Fellow Patheos blogger has written a lovely review of my book, No Easy Choice: A Story of Disability, Parenthood, and Faith in an Age of Advanced Reproduction over at Her.meneutics, the women’s blog for Christianity Today. In conjunction with review, Amy Julia published a Q&A with me on her blog today. She asks really great questions, and I appreciated the challenge of answering them. I hope you’ll check out the review and the Q&A, and ask your own questions or... Read more
Every Friday, I post a link to a blog post, sometimes written by one of my fellow bloggers at Patheos, a web portal devoted to religion and spirituality, and sometimes by another blogger whose work I admire. I encourage my blog readers to click through to read these posts, comment, and if you like what you read, follow these bloggers as well. In my own recap of the Festival of Faith and Writing, I included a few of the memorable... Read more
Last winter, I wrote a blog post titled “What My Dog Is Teaching Me About Grace.” So poetic, that post. All about our beautiful but neurotic rescue dog, Eddie—how he came to us after years of neglect, possibly abuse, how he needed a second chance (actually, many second chances), and how we would give him those chances, despite his not-always-lovely behavior. People loved that post, especially animal lovers. They shared it with their Facebook friends. A well-known web site offering... Read more
Will insurance companies someday help bring about a “Gattaca-like two-tiered society, in which parents with good access to health care produce flawless, carefully selected offspring and the rest of us spawn naturals”? Will our government one day require expectant mothers to undergo genetic testing on their fetuses? Will debates over prenatal genetic testing ultimately affect women’s ability to get a legal abortion? Mara Hvistendahl (the author of Unnatural Selection—a book about the consequences of a worldwide preference for male children)... Read more
Every Friday, I post a link to a blog post, sometimes written by one of my fellow bloggers at Patheos, a web portal devoted to religion and spirituality, and sometimes by another blogger whose work I admire. I encourage my blog readers to click through to read these posts, comment, and if you like what you read, follow these bloggers as well. As I’ve mentioned a bajillion times, I spent the latter half of last week at the incomparable Festival... Read more
I mentioned in Tuesday’s post that in a recent radio interview, the host referred to what I do in No Easy Choice as “educational storytelling.” I and several readers (thanks Alison and Rachel!) think that’s an excellent term for what I’m doing. By sharing my own story and contemplating the stories of others, I hope to educate readers, pastors, clinicians, prospective parents, and others, so we can have a more informed, robust, helpful conversation around the cultural and ethical implications... Read more
Rather frequently, someone asks me if I ever expect to write fiction. My answer: To me, fiction writing is a sort of magic. It is miraculous, this process of creating fully formed human characters from one’s imagination and writing multi-layered, moving, thrilling, tears-and-laughter-inducing stories about them. I can’t begin to imagine how one performs such a miracle. I feel this way about poetry too. When someone says, “I am a poet,” I want to sit them down so they can... Read more
I was privileged to have a wonderful conversation several weeks ago with Martha Manikas-Foster, who hosts a show called Inside Out for Family Life Radio. Martha and I have talked and corresponded over the past couple of years about several topics, most recently my book No Easy Choice: A Story of Disability, Parenthood, and Faith in an Age of Advanced Reproduction. She is a joy to interview with; she asks great questions and engages in truly helpful conversation with her... Read more
I returned yesterday from the biannual Festival of Faith and Writing in Grand Rapids, Michigan. It was everything I expected it to be, and nothing like what I expected it to be. I did much less “schmoozing” and making connections (with book sales in mind) than I expected. I did much more sitting, listening, and taking in the wisdom of other writers’ words. That listening led to new insights, new ideas, and much inspiration, which is probably what I needed... Read more
Yes, I realize I haven’t gotten back to a full blogging schedule since my last (very recent) blogging break. But I’m taking this week off of blogging as well. My kids are on school vacation, and on Wednesday I leave for the Festival of Faith and Writing in Grand Rapids, Michigan. I’ve been looking forward to the festival for two years, ever since I chose not to attend the last one in 2010 and regretted it when I realized that... Read more
Ellen Painter Dollar
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