him regularly because of my interest in independent education.

Hi: I'm Roland Allen. I've spent a lifetime in education, working in college and university admissions at Westmont College, Colby College, MIT and Stanford.

I've crossed sides of the desk and now work in college counseling at Sidwell Friends School in Washington DC.

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I will be returning to California in June. I've recently accepted an appointment at St. Margaret of Scotland Episcopal School in San Juan Capistrano. I'll start at St. Margaret's on July 1.

Main Page of Blog here

Sam's Son, Aidan

Every once in a while, I fall into the trap of thinking that there are no adult males. I get all nasty and hinkty about the Modern American Male--All Maxxim, All Titty, All Me, All the Time!!!. Then here and there, I run into reality.

I bow to you, Sam Crane.

A little background: My son, Aidan, is profoundly disabled. He is 12 now, but cannot see or talk or stand or walk. His mental capacity is that of an infant. He has an intractable seizure disorder, a stomach tube and a tracheostomy in his neck. His birth and subsequent medical travails have, over the years, forced my wife and I to reevaluate much of what we thought was important and normal and happy. We have found new sources of joy and pride. A simple smile or laugh from Aidan may, in itself, be enough to make a day good, regardless of whatever else is happening at work or in the world.

This story calls to you? Read more.

Two Degrees, Via Doc Shazam

Doc Shazam says:

Find a new blog separated by yours by two degrees. What does that mean? Select a blog that is linked or blogrolled from one of your own blogrolled blogs, and post a referral to it in your main blog post for tomorrow along with a one-liner note on it's significance to you. BE sure to include the first degree blog as well..

Okay, I'm up for the challenge. I'm going to pick on Baldilocks as my first degree. Lots of times (like over abortion and gay marriage) I don't agree with her, but her reasoning is sound and she is thoughtful. And now I am trying out the random finger of fate:

Vision Circle

This afternoon, I and a couple of my workmates had a lunch about serious subjects, war and peace, religion and politics, all the things you are not supposed to talk about. While it has become a cliche to talk about how 'diverse' America is, it's always a pleasant surprise to poke one's head out of the shell every once in a while to find out where people are coming from. For me, that's the point, the origins and the evolutions, not so much the destination.

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Significance? It's a group blog, and they are talking about issues I need to hear.

Like this:

Attendant to that, I want to facilitate African American bipartisanship. That means Republican husbands and Democrat wives, playing both parties to feed the family which survives good times and bad. We're still breaking up monolithic visions. This is more about politics for social power as contrasted with liberation politics and the politics of civil rights and human rights. That means creating and sustaining places on the web where folks can talk about that kind of thing. That's what Cobb is from the personal perspective and that's what VisionCircle is from a more collaborative and serious perspective.

In Defense of Marriage

And now, for the first time, the real gay agenda has been revealed!  (Funny, sarcastic, and seems true). (Mike's blog, International Rock City, showed me the way to Fiore's cartoon.)

Here is what I have written previously about gay marriage: here, here, and here.  Getupgrrl, who has a husband and is yearning for a family, writes scathingly about the "threat" to marriage.

Deroy Murdock addresses the hypocracy of some "defense of marriage" folks:

Marriage needs protecting, all right — from heterosexuals who don't take it seriously. Why don't gay marriage's critics spend some energy denouncing straights whose behavior undermines traditional marriage?