1. Spotted a terrific article in the LA Times the other day about a parent who rebelled against overparenting and let her nine-year-old find his way home on the New York subway. The author, Rosa Brooks, makes the case for letting kids be kids, and play as such. Also, check out a great site called FreeRangeKids that advocates a more hands-off model of parenting. 2. The first edition of the Southern Seminary student journal Adorare Mente is now online. It... Read more
In Canada, the Guardian reports today, people are using their Global Positioning Systems (GPS) for all sorts of things–estimating travel times, for example. Nowadays, it seems, you don’t need a directional sense, really, and maps are becoming obsolete. Instead, you just turn on your handheld device and go from there. Have you thought deeply about the changes the technological impetus has wrought? Many of us are so technologically linked that we could scarcely imagine life without our cell phone, our... Read more
I don’t count myself especially sentimental, and I don’t like it when preachers or others let poignancy substitute for exegesis and application. Once in a while, though, you come across a story that hits you at your core. I love writing original content for this blog, but in doing a review I came across a particularly powerful story of gospel-driven character that I had to share with my readers: “Berry Mauve or Muted Wine” by T. Suzanne Eller. Readers who... Read more
Just read a pretty funny article about one writer’s bid to make the NBA’s Developmental League. “Me Got Game”, by Davy Rothbart, is a funny and revealing look about what it’s actually like to try and make a high-level professional basketball team. You’ll want to watch for bad language in the piece, but if you can get past it, you’ll likely be entertained by Rothbart’s experience. Rothbart recounts his initial moments as a D-League would-be. “When we get to the... Read more
In response to my blog from Thursday on the New York Times piece covering the extreme risks many girls face in playing high-contact sports, I drew some strong responses, and wanted to comment on them in today’s post. Let me first encourage you to check out the article by Michael Sokolove that appeared in this past weekend’s NYT magazine. In addition, surf the comments related to the article. There are now 285 (as of this posting), so this piece, “The... Read more
1. Westminster professor Bill Edgar gave a lecture on the theology of rap music a few years back. My friend Andy Naselli tipped me to the lecture, and I think that you will find it positively engrossing and illuminating. Dr. Edgar, simply put, is one of the neatest theologians out there–he tackles topics that other theologians won’t touch, and he does so with generosity, clarity, and a bit of appreciation that makes him really interesting to listen to. I’ve learned... Read more
Michael Sokolove has published what will be a national conversation-starter in the New York Times magazine that will come out this weekend. In “The Uneven Playing Field,” Sokolove details at tremendous length the high injury risks girls and women face in playing contact sports. I found the piece compelling, frightening, and reflective of common sense: girls are not built like guys, and thus when they play contact sports with tenacity and abandon, they will often face very serious injury. I’ve... Read more
Ninth-12th Grade 1. “To Kill a Mockingbird,” Harper Lee2. “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows”3. “Of Mice and Men,” John Steinbeck4. “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone”5. “A Child Called ‘It,’ ” Dave Pelzer –Source, Seattle Times This selection is part of a larger list that you can read at the link above. Here are some reflections found in the article: “I find it reassuring … that students are still reading the classics I read as a child,” said Roy... Read more
About four years ago, economic historian Ron Chernow completed his multi-year work, Titan (Vintage, 2004). The book’s title mirrors its heft. This is nothing short of a titanic feat. In his capstone text, Chernow has delivered a rich, engrossing, exhaustively detailed portrait of one of history’s most fascinating economic figures, the oilman, John D. Rockefeller, Sr. A lifelong Baptist, Rockefeller represents a complex figure of contrasting qualities. Driven to bend the rules by his need to dominate the oil market,... Read more
You may have heard of the recent hubbub surrounding the release of a new children’s book that is intended to help the offspring of those who have had plastic surgery cope with the surgery’s transformative effect on their parents. Written by a plastic surgeon, My Beautiful Mommy represents an interesting first in the plastic surgery world–it introduces the process to children. Which got me wondering–how long until parents subject their children to plastic surgery? We already know that many parents... Read more
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