Monday, January 31, 2005
My article, "New Ways to Lose Your Lunch" is at The Morning News. I feel sort of weird about it, like I shouldn't broadcast the publication too loudly. It's very much not me.
Publishing is like dating, or interviewing for jobs. Rejection, rejection, rejection, rejection, rejection, and then someone thinks you're great. Regardless of the preponderance of evidence, I just believe the good news.
The article does imply that I have a living child, but the truth just didn't fit in a humor article. The editors also added in a couple of comments about drinking, though I've never been in the presence of a keg or of a drunk vomiting person. Oh well - it's hard to know how much of a purist to be in essay writing. Truthfulness has a different standard than in academic research writing.
I surely wouldn't have written the article at all without the blogosphere. I've never had a playspace for writing before - things are usually serious, theological, and/or academic. It's nice to have a place where little is at stake, and the audience is almost always friendly.
Sunday, January 30, 2005
Why did I remove the last post? Because it was rather mean, don't you think?
I'm tapping away on some essays, and have a few questions for you.
1. Do Catholics today, anywhere, still put salt in an infant's mouth at baptism? (Please tell from experience or knowledge- I googled it and got contradictory answers).
2. Is it ever correct to use the word "petted"? Or, is "pet" the past tense of "pet"?
3. Why is my neighbor's cat in my office eating all of Ruby and Opal's food?
4 Comments:
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I liked the last post, I didn't think it was mean, just letting people know that some questions are rude and they should think before they speak.
By
, at 2:54 PM
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Your last post was mean? I suppose you could feel it was mean in the sense that it was not only about insensitive comments that people (in general) make, but that these comments were just made by a nameless person you spoke to on the phone who doesn't read your blog. When you mention it, that was the only kinda "mean" thing about it.
But I think the more important point was one that people responded to - the question of God being in control, and popular American Christian culture's acceptance of the concept without basis in scripture. I think we all look forward to reading more thoughts from you on that one.
Can't tell you about salt in the mouth or mysterious cat behavior, but in my dictionary, the verb forms of "to pet" are "petted," "petting," or "pets." There you have it.
-Kim Van BruntBy
, at 3:14 PM
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Last week I petted the cat. Last week I pet the cat.
"Petted" reminds me of something a 3-year-old would say, like, "I walkeded down the street." Maybe it's correct, tho. -
people get upset when the ways they use theology as a psychic balm are questioned.
dlw
Wednesday, January 26, 2005
Writing this post requires me to confess that I watch The View. I do watch the View, but only the first half hour. Their voices drive me crazy after a few minutes. This morning's guest was Tara Reid, who is apparently denigrating my profession by acting as an anthropologist in a new movie, Alone in the Dark. Here's my summary of some dialogue:
View hag: Now, we're more familiar with you in dumb girl, sex pot roles. Is it more fun to play a smart girl or a dumb girl?
Tara: Dumb girl, of course! It's hard to act smart.
View hag: How do men respond to you playing an anthropologist? Do they believe you're smart?
Tara, giggling: No, they just think I'm a sex pot pretending to be an anthropologist.
Believe it or not, men say that last line to me all the time. Tara and I have more in common than I knew.
Best News of the Day
Tumai, a cheetah at the National Zoo in D.C. gave birth to four healthy kittens in late November, and they're doing well. Cheetahs are going extinct b/c they don't have enough genetic diversity. They keep repeating the same gene combinations, and are unable to create new combinations that could adjust for diseases and new immunities. I went to see them at the zoo a year or two ago, but they weren't interested in being seen by me. I read the info, though, about their small gene pool. I bet those kittens don't like to be petted, either, but I'm very glad they're alive and doing well.
Second Best News
After 7 rejections (well, it might have been 8 or 9), one of my articles was accepted for an on-line magazine. I'll link to it when it comes out - maybe next week.
8 Comments:
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congrats on being published, you sexy beast.
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Darn it Jenell, you're shaming me. I am too scared of rejection to send in anything.
Congrats on being published, and I am sorry that your cover as a sex-pot was blown. BTW, what is the origin of "sexpot"? Someone today accused me of taking "potshots" at them. I am confused. -
I don't know what a sexpot is - etymology says the word was invented in 1954. Potshot...maybe like taking shots at a fish in a barrel - a barrel is like a pot..?
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I found this:
Potshot -- 1858, "shot taken at animal simply to kill for food," in other words, to get it in the pot, not for sporting or marksmanship. Extended sense of "opportunistic criticism" first recorded 1926.
from: http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=potshot&searchmode=none
BTW: Congrats on getting published! -
Jenell,
I am so lame. I actually TiVo the View. To my credit, I do fast forward through all the afore-mentioned lameness just to see who the guests are :). -
Jenell...this is the definition of sexpot.
http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=sexpot
Hope that helps! Anyways, I wonder if this is a good pick-up line for a sexpot impersonating an anthropologist...
"Hey there...I'll exploit your culture anytime!" ?
(Ok, that was horrible...) -
i second hugo.
the thought of having to use capitals or actual punctuation is a mere excuse next to the dreaded rejection letter.
woohoo for you and your perserverance!!! -
Hey, you have a great blog here! I'm definitely going to bookmark you!
I have a **Make Big Money**blog. It pretty much covers Make Big Money articles related stuff.
Come and check it out if you get time :-)By
, at 12:27 PM
Tuesday, January 25, 2005
I read everything you wrote about hope, and wanted to incorporate it into some new paragraphs of my own. I thought about it for three days, and then felt that my paragraphs would have to be even better given the delay, and just couldn't do it. I honestly learned so much from different perspectives, and I'm going to save the comments for some other writing I'm doing. Thank you.
Just to get back into blogging, a list of things to do today:
1. Find food. Something smells bad in the refrigerator and made me retch already today. I'm afraid to re-open it, so I have to strategize to get non-cold food.
2. Shower. Haven't since Saturday.
3. Brush Opal.
I can't think of a fourth thing that would match my first three priorities. I'm going to go get started on #2.
Monday, January 17, 2005
Tell me, what is hope to you? I've been reflecting on this for a year and a half, and yesterday it occurred to me that while I have understood hope from a theological perspective, I have not practiced it as a way of life. I started an essay about it, but only have a few paragraphs complete. Whether or not you read it, consider telling me what hope, or hopelessness, mean to you.
Hope
Our infant loss support group leader, a lesbianish Buddist hospital chaplain, devoted a session to hope. She said, “It’s important to experience hopelessness. If you go into the experience, your heart finds its own answers.” People talked about hope in different ways. One woman, fresh from the loss of her genetically nonviable baby, said if she had hope, she would make decisions based on possible goodness, not on fear. A bereaved father said he wanted to be vulnerable and open to something good happening in the future. Another dad said he would be hopeful if he stopped making decisions based on preventing the worst from happening. A mom said hope is cosmic meaning, believing that our pain is not for nothing. We were all wishing for hope, none of us having much.
For me, hope is about taking real risks, something I’ve rarely done. Trying to gestate triplets was a real risk, and I handled it with despair and panic. I hedged my bets all along, saying, “If the babies are born…” or “I just have a bad sense about this whole thing…” I had a cloud of fatalism and doom hanging over me every day. When I cried, it was often about myself and my lack of control. “I’m not good at this!” “I can’t do this!”
I normally only get myself into situations in which my excellent performance is a high likelihood. I have taken what, in other peoples’ eyes, seem to be significant risks, but they weren’t for me. In high school, I was a debater – a “master debater” in my high school’s insult parlance. I was extremely competitive, and experienced humiliating defeat many times. When I lost badly, however, I took close notes and learned from my betters and improved. I become a good debater – one year even the “winningest” debater in the state. Arguing extemporaneously in front of a judge is a risky thing, but I knew that even if I lost this round, that I was very good and would win more than I lost. If I didn’t have some assurance about the outcome, I wouldn’t have tried.
Leaving Minnesota to go to graduate school in Washington, D.C. was a similar risk. I didn’t know whether or not my faith could thrive at a secular school, or if I was smart enough for graduate study, or if I could live in a Big East Coast City, a place where people eat pasta instead of potatoes, read The Atlantic Monthly instead of Newsweek, and talk of travels to Europe instead of Iowa or the Dakotas. So I carefully hedged my bets. My three college mentors – a Bible prof, an anthropology prof, and a campus minister – all said I could do it. I accepted American University’s assistantship based on my mentors' confidence in me, not my own. I said to my boyfriend, “Will you still love me if I fail out and move back home?” He said, “Yes,” (but then broke up with me a year later for other reasons). I made a reasoned choice, believing I could probably succeed, and then created a back-up plan in case of failure.
Gestating triplets was a challenge of another order. My body is (well, was) fairly good at being skinny, and at moderate exercise, but I’ve never really put it to any tests other than reading or typing for long periods of time. I’ve long believed that my mother gave the best of her gestational powers to my older sister, and I got what was left over 14 months after Karen was born. She has perfect teeth, and I had braces. She has perfect eyes, and I have glasses. She competed in synchronized swimming, and I debated. I hadn’t tested my body to extremes, and didn’t know what it could handle. And in pregnancy, there’s no back-up plan. The babies are coming out either alive or dead, but they’re coming out of my body, no question about it. There aren’t any other options.
For me, hope is putting my whole heart into something, with no back-up plan except for God’s love waiting for me regardless of outcome. Trying, even though I really, really don’t know how it will turn out. Then, after things sometimes turn out badly, trying again and believing that my efforts matter.
13 Comments:
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I like it. Very personal, yet very true to what hope is.
Here is a bit of what hope is for me, both a large example, and a specific one.
Hope for me is seeing my future as bright, seeing tomorrow as better than today, no matter how bad today may be. Hope is telling my friends who hates his public speaking class that after tommorrow, he will have one less public speaking class to go to. -
Hey Jenell, it's Kim. I told you I'd comment if I got brave enough, and I really identified with this post. Not because I have had similar personal experiences, but because I've experienced hopelessness in another way and learned how to hope again.
For me, the ultimate expression of hope is to be in relationship. At all. With anyone, including God. It's participating and investing in relationship with my whole self (or as much as I know how), even though I know the more I invest in earthly relationships, the more difficult it will be later when the relationship has to end -- through death or some other way. (Except my relationship with God; there's hope in that, too.) It's believing that in the end, love will win and all the love I've spent and experienced will not be in vain.
Maybe that's kind of like what you said -- but I see hope so clearly when I think about love.
-Kim Van BruntBy
, at 12:22 AM
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Thanks for this post and for your blog.
I've spent time considering my sense of hope. It bothered me that I wasn't acting with much hope even though I profess Christ and see evidence of reasons to hope all around me. My own hope was poor, it seemed.
This past Lent I wore a ring with "HOPE" engraved on it as a talisman to remind me to be hope-full. To have hope in the future. I decided that hope is a habit like happiness and that I would practice hope as a discipline.. I think it is working. The world hasn't changed but my perspective has changed.
Thanks again!By
St. Casserole, at 9:19 AM
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Jenell, I think about 'hope' a lot due to an influential book I read some time ago. What struck me then/now is that 'hope' is not something that causes us to ignore the despair we have/are experiencing, but something which nevertheless helps us believe that the present despair or difficulty is not the end of our life. Hope helps us recognize and trust in God's promise to be the God of the living; to crush death and bring out life. So, despite what we see, we hope in the future of God's kingdom. Practically, it is my hope that simply keeps me coming back week after week to a place of worship, certainly not because I'm 'convinced by the evidence.'
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Hope seems to me to be the bridge to something that either doesn't exist yet or something in the more perfect world that God touches would exist--I don't know which one. But I do think that hope and patience or perserverence go together, and with true hope there is a sense that which we can have confidence will come to pass. You can hope can Minnesota will never get below -20, but there isn't reality in that. I seem to focus more on hope for how I can or other people can differently interact with the world. I like to ask the question, "What kind of person would I like to be?" The hope is the space between what I am now, and what I will be in answering that question, and the how in between. I don't hope for trouble to never touch me. I hope for serenity in all circumstances. I don't hope that I will get married by the time I'm 30 or for a perfect job. I hope for challenge and joy in whatever I do.
By
Solomon's Girl, at 11:02 PM
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Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune--without the words,
And never stops at all,
And sweetest in the gale is heard;
And sore must be the storm
That could abash the little bird
That kept so many warm.
I've heard it in the chillest land,
And on the strangest sea;
Yet, never, in extremity,
It asked a crumb of me.
Emily DickinsonBy
Mr. Fearless, at 11:12 PM
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There seems to be two kinds of hope: the eternal hope that doesn't disappoint and the temporal hope that can. I think as believers we are called to both. The eternal hope seems easy in a sense, because it doesn't disappoint. But hoping in something temporal means you are willing to hope in the face of possible disappointment. I've often thought that the scary thing isn't about hope itself, but rather the fact that we see disappointment as shameful.
Charity
www.theonegrand.comBy
, at 2:44 PM
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I agree with Christy. I just recently started believing that being incarnational means voicing hope while hazarding being wrong in disappointment. The situation in my mind is divorce because a friend recently got divorced and I wished I had been consistently hopeful for her instead of focusing on their dysfunction.
EricaBy
, at 12:32 AM
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I've been thinking about hope too these days, having some need of it myself. Good comments from Charity and Erica. They remind me of an article in First Things from a couple months ago about Mother Teresa (find it at www.firstthings.com, search for Mother Teresa).
From the article: "'Keep smiling,' Mother Teresa used to tell her community and guests, and somehow, coming from her, it doesn’t seem trite. For when she kept smiling during her night of faith, it was not a cover-up but a manifestation of her loving resolve to be 'an apostle of joy.'"
Sometimes, I think, hope is less a feeling, more a decision.By
Peter Schrock, at 11:35 AM
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To me, hope is this:
Being confident that, no matter how much what I'm facing really sucks, God is going to redeem it and make something beneficial and good out of it.
If I read Romans 5 and 8 correctly, God still lets the bad stuff happen, and he doesn't make it any less bad. But what he does is promise us that he's the master artist who takes the random brushstrokes, the imperfections and blemishes on the canvas, and turns them into something that is ultimately beautiful and good and redemptive.
I have, over the last few years, gone through some really difficult circumstances, things that could have cost me everything I value except my health and life. (And yes, I know how shallow that might sound.) For a time I was convinced, for example, that my family and/or career might fall apart. But even then, I knew that God--although he might allow those things to happen (thankfully, he didn't)--had me and my circumstances in his hands, and I trusted him with them. "Though he slay me, yet I will hope in him" (Job 13.15).By
Circleslide, at 3:11 PM
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I've changed my mind. After losing a relationship and a car in 2 days, and the prospect of new employment a day after that, Hope is the label on the bottle of red wine that my roommate bought me, along with some very pretty flowers and a BIG bottle of vodka. It's time I get to know hard liquor.
By
Solomon's Girl, at 5:56 PM
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Jenell--
hope is ending your blog with positiveness... or subtly mentioning a faith/hope in God. you seem to have that kind of hope... some of us don't have any idea if god loves us... hears us... or gives a damn. but you seem to have hope that god does... at least you seem to subconsciously hold on to that hope against all rational thought. wish i knew why i don't feel much like that anymore.
--one time attender of the porchBy
, at 11:47 PM
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For the depressed, hope is a distant glimmer. It is no assurance of better days but a belief in the chance.
This whole dependence on God for hope seems like shit if referring to improved earthly conditions. A spiritual person can hope for an afterlife, but God never promises your tomorrow will be better than today.
Hope is falling asleep overwhelmed, but waking up and for the first two and a half minutes forgetting what was weighing on you.
--one time attenderBy
, at 5:04 PM
Sunday, January 16, 2005
I'm double-minded. I want to go to church this afternoon (it's 2:45, church at 5:30), yet I also don't want to go.
My fears.
1. Last time I went to church (4-5 weeks ago), my stomach stopped digesting food and I threw up afterwards. I'm afraid I'll throw up if I go.
2. I'm afraid people will ask me how I'm doing, and I'll talk about myself too much, and then feel like a self-indulgent loser afterwards.
3. I need to lie on my side on a couch, and what if someone feels that I don't want to move my feet so they can sit by me? What if church is really crowded, and I'm taking up 3 spots?
4. What if I feel overstimulated and nervous? I've only left the house a few times this week.
5. What if someone brings a big cake, or cookies, or something I like, and the neighborhood kids take it all before I get to the food table? (it almost happened last time - I had to monitor their portions so I could have some!)
6. What if my back hurts too much and I can't walk up all those stairs?
My hopes.
1. I want to see my friends.
2. I often gather a thought or two from a song or sermon that I think about all week.
3. Occasionally I even experience something spiritual at church, and there's no telling whether or not that will happen - I need to go to find out.
4. Someone might bring a big cake or something decadent and I will get a piece.
5. If I decide to go, then I'll take a shower (it's been 3 days), and I usually feel really good about myself for showering.
6. I generate great writing ideas during church and jot things down in my journal. Most enjoyable.
The verse that comes to mind in making this decision is James 1:6-8. "He must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does."
I deserve nothing. As I write, however, I am leaning toward taking the shower and going to church. If my worst fears come true, I can leave early. If my hopes are realized, I'll be happy.
7 Comments:
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the upside for me if you come:
I get to see my friend Janel.
I am a better preacher when you are there, I like speaking and knowing you will have a response.By
Doug Pagitt, at 4:43 PM
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well, had i read your post before church, i would've used a bit more tact in the whole "how are you doing?" thing - but you know when you just see someone and your heart opens up? well, that happens when i see you. i admire you and care for you (even though we hardly know each other), so when your life is filled with such enormous joy and some fear, i can't help but be drawn to you in a spirit of sisterhood.
you are a stronghold in our church and i hope to see you there every week - bath or no bath!
p.s. doesn't it stink that there were no good treats tonight? -
I brought Jolly Ranchers last night, but I won't get a jewel in my crown for doing it. I brought them b/c I didn't like them. Jolly Rancher Smoothies - eeech.
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I was very happy to see you there, and your tummy.
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I, too, was glad to see you at church and would have laid off the "hi!!! how are you feeling!!! you look great!!!" shmoozing had I read you blog earlier. But I, too, was so happy to see you and want you to know that you are loved and thought of and prayed for. I'm sure that can be overwhelming when you rarely have human contact so i'll try to hold myself back next time. By the way, as far as next time is concerned, if you let me know ahead of time that you're coming to church I'll make a cake especially for you and hide it until you get there. Any requests? Chocolate? Strawberry? Carrot? - Sarah
By
, at 1:11 PM
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Woo hoo! Worry aloud, and you shall receive! I'd love any cake, Sarah, especially strawberry or carrot - anything with some fruit. I'm planning to come this Sunday, if that doesn't rush you!
And, btw, I'm not normally obsessed with whether or not I get a piece of cake. -
Oh, Jenell, I absolutely adore you for this list. Especially #5 on your fears list.
Of course, I'm on a diet at the moment and the thought of cake is coursing through my very pores.
Saturday, January 15, 2005
I have a student who wants to intern/work for a local human rights organization? Amnesty Int'l is well-organized here, but I don't know of any others?
Any leads?
4 Comments:
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The Center for Victims of Torture (www.cvt.org) would probably be a great place for a student to intern. I'd also suggest contacting Vincent Peters in the Office of Off-Campus Programs--he's in touch with most of the local human rights organizations.
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I'm not sure if it qualifies under "human rights" but what about Urban Homeworks?
By
, at 7:38 PM
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Thanks! I referred her to Amnesty, CVT, Minnesota Advocates, and Vincent Peters. Urban Homeworks, while one of my favorite non-profits, isn't about human rights (unless treating humans rightly counts).
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Is that the same V Peters who totally lost custody of his children due to beating his wife and children? My sister in law knows about that guy. I cant believe he works at a christian college and does human rights work when his own personal life is so vile. He must be good at acting.
By
, at 1:22 PM
Tuesday, January 11, 2005
As I said last post, I gestate and talk to my cats. About 3,000 people have e-mailed me asking, "Tell us more - what do you talk to your cats about?" Well, I can tell you generally what we discuss, but the details are confidential.
Ruby and I talked for about 30 minutes this morning about her plans for the day, and my plans for the day. She was facing some challenges around waking up, and I had just retired for my morning nap at 11:30. She crawled under the covers, and we talked about how it's really hard to get out of bed, and how I was going to throw up if I didn't force myself to get up and fill my stomach. She disclosed some fairly personal things, and I don't think I should blog about them unless I ask her permission.
Opal has been quiet today. She's doing some serious inner spiritual work. She and I have been studying The Critical Journey together, and she's working on transcending to stage 7 (I'm wavering between 2 and 3). She is encountering some fear and resistance, but is finding Jesus to be her comforter. She's working the program, and it shows. This is exhausting work for her, so she's sleeping quite a bit.
I wish I could post pictures of them, but I lost access to the digital camera I was using earlier.
6 Comments:
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Jenell, we are living a very similar life for now. I too have entered the wonderful world of pregnancy fat pants, which I don't loathe as much as fat shirts, too many of which are like huge blousey balloons with arm and head holes. I have not yet worn a pair of pants with the over-the-belly panel though; I prefer the super low-rise Old Navy models. The only risk with these is that, unless you're wearing a previously mentioned balloon shirt that hangs to the knees, you risk ass cleavage when sitting down.
Also, since my husband has been doing a lot of job-related traveling to New Jersey, my cats hear an awful lot about pregnancy. My little cat actually murmurs back to me sometimes, probably to say "thank God you had me spayed." Although we did have a conversation last night about the superiority of pink feather toys compared to white puffy ones... I'm not quite sure if they're sharing my world or I'm sharing theirs... Kira CampbellBy
, at 11:14 AM
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I am home sick (still) and talking with Matilde about many things.
Today, she played in bed and had her morning full-body massage. She has come to expect spa day to be every day, however, and takes our ministrations for granted.
Her mother and I are squabbling over how many nuts Matilde ought to have each day. My beloved wishes I would not project my own body issues on to a chinchilla, but is it so so wrong to want to keep one's rodent sleek? -
Scooter just came home from a week long vacation in Mexico--actually, I went, and she went to stay with my old roommate. She actually shed a tear when I told her she had to come home.
By
Solomon's Girl, at 4:51 PM
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Kira, good to hear - both that you're getting good and round, and that the cats communicate with you.
Hugo, I think you're probably right about the nuts. It's not good for animals to be fat - just don't make her compete in marathons.
Anna, welcome home!! -
Critical Journey is one of my favorite resources. It has journeyed long with me as I have with it.
I am deeply interested in your understanding of how the emergent church fits into Hageberg/Guelich's schema. As a spiritual director, I have watched from the outside the "emergents" fascination with mystery, awe and quiet which normally occur at stage four after "the wall." It seems to me that the emergent church may be more at stage one with it all. What do you think?
(And a hearty congrats about the babe in your womb!) -
I have been reviewing the net for awhile and it looks like I am chasing rainbows to come across answers. Finally some progress when I found your blog. I really enjoyed your most current post.
A fellow blogger,
comforter double downBy
Asking About Down, at 2:53 AM
Monday, January 10, 2005
I don't want to overblog about my pregnancy, but honestly, I do nothing but gestate and talk to the cats. I'm well aware that neither of these things make for very good stories. Today I decided my regular pants, pulled very, very low, are too tight. Time for fat pants. I like the over-the-belly pants that have a 10-inch high stretchy panel. I may be the only blogger with this much belly fat, but when I lean forward, especially when it's warm, I get a red line that traces the upper contour of my belly. Very top of the belly, bottom of the ribcage. Imagine pants that fit right there, absorbing some of the sweat produced by the above-fat and below-fat rubbing each other. Imagine pants going halfway up your back, embracing all your back fat and all your belly fat. Heaven.
I've had some fashion troubles since 2000, though some would say it began earlier. In 2000, we were thinking about starting to try to get pregnant sometime soon, so buying new clothes seemed wasteful. A year and a half of infertility went by, but hey, pregnancy could happen any month, so still old clothes. Then pregnancy and a year of depression, both of which warrant little fashion. Now, a craving for fat pants.
James says I've wandered off the path and am in danger of living in a fashion-desolate wilderness, and I may need someone to help bring me back. Let me know if that someone could be you, but hold off for a year or so. For now, fat wins out over fashion.
7 Comments:
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That is the beauty of pregnancy, sista! Fat pants, large cokes, ice cream cones...and not a care in the weight department world.
You enjoy your fat pants...regardless of your pouch and "back fat" you are still beautiful! -
ah, to be liberated from fashion (and fat) troubles by pregnancy! there is no greater freedom. i say blog your pregnancy, there's plenty of material there and we birth/baby junkies need a fix.
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I remember my wife going through a number of cravings during her pregnancies, but this is the first I've heard of any that were fashion related-
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my wife loved overalls and sweatpants - was pregnant with both children in SC summer, though, and found maternity shorts (no way i'm calling 'em fat pants!!!) and swimsuits. that's about as "fashion craving" as she got - but it's all good in the end.
and after it's over, you've got some comfies "just in case". -
No pregnant woman (apart from Rachel Stratford) can pull of sexy, so fat it is! You should also know you don't have to settle for over-the-belly anymore, thanks to Old Navy, etc. I have grown fond of the under-belly band that rides about mid-tummy and feels a whole lot more comfy to me. These pants are now available everywhere maternity clothes are sold. Also, drawstring anything is good. I shopped just today, although at this stage I find it depressing because I realize I am just going to be huge for the next two months and there ain't no getting around it--literally. carla
By
, at 3:42 PM
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i agree wholeheartedly with the "fat pants". when i was preggo w/ duke, i was so big that i just wanted something that felt like it was going to hold this kid in! i think i wore the same thing for the last month of pregnancy (gross - i know, but come on, i was on bed rest and didn't leave the house much)!
however, i did manage to have my maternity leather pants which i wore in months 4 through 7 ... leather pants, black turtleneck and sneakers. i don't know if that was fashion or weird ... -
You have a great blog here! I will be sure to book mark you. I have a fashion spot site. It pretty much covers fashion spot related stuff. Check it out if you get time :-)
Friday, January 07, 2005
Setting: A small family-owned Bible Bookstore where my mom and aunt work. Jenell, our main character, went there today to eat lunch with her mother because she wanted a Schlotsky's deli sandwich from the Crystal store. Said sandwich has more fat than a Big Mac, and keeps her full for awhile. Jenell hasn't showered for three days, and is looking somewhat less than professional.
Characters:
Jan, Jenell's aunt
Bette, Jenell's mom
Carol, a customer/friend of mom and aunt
Bill, a local man who makes the rounds talking to clerks at local businesses every day
Scene One:
Jenell is staffing the counter while Jan runs home to let her dog out and watch her soap opera.
Carol: Are you Jan's daughter?
Jenell: No, I'm her niece. I'm Bette's daughter.
Carol: Wonderful! So... are you a homemaker?
Jenell: No, I'm a professor.
Carol: Really?
Jenell: Really. I teach at Bethel U. I'm an anthropologist.
Carol, eyes widening: Really? Can you do that as a Christian?
Jenell: Well, I do.
Carol: I was a nurse, but now I teach piano lessons and teach Sunday school.
Scene Two:
Jenell is still staffing the counter. Bill walks in, and Jenell's eyes dart around the store for an easy escape. Finding none, she talks to Bill.
Bill: You're Bette's daughter, right? The teacher?
Jenell: Yes.
Bill: What do you teach about?
Jenell: Anthropology.
Bill: What's that?
Jenell: The study of culture.
Bill: Well, I'll tell you, our culture sure has a lot of problems with all the swearing and cursing going on. Do you tell the students about that?
Jenell: Sort of.
Bill: Don't you have any kids?
Jenell: I have three deceased children.
Bill, straining in a hard-of-hearing kind of way: Great! How old are the three of them?
Jenell: Bill, I said THEY'RE DEAD. ALL DEAD.
Bill: Oh, that's sad. So, do you have a master's degree, or how did you get the teaching job?
Jenell: I have a doctorate.
Bill: Well, woo woo, Mrs. Doctorate.
Jenell: I'm not bragging. That's just what my degree is called.
11 Comments:
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I think you ought to have a small camera mounted in the store, and show videos of your encounters to your students. Perhaps you got the latest NAEGSA bulletin, in which it was suggested that we work on developing Christian reality TV shows, based on everything from Candid Camera to the Real World to Survivor. Your bookstore would work for Candid Christian Camera.
I'm working on casting the Real NEXT World, where we find out if a sexy young Pentecostal from Arkansas can find true love with a studly, but straight-laced, PCA seminary student from Michigan.
I need my cold medicine. -
A tragedy in two acts. Except the carnage on the stage as the curtain closes is emotional rather than physical. Which makes it even worse.
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this cracks me up. i'd love to hear it in audio. maybe you could podcast AND blog now that you're home gestating.
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so glad things like this happen to other people, too :) - does the security camera footage carry the audio, too? that would be great to have.
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Oh, Jenell. Brilliant and funny and the perfect ending to my Saturday night.
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That story is at once wonderful and gives me the urge to belt out, "Ewwww."
I'm not really sure why...wait, yes I am. -
Dr. Paris, I think you were bragging.
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HILARIOUS!
You must start writing comedy--then you can brag some more AND go to hell, since Christians cannot be funny (unless its singing slightly colorful Christmas carols like Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer).By
, at 1:07 PM
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HILARIOUS!
You must start writing comedy--then you can brag some more AND go to hell, since Christians cannot be funny (unless its singing slightly colorful Christmas carols like Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer).
AnnaBy
, at 1:07 PM
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Hello, just visited your bible blog, I also have a bible related website, it's about some books which is helpful to understand the God's Words
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I usually say, "I profess Mathematics." Most folks have never heard of the verb in that context. In my evangelical subculture, we were chided for professing, with words like these: "It's not about professing, it's about possessing."
I like the advice of my department chair at Cornell U., where I got my Ph.D.: Don't use the word "doctor" in public, or you'll get a call in the middle of the night to deliver a baby."
--Mr. ChaseBy
Gene Chase, at 5:01 PM
Tuesday, January 04, 2005
Today is my first day of short-term disability leave from Bethel. This is the first semester's beginning I've missed out on since 1977, when kindergarten began. I love school, and don't need the break for reasons of burn-out, but everything in me says this is the right thing to do. Regardless of my inner feelings, the doctors say it's the right thing, too, which is why I'm doing it.
I'm home alone, and doing next to nothing, except gestating, which is sort of alot to do in a day.
I'm exhausted, but determined today at some point to go to the fabric store to buy calico. I'm making two Little House bonnets for two little girls in Buffalo.
Monday, January 03, 2005
Both here, at Dave's, and at the Generous Orthodoxy site, some impt questions have been raised. Is women's suppression in the church really a significant issue? How can it be a significant issue when some people don't even see it happening? Are women really excluded, or are they timid to take opportunities open to them? By what processes are women's voices silenced or not heard? How do church leaders handle dissent in general - are dissenters punished, heard, dialogued with...?
I was most moved by the diversity of Christians on the issue. In the discussion of A Generous Orthodoxy alone, we have women who are wounded by exclusionary processes, men who 'get it' and want things to change, men (and probably women too) who don't see the problem at all, and probably some women who are doing just fine speaking their minds.
When Ben asked about I Timothy, I initially felt pushed back to square one (and thanks to laura b. for a great reply). But, of course, those verses are really there. I don't want to offer an entire exegesis of those verses, but I do want to at least reply to Ben, and suggest some ways we can approach our tradition in seeking understanding about women. First off, I think we need to listen to God, not just the biblical text. This means considering scripture, tradition, the voice of the Holy Spirit, and our own experience (I still give priority to Scripture, but it is not the only voice).
Second, when we approach Scripture, we must not treat it as if it only speaks to women 5-6 times (similar with gays, minorities, etc.). All of Scripture is for all of us. In that light, I see broad biblical themes about the gifts of the Holy Spirit driving our contributions to the church, not our gender, age, physical characteristics, or the like. Granted, some others don't see that theme at all. We also need to read prohibitory passages about women in tandem with stories about women's leadership (Deborah, Miriam, etc.). I acknowledge the Bible says wild things about women, some of which seem contradictory to me. I just read Isaiah the other day, and it compares Israel to a whore, and warns against powerful men being reduced to living like women. Ugh.
I Timothy in particular seems sort of odd, like something specific said for a reason. On its face, it doesn't really make sense. Why would women be encouraged as leaders and prophetesses at other points in scripture, and then banned from speech altogether here? Also, they are banned from speaking in the church services, I believe. That is only one part of church life, and the church building isn't even the church itself. I think there was something specific going on in that church that warranted women shutting up for awhile for the sake of the whole community. I don't read it as a timeless, universal passage because it is so idiosyncratic, and its message is not clearly stated or repeated throughout the Bible (and certainly not by Jesus).
Doug wrote an interesting post today about the larger emergent conversation and how it may turn into a battle in the public arena. I like what's happened here - we've taken a book written by a known person in our community writ large, and used it to spark dialouge about things that matter. We don't need to either dogmatically defend or destroy the book, its author, his intentions, or the movement. We can just dialogue, learn, and take something away for our own communities.
8 Comments:
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It seems to me it's important for us to think about Paul's metaphor of us as the body of Christ when we're talking about issues that seem to really hurt for some and seem like no big deal for others. He's pretty clear when he says that if part of the body is suffering, the whole body needs to pay attention. So really, dealing with the question of women in the church is not about getting it or not, about experiencing it or not. It's about the fact that we have sisters who have experienced something hurtful and agreeing with their hurt is not the criteria for whether we do anything about it. We need to be people who care, who are willing to listen and work toward a life that isn't hurtful.
In many ways, those who have not experienced the pain are in a better position to affect change. They can act out of a place of strength and be a source of hope and comfort for those still trying to move forward in the midst of their hurt. They can be a voice for those whose voices get ignored.By
, at 6:51 PM
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oh, that was me, Carla, going on about the body stuff. Glad you're back Jenell. Hope the trip was worth the volumns of vomit involved.
By
, at 8:05 PM
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I think the Isaiah passage needs to be read with the original context in mind. It is not saying that women should always be at the level they were back then.
I agree experience matters and that tradition should ideally be the codified voices of past reflections on experience.
At the heart of many acrimonious religious debates is not the authority of scripture, per se, but rather us failing to come to terms with how we have read our traditions into scripture and errantly proclaimed them inerrant.
dlw -
yes, women's suppression is definitely an issue. Yes it is significant. I was reading several posts the other day concerning the trinity. It is interesting that we debate all day about the trinity and ignore the suppression of women. I wonder what Jesus' take on this would be. It really is an issue of justice. We gert more pissed off about crap that is not relevant to the reign of God in the lives of people on this planet. I realize we all have our interests, but I hear so much about "the emergent church" and I wonder what the hell is that all about? Emerging from what? This is not a criticism, I am only making an observation.
Men shave the sideburns and women no longer cover their head when they pray. It is all there in scripture, but how we interpret scripture is vital. In the evangelical church much of the interpretation has been done by a white dudes with fairly weak understanding of scripture, church history and theology. (I've been there) I don't mean to sound harsh, but if someone really wants to emerge or defend the "emergent church" then may we begin by defending the dignity of women and stop treating them like they our 1st century possessions. That is a path of emerging. We can discuss the gay thing another day. :)
Rick -
Jenell, I appreciate that you've taken on a tough issue. I find that our interpretations of scripture are still cloaked in the false idea of "objectivity"--"we're just letting the Word speak for itself"--and still rooted in layer upon layer of culture that is too thick to discern. The debate about women's role in the church assumes something that is too often unspoken. It assumes a monarchical relationship in the Trinity. We've got to get that out in the open as part of the debate. And even the hermeneutic that says we're going to treat each passage individually to see which ones were culturally informed and which ones are 'universal' is itself a culturally informed hermeneutic, a product of the Enlightenment.
I personally have little interest in proof-texting. I think, particularly around this issue, it ignores the larger themes of scripture. Jesus is a radical subversive. So is the Father. They actively overturn even the hint of patriarchy and monarchy through service and self-sharing and self-giving. They stand firmly for justice. These themes get lost in the pissy little debates about such minutae as women's head coverings.
Sometimes I despair! How do we get at 'truth'? The answer, I think, is dialogue. We've got to dialogue with the Word and with our communities and with the Word in our communities and with history and the Word in our communities.
Zossima, www.forgettingourselves.comBy
, at 10:18 PM
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I think the notion of the trinity matters ultimately because it underlies what Jesus prayed for when he prayed for us to be one as he and God were one(John 17). It is fundamentally an ecclesiastical question that also points to what the role of scripture and tradition should be.
As I understand it, key to the interpretation of scripture should be reading it in light of the metanarrative of Creation, Fall and Redemption as it is first set out in Gen. 3.
The fall consisted of the breaking of the covenant between and among humans(Man and Woman) and God, wherein Woman became Man's wife, named by him as Eve, as a result of the fall. God only punished them both by excluding them from the Garden, presumably for their own good, since to have remained immortal would not have been good for them and this exclusion then resulted in both Man and Woman having to suffer hard labor and mortality.
And so it seems biblical that male and female relations, in the family and the church, would not be set once and for all, but rather be something that is in the process of redemption.
I'm guessing you're probably aware of Pam Cochran, who argues that USEvangelicals confuse the traditional USAmerican notion of family with the biblical notion of family, which is implied as being more inclusive.
dlw -
Hello, just visited your bible blog, I also have a bible related website, it's about some books which is helpful to understand the God's Words
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, at 7:34 AM
3 Comments:
the morning news! you are SO HIP! congrats.
By
kp, at 1:51 PM
I don't think I tell you often enough, Jenell, that you are my hero. Truly, sister! I've sent a few reworked versions of my blog posts off to a couple of online places, which, while not the same as an academic journal, is still a step. And I would not have done it without your encouragement.
And thank you for the review of vomit, I read it with my turkey wraps in hand.
By
Hugo, at 4:25 PM
Oh, wow--now you've given us dozens of terms for regurgitation.
I guess we need a richer vocabulary for that particular function.
I've heard that Eskimos have hundreds of words for "snow." (Actually, I've also since heard that they really don't, and that only insensitive types like myself call them "Eskimos," when the prevailing wind prefers the term Inuit.)
BTW, my friends and I used to call it "selling Fords." We called it that because we thought the vomit syllable sounded kind of like "ffffORRRRRD."
Anyway. We were teenagers, what did we know.
PLStepp
By
Circleslide, at 2:26 PM
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