Thoughts

Life can be cyclical. In fact, it seems like it's easier to live a cyclical life if you choose it because a person knows exactly what to expect. There are times, though, when cycles are shattered. These cycle-shattering events can be positive or negative events, hurtful or helpful, and can range from a close relative's death to the birth of a child. Nonetheless, change invites a leaving of the normal way of life-- even if just for a time-- and the entrance into new surroundings. It involves stepping outside, so to speak, into the comfort of the sun or the stinging of the wind, into the unfamiliar. It almost never leaves you the same. Some of us recreate the cycles ourselves, for good or bad, because it is with these cycles that we are most familiar. The cycles of loving and being loved, of hating and being hated, of aloneness and intimacy, of pursuing goals and resting, are taught to us by our families and cultures, and we practice them. They become to us familiar. I want t...

I'm teaching a drama class this quarter. Here is a list of a few of the hero-villain scenarios I will use this week. Some are silly, some are more realistic. Adapting a lesson I found on Matt Buchanan's childdrama.com, I plan to have students pair up and choose from a hero or villain index card pile (one chooses a hero, the other a villain). It could mean that Indiana Jones will face off against the shark from Jaws , or Optimus Prime will take on the Wicked Witch of the West. Whatever characters they choose, they must choose from the scenario pile, then plan and act it out. It should be good sport. The villain has set a house on fire. In it is trapped a baby. The villain puts poisoned cookies on a children’s plate. The mother is about to serve them. The villain plans to drop millions of pieces of paper on a crowded city and give paper cuts to all who are in it. The villain is incredibly intelligent and wants to beat the superhero in chess. The villain plans to in...

The story is of a boxer fighting in the 1920s and ‘30s, named James J. Braddock. A rising star in his early 20s, Braddock’s record in the ring soared to 44-2-2, with 21 knockouts. With all his success, he appeared to be a rising star in the ring. Then something happened: just as he was gaining notoriety, Braddock lost by decision in an important match to a fighter named Tommy Loughran, in a ring sitting in Yankee Stadium. Braddock was devastated, so much so that his record over the next thirty-three fights fell to 11-20-2. His misfortune was then compounded when he fractured his right hand during one his matches. Following these setbacks, Braddock finally gave up boxing and applied for government relief money to support his family. He took a job as a dock worker and began what seemed to be a normal life. It was to stay that way until something interesting occurred. In a last-minute cancellation, Braddock was offered a fight against a highly-respected fighter named John Griffin; and...

Occurring in the early twentieth-century United States was a movement that had its source in social Darwinism, known as eugenics. Men like the nineteenth-century Darwinist Herbert Spencer believed medicine and charity had unnaturally protected the unfit of society, implying that we should allow nature to take its course and root out the weak. Going a step further, eugenicists asserted that it was necessary to assist nature in this task. The aim of eugenics advocates was to improve human heredity through social measures, and was therefore a mix of utilitarian and evolutionary principles. The result in the United States was, among other things, forced sterilization laws for the handicapped, the insane, and criminals, as well as marriage restriction and anti-immigration laws (1). Given the substantial changes taking place in progressive America, then, along with the promotion of eugenic ideas, it should not be surprising to find that a movement to prevent suicide could coexist with effor...

Sometimes we forget our own uniqueness and strength. On each of our fingers are what are called friction ridges, or raised skin on our palms and fingers. These ridges (fingerprints) are formed in us before birth, and don’t change with age (except in cases of injury to that part of the finger). Fingerprints have been found to be so unique that, even though the DNA of identical twins is equal, their fingerprints are different. Because we know this, the Federal Bureau of Investigation has a database (the Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification) with over 47 million fingerprints on file, which is used to track criminals. Another way we distinguish between us is by studying our eyes. Specifically, the colored portion of our eyes, called the iris, is different in each individual, even identical twins. Like fingerprints, the iris is formed before birth (beginning during the third month and completed by the eighth) and, for the most part, does not change over your lifetime. Even th...

In case anyone would like to help this trip, or would like to know what we will be doing, here is my support letter for our Haiti trip in June. February 11, 2012 Dear Friends, Family, and Fellow Believers: Last year, a group of eleven people traveled to an orphanage in southern Haiti called the Hands and Feet Project. During the week we were there, we witnessed poverty, disease, and overcrowding. We heard stories of abandoned children, natural disaster, and the uncertainties and isolation of missions work. We felt tangibly the confusion of a country wracked by hopelessness and overwhelming difficulty. In the midst of it all, however, we experienced something more. We witnessed the hope of future orphanages and clean water, heard stories of unity and compassion for children left behind, and felt tangibly the love of God for the people of Haiti through a group of unified people whose goal is to serve him. It was these experiences of hopefulness that left many of us change...

There is a phenomenon in psychology called “diffusion of responsibility,” also called the “bystander effect.” When there are a certain number of people around when a problem arises, everyone who is watching will ignore the problem because all of them think that someone else will take care of it. There is a sense of confusion as to who is responsible for helping. A study conducted in 1968 demonstrates this. Two researchers asked college students to talk about problems that college students face, except that the conversation was held over an intercom “to avoid embarrassment” (no one could see the person talking). During the first round, a student mentioned that he had seizures. When it came to his turn to speak again, he made sounds that made it seem he was having a seizure. The researchers found that the larger the group of people, the less likely people were to help. Eighty-five percent of people who believed they were alone with the seizure victim offered help; sixty-two percent o...

My classes this week are journaling on discrimination. Without downplaying them, I wanted to avoid the heavily-discussed topics of race, religion, and gender. Instead, I hoped to challenge my students a little by having them think about discrimination against the addicted, the overweight, and the criminal. It is easy to vilify the racist, the bigot, and the misogynist; but we think less frequently-- and perhaps less comfortably-- about discrimination against these groups. Of the three topics, the one that sparked the most discussion was the last, which we thought about today. I learned from an article by David Perry (see Perry, David L. "Should Violent Felons Receive Organ Transplants?") that a convicted robber received a heart transplant in 2002, and I used this as a starting point to ask if students believed this man should have received the transplant when the life of another person could have been saved. I did not anticipate the discussion, and argument, that would fo...

I had a dream last night of a colossal stone Greek statue-like giant, dressed in traditional Greek dress. I was looking up at this colossus from the ground, where next to me stood a much smaller Greek statue-like figure of the same type. Seeing this smaller statue, the larger statue immediately crushed it with its foot. It then absorbed the smaller statue's stone and grew even larger than it was before. It moved on past mountains into the ocean, where three other Greek statue giants were waiting to fight it. I can't remember what happened next, but I knew the first statue giant would overtake the others and grow even larger and stronger. I felt helpless watching this. I couldn't do anything to stop this much-bigger-than-me thing. I felt somewhat like the littler statue today at school because of something outside of my control, something I had the power to influence before, but which is now outside of my control. I remember that God does indeed have my best interests at h...