Monday, June 30, 2008
Paula
What is it about Paula Deen? I love that lady. I am sitting down for a moment in between ironing shirts...with Jack kicking and how tight my tummy is, I can only do a couple before I need to sit for a minute. Paula is inspiring me as I iron. I don't know if it's her reckless use of butter and mayonnaise or the way her grown sons come through and help her and relish her finished products, but I love that show. I tivo it and sometimes watch a few moments while Lily and I play after breakfast, but today I'm enjoying Paula's version of macaroni salad while ironing shirts. Six down, seven or eight to go. I decided I just want to iron all of it so I don't have to do them one by one. It's easier. Oh, and I need to go throw the next load of laundry in. Bless Lily for sleeping a bit this morning so I can get some chores done. :)
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Tuesday afternoon
I have been fairly productive today, and with Lily down for an afternoon nap am enjoying some time to just sit. My Walmart fan is buzzing away like the propeller on an airplane and it's keeping me cool. It's actually cooler today, and the forecast calls for thunderstorms every day this week. They bring welcome relief from the heat, which was about 100 yesterday.
Joel moved the crazy rope ladder from its regular position (blocking the basement stairs) up into the ceiling, where it will no longer attack me every time I go down to do the laundry. It's amazing what a difference a little thing like that can make. It feels like a luxury at this point!
I moved some winter clothes into two storage boxes and ran out of room. I need to come up with a different solution. More space-saver bags might work, though I think getting rid of a ton of stuff is probably smarter. I just don't want to have to re-buy anything when the seasons change. But, there's a bunch of stuff I never wore this past winter. Hmm. Every project takes four other layers of organization and work. But, I am making progress, slowly but surely.
Lily and I stopped by the church today and played with Jackie for quite a while. Lily loves tearing down the halls, running up and down, and playing with the toys in Jackie's office. Joel was able to come out for a few minutes, too, and Lily loved running to Daddy. She was acting a little shy at first, but soon was off on her own adventures. By the time we got home it was almost three, and she was ready for a nap.
Which is why I have some time at this moment. Mmmmm.
Joel moved the crazy rope ladder from its regular position (blocking the basement stairs) up into the ceiling, where it will no longer attack me every time I go down to do the laundry. It's amazing what a difference a little thing like that can make. It feels like a luxury at this point!
I moved some winter clothes into two storage boxes and ran out of room. I need to come up with a different solution. More space-saver bags might work, though I think getting rid of a ton of stuff is probably smarter. I just don't want to have to re-buy anything when the seasons change. But, there's a bunch of stuff I never wore this past winter. Hmm. Every project takes four other layers of organization and work. But, I am making progress, slowly but surely.
Lily and I stopped by the church today and played with Jackie for quite a while. Lily loves tearing down the halls, running up and down, and playing with the toys in Jackie's office. Joel was able to come out for a few minutes, too, and Lily loved running to Daddy. She was acting a little shy at first, but soon was off on her own adventures. By the time we got home it was almost three, and she was ready for a nap.
Which is why I have some time at this moment. Mmmmm.
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
Amusing Ourselves to Death
I feel a particular irony in my natural inclination to blog about the book I just finished reading, Neil Postman's Amusing Ourselves to Death. Postman wrote the book twenty years ago in an age where email and the Internet were in their infancy from a modern perspective. I have been fairly technologically aware since age 10 or so; early computers were a hobby I shared with my dad, and I still remember writing programs in BASIC that changed the color of my TV monitor different colors. That was the mid-eighties. Postman wrote when my email address was a string of numbers, and about a decade before Windows became accessible to most of us on our PCs. For me, technology was a window to the world. I had a pen-pal in Peru whom I had met over the Internet.
To Postman, technology was not simply a means by which I interacted with the world, but shaped how I understood the world. Technology is bound up with ideology; ideas underlie every aspect of technological development. Ultimately, Postman argues that "Our media are our metaphors. Our metaphors create the content of our culture." (15) In other words, our understanding of the world is shaped--or perhaps even controlled or organized, to use Postman's words--by media. He is not talking about "the media" in terms of the paparazzi, but primarily about television. His lament is that the last half-century has seen a fundamental shift in our culture from the Age of Typography (characterized by the print media) to the Age of Television. One wonders what he would make of the ubiquity of computers and the Internet...though one also sees the way that these media are shaped in many ways by a television culture.
Postman's ultimate concern is that we do not know when we are being entertained. He is not worried about Cheers, he notes; 60 Minutes or the evening news are far more dangerous. The reason? People think these are educational. Go ahead, be entertained by television--that is relatively harmless, he seems to say. But beware Sesame Street and any other programming that presents itself as educational. The reason? It merely prepares children and adults to swallow the content of such shows without thinking critically about the biases and effects that the media itself has. It assumes that such a format is neutral. He suggests that it is imperative that school children be taught "to inquire into the ways in which media of all kinds--including television--shape people's attitudes and perceptions." (153) In other words, we must be educated in how to think critically about the message that the media is offering, which has nothing to do with the actual content.
I find this useful. How does the "And now...this" world of the nightly news shape my understanding not only of the world, but my ability to act in it? I receive far more information than I can possibly act upon. I might hear of the earthquake in China, the latest on the 2008 election (probably focusing on some controversial statement that a supporter of one of the candidates made that has little to do with the issues or candidates themselves), followed by some weather and the latest news from the local basketball team. How does this teach me to consider issues in depth? To think critically about the realities facing our world? To help others? I think at its best the news prompts me to pray, but even my prayer seems shallow...one arrow-prayer offered up on behalf of someone struck by tragedy, without further thought. The bottom line is that the nightly news may inform me of things that are happening, but in the process it cannot help but trivialize it all.
Postman argues for a distancing from our forms of information. (163) I wonder to what extent that has happened. There are now, it seems to me, far more forms of information readily accessible than there were when he wrote this book, but the principle is the same. Do I think critically, or do I allow the content of television shows--especially those claiming to be informative or educational--to wash over me? Joel made a point in his sermon last week that we as Christian people should only surf if it involves the ocean and a surfboard. We shouldn't allow ourselves to mindlessly surf channels or the internet, but to actively engage the world around us, thinking critically. These principles are bound together. Where is the information coming from? What primary sources are available? What is the agenda of the media itself? What impact does the form in which the content is presented shape my understanding of the issues or subject being explored? And, on a more basic level, am I turning to electronic media for comfort? For entertainment? Out of boredom?
I want to raise children who are aware the the forms that various media take are not neutral. I want Lily and Jack to think critically. That must start with me.
To Postman, technology was not simply a means by which I interacted with the world, but shaped how I understood the world. Technology is bound up with ideology; ideas underlie every aspect of technological development. Ultimately, Postman argues that "Our media are our metaphors. Our metaphors create the content of our culture." (15) In other words, our understanding of the world is shaped--or perhaps even controlled or organized, to use Postman's words--by media. He is not talking about "the media" in terms of the paparazzi, but primarily about television. His lament is that the last half-century has seen a fundamental shift in our culture from the Age of Typography (characterized by the print media) to the Age of Television. One wonders what he would make of the ubiquity of computers and the Internet...though one also sees the way that these media are shaped in many ways by a television culture.
Postman's ultimate concern is that we do not know when we are being entertained. He is not worried about Cheers, he notes; 60 Minutes or the evening news are far more dangerous. The reason? People think these are educational. Go ahead, be entertained by television--that is relatively harmless, he seems to say. But beware Sesame Street and any other programming that presents itself as educational. The reason? It merely prepares children and adults to swallow the content of such shows without thinking critically about the biases and effects that the media itself has. It assumes that such a format is neutral. He suggests that it is imperative that school children be taught "to inquire into the ways in which media of all kinds--including television--shape people's attitudes and perceptions." (153) In other words, we must be educated in how to think critically about the message that the media is offering, which has nothing to do with the actual content.
I find this useful. How does the "And now...this" world of the nightly news shape my understanding not only of the world, but my ability to act in it? I receive far more information than I can possibly act upon. I might hear of the earthquake in China, the latest on the 2008 election (probably focusing on some controversial statement that a supporter of one of the candidates made that has little to do with the issues or candidates themselves), followed by some weather and the latest news from the local basketball team. How does this teach me to consider issues in depth? To think critically about the realities facing our world? To help others? I think at its best the news prompts me to pray, but even my prayer seems shallow...one arrow-prayer offered up on behalf of someone struck by tragedy, without further thought. The bottom line is that the nightly news may inform me of things that are happening, but in the process it cannot help but trivialize it all.
Postman argues for a distancing from our forms of information. (163) I wonder to what extent that has happened. There are now, it seems to me, far more forms of information readily accessible than there were when he wrote this book, but the principle is the same. Do I think critically, or do I allow the content of television shows--especially those claiming to be informative or educational--to wash over me? Joel made a point in his sermon last week that we as Christian people should only surf if it involves the ocean and a surfboard. We shouldn't allow ourselves to mindlessly surf channels or the internet, but to actively engage the world around us, thinking critically. These principles are bound together. Where is the information coming from? What primary sources are available? What is the agenda of the media itself? What impact does the form in which the content is presented shape my understanding of the issues or subject being explored? And, on a more basic level, am I turning to electronic media for comfort? For entertainment? Out of boredom?
I want to raise children who are aware the the forms that various media take are not neutral. I want Lily and Jack to think critically. That must start with me.
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
Time flies...
...and we certainly have been having fun. It's hard to believe it's already Tuesday, but I am glad that we still have a few days to go and some fun things planned before we leave. Mostly it has been really good to just relax. I feel like Jack is getting bigger by the day, and it is such a relief to have help with Lily; I'm going to have to get creative when we get home.
Jack seemed to spend most of dinner tonight trying to fit his feet under my ribs. I got to this point with Lily, too; the distinct feeling she was trying to escape out my side. It's hard to believe we have two months to go.
Yesterday was fairly productive. I went through a box of photos that had been in Grandma's various albums or frames and sorted them according to which sister was in them. I came away with a good pile of family photos. Since virtually everything I do these days is digital, it kind of got me thinking that it might be good to start a little photo album. Then I cleared out three boxes of that were in the garage. One had lots of books that are now on their way to Goodwill, but the rest contained readers and notebooks from college and seminary. I think that each time I went through those boxes in the past, I saw myself as a scholar and those as research and wanted to hold on to the work they represented. But this time I tossed almost all of it. What did I save? Well, a couple of notebooks outlining my studies in church history and medieval history. A couple of textbooks that Joel may find useful. And, of course, most of my writing. I found papers and remembered writing them, research that somehow seems worth keeping. I have realized that old notes outlining histories and literature are not useful; I will need to revisit those writings anyway if I ever return to studies or the classroom. But my own writing and reflection is something else; these pieces are part of the development of my own thoughts, and I'm not willing to part with them yet.
Jack seemed to spend most of dinner tonight trying to fit his feet under my ribs. I got to this point with Lily, too; the distinct feeling she was trying to escape out my side. It's hard to believe we have two months to go.
Yesterday was fairly productive. I went through a box of photos that had been in Grandma's various albums or frames and sorted them according to which sister was in them. I came away with a good pile of family photos. Since virtually everything I do these days is digital, it kind of got me thinking that it might be good to start a little photo album. Then I cleared out three boxes of that were in the garage. One had lots of books that are now on their way to Goodwill, but the rest contained readers and notebooks from college and seminary. I think that each time I went through those boxes in the past, I saw myself as a scholar and those as research and wanted to hold on to the work they represented. But this time I tossed almost all of it. What did I save? Well, a couple of notebooks outlining my studies in church history and medieval history. A couple of textbooks that Joel may find useful. And, of course, most of my writing. I found papers and remembered writing them, research that somehow seems worth keeping. I have realized that old notes outlining histories and literature are not useful; I will need to revisit those writings anyway if I ever return to studies or the classroom. But my own writing and reflection is something else; these pieces are part of the development of my own thoughts, and I'm not willing to part with them yet.
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