How will you distribute your 2010 donations?

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С Рождеством Христовым
Christmas blessings

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Last night I realized with a pang of guilt that I had forgotten to return the form that Reedwood Friends Church was using to find out the congregation's giving plans for 2010. That pang happened about the same time I read an article, "Help That Makes a Difference: Change our Worldview," by Brian Fikkert. He's the co-author of a book that Nancy Thomas mentioned on her blog a few weeks ago, When Helping Hurts: Alleviating Poverty Without Hurting the Poor...and Ourselves. I'm just now starting to read the book myself.

In typical rabbit-chase pattern, the Fikkert article sent me back to something I posted back in 2006, "On giving and receiving," based on a document of the same name issued by the Quaker Peace Network--East Africa. In return, that reminded me of Justo Gonzalez's important article "Of Fishes and Wishes."

With such a chain of reminders about the importance of financial discipleship, I don't think I can put off thinking about it any longer. But what are others thinking and doing about all this--what about you? How do you decide on amounts--and how do you decide where it goes?

About twenty years ago, Andrea Ayvazian spoke to staff and volunteers of Friends World Committee for Consultation, Section of the Americas, on how to raise funds for FWCC. She spent some time talking on our own philanthropy, and described her personal guidelines at the time: She was earning $25,000 a year, from which she gave $2,500. She felt that it was important to make a few significant gifts rather than many tiny ones, so each year she decided on five destinations for the money, at $500 each.

This makes some sense to me. What about you? And if you adopt such an approach, what do you do with the blizzard of other appeals that will continue to descend?

Now: about how to deploy those resources.

Along with the titles mentioned above, including the book by Corbett and Fikkert which I've just started, I can list these helpful resources for reflection:

First, in the ambitiously titled Complete Book of Everyday Christianity from InterVarsity Press, a couple of relevant chapters are available online: "Financial Support" and "Stewardship." When considering specific organizations to support, some people have found these Web sites useful: Guidestar database of nonprofit organizations, and the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability. And, for me, one of the ideal models for human-scale economic development help is the program I worked for between 1986 and 1993, Right Sharing of World Resources.

The book that has helped me think about financial discipleship more than any other, to date, is Charles M. Elliott's Comfortable Compassion, published in the USA by Paulist Press. Elliott's book is now probably out of date on some details (it was published in 1987, while I was at Right Sharing) and my copy is in storage thousands of miles away, but I remember his frank and useful ideas on the distorting influence of power on relationships between funders and recipients, and on the long-term cost of the split between the church's "mission" work and its "relief and development" work.

Who has helped shape your thinking on these themes? Is there a book or article or idea you can recommend?

Thinking only about money is something of an artificial distinction, since Quaker discipleship ("Gospel order" and our "testimonies") implies that our whole lives should reflect the Godward orientation of our hearts. But that's not an excuse to pull back on giving. The tricky part is that money does not transmit principles as efficiently as it transmits power. The discipline of giving includes thinking about the consequences of the transfer we're about to make. Strategic giving involves both prayer and research; sometimes it means investing in people rather than the (perhaps) more satisfying creation of new structures. Sometimes it may mean investing in lobbying along with direct aid. Sometimes it may even mean investing on oneself--perhaps giving up a job or taking a leave of absence to get personally involved.

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Yet more links:

We celebrated New Year's Eve with faculty families and friends at our Institute. The TV was on (Channel 1) so that we could see President Medvedev's speech, followed by the Kremlin clock striking midnight. Shortly afterwards, I went upstairs for a series of games designed by Gennadi Utyonkov, so I missed what followed shortly afterwards: the cartoon that launched a thousand blog posts. Among the comments: "Making a little fun of Russia's powerful." "Russia's TV freedom has strings attached."

For students of Russian who caught the humor of the Medvedev-Putin cartoon wordplay on Medvedev's Internet presence, here's an interesting paper by Nina Mechkovskaya on the influence of Internet communication on everyday Russian language. (Thank you, russ-cyberspace.)

The book When Helping Hurts has an associated Web site here.

The International Development Exchange (IDEX) is a non-Quaker group that operates on a similar scale as Right Sharing and a participatory philosophy; I enjoyed collaborating with them when I was Right Sharing staff.

More development information than you'll ever need: ELDIS--a mixed bag with many gems. I'm glad this facility didn't exist when I was working for Right Sharing--I might not have gotten any work done!

What's wrong with this picture?

In Northwest Yearly Meeting, January is Peace Month.

Somebody wrote something nice about Americans! It actually seems true, too. I'm tempted to use this text in one of my classes.

Evangelicals and interfaith dialogue--a new paradigm. (My question: is it really new? Was Douglas Steere's concept of "mutual irradiation" actually relativistic?)

Another challenging gap to bridge: Joanna Quintrell and evangelism in the land of alternative spiritualities.

At last, a worthy appreciation of Marilynne Robinson.

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John Lee Hooker with Muddy Water's band. In the words of YouTube poster mercydee, "Some historic, priceles footage here: The master Boogie Man backed in 1960 by the Muddy Waters Blues band (James Cotton, Otis Spann, etc). Watch out how Mr Spann knew how to raise the temperature up!" Priceless indeed.

Coens in the classroom

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Best wishes for a fruitful and rewarding New Year 2010!

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A few weeks ago, I read Cathleen Falsani's The Dude Abides: The Gospel According to the Coen Brothers, an enjoyable summary of theological themes in the Coen Brothers' films.

Falsani describes her book's mission this way:

Each of their fourteen feature-length films is marked by theological, philosophical, and mythological touchstones that enrich even the slapstickiest moments. Each film probes confounding ethical and spiritual quandaries, giving us a tour of nuanced moral universes that may be individual (in the case of Barton Fink), geographic (as in Fargo) or historic (such as the Depression era of O Brother, Where Art Thou?).

It would be dishonest to try to wrestle the Coen brothers' films into a God-shaped box--or wood chipper, for that matter--and that is not my intention. I do, however, take seriously their invitation to wrestle with important spiritual and moral questions. It is in that dialogical spirit that I want to uncover what the overarching spiritual messages of their films--their "gospel," if you will, --might be. While it is clear that the Coens are artists, not preachers, I agree wholeheartedly with one astute critic [Matt Zoller Seitz] who calls them "secular theologians" whose body of work is "one of the most sneakily moralistic in recent American cinema."

I was especially interested in what Falsani had to say about O Brother, Where Art Thou?, a film I have just used for a second year in my classes. I showed it in two parts--last week and this week--and, once again, students seemed to give it a warm welcome. (If you don't know the film, wikipedia's summary might be useful.)

For both conversational English and American studies, the film has many useful features--lots of lively dialogue in regional, informal English, as well as a huge supply of historical allusions of variable accuracy and some amazing music. In class, we worked through many of these variations and allusions with the help of a study sheet I put together based on the film's script.

Falsani sums up the theological content of the film as "...grace--that God extends unmerited goodwill to all of creation, including those humans who don't even recognize God's very existence. Intellect can get in the way of seeing God clearly, as is the case with Everett [Ulysses Everett McGill, George Clooney's character], who protests having any real faith except for when he's most desperate (and his true heart is revealed)."

The film presented me with some dilemmas, which I openly shared with the students. Would the Coens' affectionately humorous depiction of depression-era Mississippi be received in the allegorical spirit it was made, or would it reinforce negative stereotypes of Americans or southerners? I had the same worry about the old-timey and roots music, the river baptism scene, and the Bible salesman. ("What do I sell? The truth, every blessed word of it, from Genesee down to Revelations .... Yes, the Word of God, which, let me say, there's damn good money in during these days of woe and want.") I talked with them about what the Protestantism of the rural South might look like in a Russian Orthodox context, and how folk religion and heart religion are not always the same thing--but neither are they always distinct. The overlap of the two (symbolized for me by Delmar's conversion) is worthy of respect regardless of the cultural dressing. I was greatly reassured by students' clear ability to distinguish between reality, parody, and allegory, on the one hand, and unhelpful stereotypes on the other.

The Ku Klux Klan rally in the film figured in my study sheet, and drew unexpected attention from the students. In the film, the rally leader exhorts the crowd to protect "our heritage" (and "our ladies") as they get ready to lynch Chris Thomas King's character, blues guitarist Tommy Johnson. Students wanted to know whether the Klan still exists, and we even touched on the question of whether there were analogous groups in Russia. It was a sobering discussion.

Afterwards, one student said to me, "I've added this film to my favorites." Another said that she gets more from it every time she sees it. (The film can be seen on a popular Web site here.) Others have sent me links to clips and music from the film.

O Brother, Where Art Thou? is probably my favorite film from the last ten years. I'm delighted to have these chances to present it to a new audience.

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Righteous links:

A couple of weeks ago, I commented on Obama's Nobel lecture. Lynn Gazis-Sax provides a thoughtful reflection on the nonviolence of "primitive Christianity" (was our loss of innocence all Constantine's fault?), the case for just war, and Christian nonviolence today.

Permanent war watch: "Why war will take no holiday in 2010."

"Ugandan bishop pleads with American Christians on anti-homosexuality bill." Interesting: the bishop can pronounce on Western society having lost its moral fiber, but we aren't supposed to comment on the morality of this bill.

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Dessert from the O Brother era....

Christmas Eve

Warmest Christmas greetings to anyone who happens upon this page. My own report will be brief--I'll provide a few interesting links down at the end. But most of this week's space goes to Peter Dyson of St Petersburg, Russia, whose report on the funeral of our late Friend Olga Dolgina moved me very much, and who gave me permission to pass along his words.

Olga Dolgina, looking toward camera, on Quaker Council for European Affairs study tour, 2007. Thanks to Peter Dyson for the photo.

Olga was a Russian Friend, a professor at Herzen Pedagogical University in St Petersburg, Russia, a recognized scholar in the field of teaching English, and the Russian translator of Thomas Kelly's A Testament of Devotion. I mentioned her translation several times in recent weeks on this blog.

Olga and I served together on the board of Friends House Moscow back in the 1990's, and at the last board meeting in Odessa we had been talking about inviting her back on the board. In early December, she was struck by a car very close to her home--only twenty meters from her entrance--and was hospitalized with a broken leg. On December 9, she was discharged, and to all appearances was on the road to recovery. However, on the morning of December 11, she reported feeling unwell, and then died shortly afterwards.

The funeral took place on December 16. Peter Dyson wrote:

Today was not the best of days; but it was not the worse of days either; in fact it was a Good Day. It was one of those days when the sun shone brightly just above the St Petersburg horizon casting long shadows over a fresh light fall of snow. The temperature was a brisk minus 17, reminding you that you are alive, and glad you remembered your gloves and to put thick woollen socks on.

The new St Petersburg Crematorium is on the outskirts of the city, about a 20 minute ride in the bus [Olga's husband] Zhenia had arranged to pick us up from the metro. It was full and there was a brief kerfuffle whilst the driver insisted that all those standing should sit down before he would start the engine. Bunches of flowers were moved and people sat three to a seat to make him happy and we set off beyond the Piskarovskaya Blockade Memorial towards the new ring road.

It is a vast new complex with thousands of empty memorial niches. Utilitarian? A bit Soviet? Perhaps a little, but plain and uncluttered simplicity are the words I would choose: practical, spacious and fit for purpose; no adverts just informative notices. There must have been 150 to 200 of us; I gave up counting; all with our flowers waiting in hushed silence with muted whispered greetings of recognition.

I must have stood out as being on my own; for one of Olga’s students came and talked to me so that I would not be alone and she kept asking me if I was okay.

An usher came and asked us to take all the flowers in. Thus when we were finally shown into the Centralni Zal, all our flowers were beautifully arranged round the closed coffin (not an open coffin as per tradition) with the huge Quaker bouquet of white lilies on the coffin itself with its card.

The hall was large; a white marble floor and stuccoed walls with a large window on the end going over into the roof itself. The ground falls away outside so that you get a view of the silver birch forest beyond; more Klimt than Shishkin. There were no decorations or furniture just large verdant bushy plants around the room. We can’t have made it more than a half full.

Olga’s coffin stood in front of the window and Zhenia and Anna stood at its side and we enclosed them in a semicircle. In the background was very quiet unobtrusive classical music; Bach, Beethoven, Pachelbel – all those pieces you would expect. The Officiate made his introduction and invited people to come forward and say their words- thus it turned into a Quaker Meeting with good reflective pauses and Ministry to the Life of Olga Dolgina. I was too choked to speak at this point.

After more silence we were invited to say our own personal farewells and slowly filed passed the coffin with everyone stopping to touch or silently say their prayer with Zhena and Anna last. The coffin descended gently from sight but with a mighty banging of metal as the doors to the aperture closed. I was put in mind of another funeral of a friend here when the lid was place on the open coffin and the nails hammered in. It is a very final sound that stays in the memory.

An overall impression would be of a gentle unhurried calm and sensitivity; not an easy achievement for any institution with daily routines to maintain.

About fifty of us adjourned to an intimate cosy downstairs restaurant across the city at Chernaya Rechka, not far from where Pushkin fought his duel. Tables full of Russian salads greeted our arrival. Not long into the meal the toasts and speeches started. If the tone at the funeral had been more formal and about Olga as a teacher and colleague, here people spoke about their feelings, their disbelief, the last conversation they had with her: all very personal responses to this tragedy of a post accident blood clot moving into her lungs.

I spoke fourth and told me them that I was not there as one alone, but stood before them representing hundreds of Olga’s Quaker Friends in Europe and America and of how the Divine shone in Olga’s life. I referred to all the messages I had received from Friends around the world, and read one that seemed to sum everything up (and later gave Anna a printed copy of the fifty plus messages I had received. There are more in her in-box). I spoke of my Quaker travels with Olga across Europe and of Olga’s role as a “wordsmith” (a pause and “thank you for that Peter” from my translator as she explained what I meant). I talked of Olga’s sensitivity to words and the struggle to translate Quaker language in Russian, particularly from the 17th Century. I talked of our hope to set up a memorial fund in her name to continue this work of translation… and of love and of celebration… and then I was choked by tears and could say no more.

What followed at my end of the table was unexpected. Thank-you s for the reminder about celebration and lots of questions about Quakers, because of course they knew of Olga’s involvement but without understanding. The consequence is that there will be a meeting with a group of Olga’s colleagues to talk more of Quaker values and of course being teachers they want preparatory materials! So I agreed I would talk about the role of silence in Quaker worship and will use Alan Davies’s 1983 article on Levels of Silence as my document in advance!

We drifted away slowly after many more reminiscences and up-holdings of Olga’s life. I cannot affirm too strongly this type of rite of passage where everyone is heard.

The sorrow is for us left behind; the joy .. in a life fully lived .

And a knowledge that my life was made richer by walking cheerfully together with her. I am going to miss Olga.

I shall leave this overnight for reflection.

But it was a Good Day.

Yours .. but by no means alone in North West Russia,

Thank you dear Friends,

Peter

16th Day 12th Month, 2009

Translation Fund: A number of Friends have proposed or affirmed that a fund for translation of Friends materials into Russian be established in memory of Olga. Consultations about the practical arrangements for this fund are underway; I'll report more when something has been decided.

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Righteous links:

Russian is back!

"It is, after all, our tax money paying for this monstrous system."

A Friendly forum for considering the path "Toward an eco-economy."

Ross Douthat: "The question is whether Nature actually deserves a religious response."

Anne Jackson is at it again--giving away books. And she blogs about another free book, one that you can download (I have done so, and am enjoying it).

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Pete Seeger and Bessie Jones, with their young helpers, wish you a Merry Christmas.

Nobel lecture

Barack Obama gave his Nobel Lecture in Oslo exactly a week ago. A day later, I finally got a chance to look at it, and I admit I was very impressed.

In terms of content, I think both Joe Volk ("Obama’s Peace: A Now But Not Yet Kind of Thing") and David Brooks ("Obama's Christian Realism") provided excellent commentary, and I agree with most of what both said, although they come from different viewpoints. As Volk pointed out, Obama recited all the usual obligatory justifications for a just war. However, Obama did so with a sense of regret and modesty--something rarely heard in recent presidential speeches. In the midst of the current fashion to praise the military to the skies, we expect to hear the first part of a statement like this, but how often do we hear the second part?--"So part of our challenge is reconciling these two seemingly inreconcilable truths -- that war is sometimes necessary, and war at some level is an expression of human folly."

The Richmond Declaration of Faith is utterly clear on where Friends stand historically in the just war debate:

We feel bound explicitly to avow our unshaken persuasion that all war is utterly incompatible with the plain precepts of our divine Lord and Law-giver, and the whole spirit of His Gospel, and that no plea of necessity or policy, however urgent or peculiar, can avail to release either individuals or nations from the paramount allegiance which they owe to Him who hath said, "Love your enemies." (Matt 5:44, Luke 6:27) In enjoining this love, and the forgiveness of injuries, He who has brought us to Himself has not prescribed for man precepts which are incapable of being carried into practice, or of which the practice is to be postponed until all shall be persuaded to act upon them. We cannot doubt that they are incumbent now, and that we have in the prophetic Scriptures the distinct intimation of their direct application not only to individuals, but to nations also. (Isa 2:4, Micah 4:1) When nations conform their laws to this divine teaching, wars must necessarily cease.

We would, in humility, but in faithfulness to our Lord, express our firm persuasion that all the exigencies of civil government and social order may be met under the banner of the Prince of Peace, in strict conformity with His commands. [from quakerinfo.com]

This Declaration is part of our yearly meeting's Faith and Practice. I interpret these words to be a standing challenge to all policies that involve war and preparations for war. They require me always to consider how to advance an alternate Christian vision of conflict resolution, and how to withdraw my own cooperation from the machinery of death.

But they are also an evangelistic mandate. "Just" war ultimately comes from counsels of despair, from functional atheism, from unwillingness to put God absolutely at the center of our response to evil. Obama is right--"We will not eradicate violent conflict in our lifetimes"--but I'd add, this is true in part because we humans will persist in our rebellion against God. The rebellion of evil people and powers is more obvious, but the rebellion of those who respond to evil from places of anger, racism, fear, and corruption, even when they claim to be defending themselves, and even when they use God language, also needs to be confronted. Fear, racism, anger, corruption--these are all spiritual issues as well as political ones; all require engagement in the name of Jesus.

In this post-Christian world, evangelism is a process of dialogue. And here's what I appreciate about Obama's speech: there is so much in it that gives us material for dialogues. Just a few examples:

• Summarizing the "just war" doctrine, Obama observed, "Of course, we know that for most of history, this concept of 'just war' was rarely observed. The capacity of human beings to think up new ways to kill one another proved inexhaustible, as did our capacity to exempt from mercy those who look different or pray to a different God." So how in the world do we think we Americans, inventors of the atomic bomb, will escape or overcome these abiding temptations?
  


• "I do not bring with me today a definitive solution to the problems of war, " admitted Obama. "What I do know is that meeting these challenges will require the same vision, hard work, and persistence of those men and women who acted so boldly decades ago. And it will require us to think in new ways about the notions of just war and the imperatives of a just peace." What frustrates me is that so often it seems that 99% of the USA's federally funded "hard work, and persistence" is being done by the Pentagon. At the very least, when will we seriously fund and develop the alternative structures, laboratories, and peace incubators that might give us a far wider range of responses to conflict? (I've argued before that the worldwide Christian community, with its unparalleled potential for independent intelligence, should also be part of the picture.)
  


• As the USA's commander-in-chief, "I face the world as it is, and cannot stand idle in the face of threats to the American people. For make no mistake: Evil does exist in the world. A non-violent movement could not have halted Hitler's armies. Negotiations cannot convince al Qaeda's leaders to lay down their arms. To say that force may sometimes be necessary is not a call to cynicism -- it is a recognition of history; the imperfections of man and the limits of reason." I continue to argue that a nonviolent movement, mobilized early enough, might well have halted Hitler before he even had armies; and no highly visible Western leader has made any kind of a direct attempt to confront, courteously and persistently, the leadership of al Qaeda on their very specific bill of grievances. We persist in the circular argument that they are evil, therefore not to be negotiated with (except tactically through back channels, which does nothing for our press among disaffected and radicalized Muslims), and then count the predictable reaction from the other side as proof of how evil they are and how they can't be negotiated with.
  
  By the way, I fully accept that al Qaeda are enemies of the USA, because they say they are. The first step in engaging them must not be either infantilizing or sentimentalizing them. But the category of "enemy" is a pragmatic and always temporary category, not a designation for someone who is subhuman and incapable of reason. When Jesus said "love your enemies," perhaps the most evangelistically powerful command in human history, he knew exactly what power he was unleashing.
  


• Back to Obama's argument: "To say that force may sometimes be necessary is not a call to cynicism -- it is a recognition of history; the imperfections of man and the limits of reason." We can grant that not everyone advocating force is a cynic. But if we recognize human imperfection and the limits of reason in history, we should also recognize two other historical truths: we keep trapping ourselves in situations where force is the only apparent escape, because we don't make creative, adequately resourced, and timely plans for alternatives; and history also records how the "victories" of force are so pathetically temporary.
  


• Obama again: "The promotion of human rights cannot be about exhortation alone. At times, it must be coupled with painstaking diplomacy. I know that engagement with repressive regimes lacks the satisfying purity of indignation. But I also know that sanctions without outreach -- condemnation without discussion -- can carry forward only a crippling status quo. No repressive regime can move down a new path unless it has the choice of an open door." I wholeheartedly agree with this and find that it gives a real opening to work for common goals. This requires evangelicals and progressive people to consider laying down one of the most beloved and overused weapons in our own artillery--withering invective. Both of our communities (and I live in the overlap) sometimes seem to love denouncing others, but this just won't get us where we want to go. We cannot build genuine communities of prophetic advocacy by building up lists of enemies, villains, and heretics.
  
  However, for us to trust this "painstaking diplomacy" as being a genuine force for human rights, we must require transparency wherever it actually can be provided. If it turns out that we have trusted "engagement" that turned out to serve only the interests of global corporations and importers, the sense of betrayal could set us back a generation.
  


• Toward the end, Obama said, "We do not have to live in an idealized world to still reach for those ideals that will make it a better place. The non-violence practiced by men like Gandhi and King may not have been practical or possible in every circumstance, but the love that they preached -- their fundamental faith in human progress -- that must always be the North Star that guides us on our journey." In the partnership of realism and idealism, sometimes it seems that the realist's job is limited to reminding the idealist that humans aren't perfect. It seems to me that realists also have to remind each other of the same thing. Idealism fails not necessarily because the ideals are wrong, but because they are too easily set aside; that North Star is lost in the fog of war or demagoguery. We Quakers, at our best, are congenital idealists; let's keep finding new and engaging ways to point ourselves and our dialogue partners--including Barack Obama--toward the North Star.

Friday PS: Jim Wallis on Obama's Nobel Lecture, with comments.

And an e-mail from the Pew Forum reminds me of their "Obama's favorite theologian" Faith Angle Conference that I may already have linked to earlier this year.

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Very Short Stories:

I selected some of the six-word stories from this issue of Wired and used them in a couple of English classes at the New Humanities Institute. A few of our favorites:

Computer, did we bring batteries? Computer?
--Eileen Gunn
God to Earth: “Cry more, noobs!”
--Marc Laidlaw
The baby’s blood type? Human, mostly.
--Orson Scott Card
Kirby had never eaten toes before.
--Kevin Smith
Easy. Just touch the match to
--Ursula K. Le Guin
Machine. Unexpectedly, I’d invented a time
--Alan Moore

Then, with some hesitation, I challenged the students to write their own six-word stories. Group 302 came up collectively with this story:

Fingers--why twelve? Bring the knife.

Not to be outdone, a second-year group in the high school division provided a whole set of stories. Here they are, with permission:

Oh, stop shooting. Bring the axe.
--collective
Jack, catch the axe. Got it?
--Masha Kazantseva
Night. Forest. Three men digging a
--Magda Malyukova
This delicious cake was the last.
--Lena Korolyuk
Granny--why do you have such
--Magda Malyukova
Wake up. Take your sleeping pills.
--Masha Kazantseva.

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Righteous links:

A group of Palestinian Christians publish their "Kairos Palestine" document. In the midst of its extraordinary and costly statements of hope, and its call to faith in Jesus, how do we evaluate its specific assertion of the role of the city of Jerusalem?

Marketing and the Millennial muddle

Seven-word story: Interesting to see how a headline can make a bald statement ("Qaeda planner in Pakistan killed by drone") that the body of the story weakens considerably ("strong indications" ... "Little is known about Mr. Somali, but one American official said he was probably responsible for plotting attacks against the West." (My emphases.)

A discussion on Muslim followers of Jesus.

Three articles on microcredit: "The Kiva Effect." PBS: "A little goes a long way." "Does microcredit really help poor people?"

Wess advocates "An Amazon-Free Christmas"--note the comments, too.

Martin E. Marty writes about "the decline in conservative churches."

"Is it time to lay down Friends Journal?" This letter is as thoughtful as any I've seen from the leadership of a nonprofit. Interesting follow-up discussion here.

Every week, I take this blues podcast with me to the gym. For an hour, during my workout, my body is in Elektrostal, and my ears are in the world of blues. This podcast is still the best way I have to expand my blues horizons beyond my beloved list of tried-and-true artists. No. 251 from last weekend is a great sample.

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Dani Wilde Band visits Germany.

Minty shorts

Back in March 2008, I added a second operating system to this Sony computer I'm using right now. Upon booting up, I could choose between Windows Vista and Ubuntu; most of the time, I used Ubuntu.

Last month, I somehow got Ubuntu's security policies so completely screwed up that I had to reinstall the operating system. Instead of downloading a whole new installation disk image, I used a disk that Jerry Baker had given me the last time we were in the USA--Linux Mint. I liked it so much that a few days ago I completely converted this computer over to Linux Mint.

This 100% fresh installation of the newest Linux Mint operating system turned out to have some unexpected advantages. For once, all my sound settings were chosen automatically--and correctly. Linux Mint also includes software and easy pathways to third-party drivers, so that (unlike with the original Ubuntu installation) I didn't have to hunt for the files needed to play DVDs, use a digital projector or second screen, and so on. Wireless Internet access, printer, and scanner were provided for without any intervention on my part. MTP support for my MP3 player was almost automatic--I had to activate a plugin included with Rhythmbox, the music player/manager included with Linux Mint. In short, the operating system looks good and does what it should with an absolute minimum of drama.

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For the last couple of days, we've been the subject of a TV crew from the local television station. Yesterday I was interviewed at the Institute, and today the camera visited my second-year class. At the time of their visit, we were working with a text from Lolly Winston's Good Grief, a novel I've enjoyed using for its great examples of conversational English dialogue. The excerpt we used this week was a particularly heavy scene, but the video recording took place while we were dealing with the language. By the time we began our discussion of the emotional drama underneath the language, the camera and microphone were gone.

In the novel, today's situation was this: the hero Sophie, a recent widow, has become a Big Sister to a troubled teenager, Crystal. In today's excerpt, Sophie finds out something disturbing about Crystal:

The radiators in the house have only two settings—scorching or off—and the kitchen feels as hot as Death Valley today. Crystal chews and stares into space, absent-mindedly pushing up her sweater sleeve. The inside of her forearm is striped with red marks. At first I think she's drawn all over herself with a red pen. No. The marks are cuts. I stop chewing. She quickly tugs down her sleeve, clenching the cuff in her fist.

"Don't like pepperoni?" I swallow and lean toward her.

"I'm a vegetarian," she says disdainfully. "Probably I'm going to be a vet."

"A veggie vet?"

She nods. "I saw a nature show on a guy who saves horses? Sometimes he can't fix them and he has to, like, give them a shot so they die." She fans herself with her dirty paper plate.

"Why don't you take off your sweater?"

"No." She finishes her soda in two big gulps. I notice that the cuffs of her sleeves are caked with something reddish brown. Blood? Food or dirt, I hope.

"Crystal, will you show me your arm? It worries me."

"Okay." But she doesn't move.

I reach across the table and wrap a hand around her wrist. With my other hand, I push up her sleeve, then turn over her arm. The soft white underside is slashed with crisscrosses of cuts, raised like argyle. Her skin feels hot and jagged. Crystal sucks in her breath, blinks.

"What happened here?" I feel my pulse race but try not to seem alarmed. Some of the wounds are fresh, congealed blood at their edges.

Crystal jerks her arm away and yanks down her sleeve. Her shoulders curl into a hunch.

I move my plate aside and fight to maintain the same even calm I kept when Ethan's skin was as gray as oatmeal and he was too weak to climb the stairs. You don't want a sick person to see in your expression or hear in your voice how frightened you are for them.

Crystal bites her lower lip.

"Did you do that on purpose? Like the burns?"

She rolls her eyes. "Duh."

There's no end of fruitful questions for discussion: why did Crystal hurt herself? Did she want Sophie to find out? What would we do in Sophie's place? I've used this material now two years in a row, and with two different groups today. I was moved and very impressed with the depth of the insights our students expressed--in English!--but I will preserve the privacy of the classroom and not report the details here.

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Righteous links:

A bit more on Linux Mint: one of its positive reviews, and a guide for those thinking of converting from MS Windows--including helpful information on additional programs you might want to replace familiar Windows programs.

A sober editorial about Afghanistan. My doubts go beyond those in the editorial. The McChrystal/Obama proposals and price tags seem to assume building Western institutions in Afghanistan--Western-style army, Western-style police. Is this importation of an essentially Western model truly sustainable? What happens when the props, both political/coercive and financial, are pulled out? There's an interesting note about warlords paying their forces 3x as much as the army. It invites the question: by whose definition is one armed group the "national army" and another armed group NOT the army?

In contrast to Crystal, Joel writes love on his arm.

What is the state of Russia's heart?

One of the most amazing and haunting images I have seen recently.

If the Gospel is true, it is true in the midst of depression. Test it for yourself.

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A "Midnight Special" time capsule.

Creedence clearwater revival - the midnight special
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