Before Holy Mountain

Originally published as a Facebook Note July 11, 2012. I did nothing with this idea, but maybe I should have? Maybe I still can? I did get a lot of great suggestions in the comments. I'm tagging librarians and English teachers on this, but anyone can answer: What are the best/most notable/your favorite uses of place in fiction? Discursive explanation follows: For a few years, I've taught an interdisciplinary course in Coe's first-year seminar program called "A Sense of Place," largely as a free-associating bundle o' chaos careening wildly among various subjects having some loose element of place in them. Before I teach it again, I would like to achieve two things that seem to me contradictory. ("Do I contradict myself? Very well then...") The first is to clarify the core elements of the geographic concept of place, in order to inform whatever we discuss. The second is to study the many ways in which place informs fields outside of geography. Once I...

  Originally posted as a Facebook Note April 25, 2012. Litter (from Wikimedia commons) Yesterday afternoon I was meeting with some of my students at Brewed Awakenings when a driver on 1st Av caught my eye. He was driving a biggish car, stopped at the light at College Drive, and was trying to throw what looked like a Twix wrapper out the passenger side window. He threw it once... bounced back. Threw it again... bounced back. Finally, on the third attempt, he succeeded in throwing his trash out of his car and into the neighborhood.   Litterbugs disgust me, because of the utter needlessness of what they do. Hydraulic fracturing and clear-cutting--and driving cars, for that matter--are bad for the environment, but they have compensating value (energy, timber, transportation). All littering gets the sociopath who commits it is some momentary convenience. (Problem for libertarians: Even a marginal benefit to the individual in this case results in real cost to the society. The logic ...

  Originally published as a Facebook Note March 21, 2012. Hobby Lobby, Cedar Rapids, November 2015             Contraception’s brief tenure as a major issue in the surreal 2012 presidential campaign may have already ended, but I am about to do my second invited appearance on the subject in slightly more than two weeks, making for something like a “contraception tour.” On March 7, I appeared on the local public affairs show “Ethical Perspectives on the News” as part of a panel on the subject, and tomorrow I’m speaking to the brown bag series run by Coe’s Gender Studies program. So, if everyone else is done talking about contraception, I’m not quite done.              The issue arose when the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services issued a directive respecting implementation of the new health law; the directive included birth control prescriptions in the preventive...

  Originally published as a Facebook Note January 21, 2012. Our adult Sunday school class has been reading the book The Heart of Christianity: Rediscovering a Life of Faith by theologian Marcus J. Borg (HarperOne, 2003). I enjoy Borg’s work, and that of his often-collaborator, John Dominic Crossan; even if you don’t agree with their perspectives, they do a valiant job of unpacking a lot of the baggage Christianity has acquired over the centuries. In chapter four of The Heart of Christianity , Borg describes two concepts of God (citing the work of Karen Armstrong as he does so). He uses the terms supernatural theism and panentheism . The first might be termed “God classic,” though he maintains it is only in the last few hundred years that it has come to dominate Christian thinking. God is a person, usually male, who exists above and apart from His creation; He intervenes in creation, at least occasionally, typically in response to intercessory prayer.[1] It stresses God’s judgmen...

  Originally published as a Facebook Note August 14, 2011. I would rather be cold and alone than with Rick Santorum Immediate apologies for the lyrical but misleading title. I have not had tea with any politicians this year. In fact, in contrast to four years ago, there was nothing in the way of any type of refreshment at campaign events this year. I did see some people with water bottles at the Herman Cain event, but didn't see where they got them. In 2007 Robbie and I had pizza on Tommy Thompson, fer cryin out loud.   Having seen five of the Republican presidential candidates this year, I hereby provide some impressions. Since you probably don't care about politics, or if you do might be offended by political commentary, I will confine myself to impressions of their personalities. Who would I like to go to a ballgame with, or have coffee at Brewed Awakenings? If you want actual content, I commend Keenan Laraway's commentary on last week's debate.   The rankings will p...

  Originally published as a Facebook Note July 30, 2011. Apparently the phrase I sought is actually "merit goods." As President, Barack Obama struggled to articulate the "sentence" for even his best policies If you’re like most people, life on Earth is becoming steadily more mystifying. Your head is full of questions like: Why can’t the government agree on a budget? Why is economic inequality growing so inexorably? Why is Barack Obama such an ineffective President? Will the U.S. ever have a coherent energy policy? When will our eyes meet, when can I touch you, and when will this strong yearning end?             You may suspect that there are answers to these questions, and that such answers are long, tedious, and ultimately indeterminate. If only, you say, you had a friend intelligent enough to give you a concise explanation for all this!             Unfortunately, you don’...

  Originally posted as a Facebook Note June 28, 2011. Part 3 of Pink's book is a grab bag of ideas for individuals, institutions, parents and educators for instituting his findings about motivation. It's a lot to think about. Most of it is likely to be inapplicable to any one reader, but anyone ought to find at least a few ideas that are worth thinking about.  Where I am now is thinking about how these might practically plug into my day-to-day teaching. My overall sense is that things are going pretty well, could be better, could be a lot worse. I don't want to try something radical that results in crashing and burning.  Here are three ideas that occur off the top of my head.  1. Better first days. The 24 worst days of my 24-year teaching career have certainly been the first days of the year. The next 24 worst would be the first days of the spring semester. I simply struggle without a text to discuss. It wouldn't be bad to talk about motivation and purpose. Yes, we a...