A California Christian ponders Prop 8

 It is no secret that Proposition 8, a proposed amendment to the California constitution that would remove the right to marry from gay and lesbian people, is being financed in large part by the Mormon Church, which reportedly has spent $35 million (so far), mainly on TV commercials. The Catholic Church and right-wing organizations like [...]

The crawl and the claw

We arose this morning did some quick ‘Heidi crunches’, dressed, then got on our hands and knees and crawled to the kitchen. There, I got back on my feet (a struggle for me) and donned the claw, otherwise known as a silicone oven mitt.
While this behavior is a little more batty than my usual routine, [...]

Dawn patrol

Pretty sky this morning as Scott, Tiger Lily and I set off on our circumnavigation of west Menlo Park. Scott’s been traveling and otherwise occupied, so we’d skipped a week of walks. I really missed the company… Scott and Lily are good rabbits for hemiparetic moi… and I love talking tech, politics and life with [...]

Timely or timeless: the blogger’s conundrum

Gym-mate, theologian Daniel Clenendin and I chatted while pounding two of the Palo Alto Y’s treadmills this morning.  Daniel wanted to write an essay this week that took into account the choices we face in the upcoming election. He bemoaned a weekly publishing schedule that meant his essay might not seem timely once the election [...]

In hard times, look to community

We had the good fortune this morning to listen to the Rev. John Kater speaking at our church’s Sunday Forum. He spoke intelligently, in my mind, about the role of Jesus as mentor and a notion of a ‘hands on’ God that I have been wrestling with for most of my adult life. Toward the [...]

The stock market ‘genius’

Heh, no sooner did I ask if it was safe to come up, but the market dived another 700+ points, and it’s off more than 300 this morning. According to pundits this is because a. now that we’re past the bank meltdown, people have noticed a recession may be in the works, and b. “the [...]

Locking in disaster?

So, we are sufficiently long in the tooth to have been through a couple large ‘corrections’ in the stock market. A few days after I had proudly bought a few shares in a mutual fund in 1987 (and was busily jabbering about it to my friends an co-workers), along came Black Friday Monday, and my [...]

And the morning light comes streaming in…

Our gardening crew recently pruned our way-overdue redwoods, which has allowed the morning sun into the family room for the first time since I’ve lived in this house (18 years now). For about an hour, the light is wonderful, and I sit at my desk with all the lights out, enjoying the warm glow…

A few thoughts on Anathem

A lot of commentary on Anathem, Neal Stephenson’s latest, has come my way lately. One correspondent shied away from it, agreeing with Washington Post reviewer Michael Dirda: “much anticipated, in places quite brilliant, but ultimately grandiose, overwrought and pretty damn dull.” Others are put off by the sheer size of the work (937 pages), and [...]

Collapse

It so happens, during these very interesting times, that I’m reading Jared Diamond’s Collapse, his fascinating study of societies that underwent sudden, disastrous decline and the causes that lead to those crashes. Diamond studied the fall of both ancient (Easter Island, Maya, the Norse Greenland Colonies) and modern (Rwanda, Haiti) societies, and comes up with [...]

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