We have the best sort of bed nets, treated with insecticide that’s harmful to bugs but not humans. We have the best sort of malaria-prevention drugs, the kind with few side effects, and we take it every day. We have treated our clothing with the spray that’s harmful to bugs but not humans (see above.) {You could say that, like my father before me, my motto is “trust God and be as prepared as humanly possible.”} Even so, our son... Read more
I have a piece up on “Rethinking Modesty” at Catapult magazine’s CLOTHE YOURSELF issue. Don’t worry, I’m not advocating showing off more skin… Here’s the beginning: When I was growing up, the only thing that could be said about clothing was that it should be “modest,” and ideally not too “worldly.” “Modesty” was proof-texted from 1 Timothy 2:9: “I also want women to dress modestly, with decency and propriety, not with braided hair or gold or pearls or expensive clothes.”... Read more
I have a new post up at Huffington Post Food, about this crazy new “healthy” candy called “Unreal” candy. Here’s the heart of what annoys me about the candy, and about the marketing of processed products more generally: Unreal candy is probably better than most of the garbage that kids get on Halloween, but it’s already positioning itself in ridiculous ways, with it’s “Yes we candy” ads and the helpful little chart in which Unreal is compared unfavorably to peanut... Read more
If you can believe it, there’s a pretty decent little Italian restaurant here in Zomba. Not, like New York Italian, but Italian-from-Italy-Italian, which means there’s no deep-fried chicken cutlet smothered in mozzarella cheese and marinara sauce and served with spaghetti and called “Chicken Parmesan,” and, alas, no New York-style pizza, but which means that all the pasta is fresh. One of my favorite things to get there is an appetizer listed as fritto misto–battered and fried mixed vegetables; whatever’s in... Read more
I’ll admit it: I’m a pacifist mom who doesn’t freak out (anymore) when her boys play with Nerf (and other) toy weapons. Here’s why, explained in my most recent Her.meneutics post: Early this month, a six-year-old in Silver Spring, Maryland, was suspended from school after he pointed his finger like a gun and said, “pow.” In a letter to his parents, school officials described the incident as one in which their son “threatened to shoot a student.” In one way,... Read more
This book is just remarkable. Its title and subtitle didn’t really grab me, I’ll admit, but I was hooked almost from the beginning, almost as if I were reading a suspenseful novel instead of a work of journalistic nonfiction. “I have always felt that the action most worth watching is not at the center of things but where edges meet,” writes Anne Fadiman in the opening. What follows is a very specific story that somehow speaks expansively of big, important... Read more
I’m working on a writing project in which I’m collecting as many anonymous childbirth stories as possible. Below are the questions I have been using as prompts just to get people thinking along certain lines. I’m also interested in what fathers have to say about their experiences of seeing (or not seeing) their children come into the world. Please pass this along to any person you think would be willing to participate! How did you decide whom to have as your... Read more
Image via Wikipedia I grew up eating a lot of rice because my dad has celiac disease, which means he really can’t eat gluten. Not, like, he doesn’t eat gluten because it helped him lose weight, reduce bloat, and clear up his skin when he stopped eating gluten. Like HE WILL DIE if he eats gluten (but not immediately.) It’s not an allergy; it’s an autoimmune condition, and it’s totally legit. He can tell you great stories (complete with voices... Read more
I’m excited to be able to tell you about the writing project that’s kept me busy since I finished Eat with Joy—a book about Jesus for children with the working title God’s Upside-Down Kingdom. Equally appropriate for church-based Christian education, homeschooling, or Christian school, God’s Upside-Down Kingdom is the third volume of the Telling God’s Story series, published by Olive Branch Books,the religious education division of Peace Hill Press (who publish the fabulous Story of the World by Susan Wise... Read more
{Once again I’m participating in Take & Read, the Patheos Book Club!} I feel that have to admit that, because I have a faith/food book coming out very soon, whenever I encounter a book that looks like it might have some things in common with my own, I get all territorial and nervous, and feel like I need to point out the ways in which I’m right and this other author is wrong and how my book is needed as... Read more
Rachel Marie Stone
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