My 27-year-old self would’ve thought that, by now, I would not be startled when I have weeks like this. Weeks when the deadlines of my “other things” all crowd around into a single span, shoving my “real things” under the bed and into hampers. Yet here I am, startled to not finish yesterday’s post before […]
It’s still Yom Kippur, until well after sunset. So I’m still thinking about the practice of “settling accounts” for a year’s behavior. Y’know, like small businesses (and once-upon-a-time households) routinely go through their expenses and their money coming in, making sure everything lines up and the amount the bank says is there and the amount […]
גמר חתימה טובה /gemar chatimah tovah/ a good final sealing (of the book of Life for the year) I don’t know the actual Hebrew words yet, but I’m getting pretty good at sounding things out. Kind of like the six-year-olds you know. H-OU-S, house. It’s the last day of the Jewish High Holy Days, the […]
It’s been some years now since this moment of dismay. We — the usual crew of loving Scripture-wrestlers, cheerfully not just agreeing to disagree, but willing to hang on to each other’s different understandings alongside our own — were putting some passage through its paces. Somehow either the text or the gloss we were using […]
i want to sing a song worth singing, i’ll write an anthem worth repeating. […] i’ve spent my whole life searching desperately to find out that grace requires nothing of me. —“One,” Sleeping At Last More yardwork, more podcasts. Today’s included the exposition of Ryan O’Neal’s exquisitely detailed process in building the song “One,” which […]
At the end of my Wednesday workout, my trainer and I discussed how we would fit our Friday puzzle-pieces together. There’s an exercise component, which takes about an hour not counting cleanup, and there’s an assisted stretching component, which takes… well, however long it needs to and lately that’s been two and a half hours. […]
It’s 8:30am, and I’ve already taken about 900 steps. This is way more than I manage when I’m working at home… I only start to see these sorts of numbers when I’m formally working out—you know, taking steps on purpose. On Monday, as I tried to see whether I could set up the printer near […]
To begin with, unlike the sale of a commodity, the giving of a gift tends to establish a relationship between the parties involved.* * It is this element of relationship which leads me to speak of gift exchange as an “erotic” commerce, opposing eros (the principle of attraction, union, involvement which binds together) to logos […]
As I turned into the school parking lot—well, turned into the residential half of campus, heading toward the commuter parking in the heart, by the creek—I snaked down to my preferred spot with this blaring through the closed windows of my car. I would’ve rolled down the windows and cranked the volume louder, but somehow […]
On this proper Monday morning, I check the time before I need to leave for the gym. There’s time to copy my portion (3 Bible verses) and pray my daily prayers. Oh, and I’ll need a water-bottle at the gym. Oh, the towel draped over the dining chair is dry; it and the others need […]
