Calvinism (bulleted list)
Mar 5, 2008 Friends, Judaism, Race, Spirituality, The Story of My Life
- Last night at writers group, my friend Sarah told me that she was thinking on this post (the one where I out myself as a former slut) and she was wondering why the thinking felt familiar to her then she realized, I’m a Calvinist! Except for the being Jewish part. Now I don’t know much about Calvinism or any other brand of Christianity (my friend Sarah is a savvy Christian and is patient about explaining denominational differences to me) but the way she explained it is that Calvinists preach that no one is better than anyone else and so there’s no “holier than thou” teaching there. Now don’t start arguing with me about Calvinism because I don’t know a darn thing anyway but we all thought it was funny, me being a Calvinistic Jew.
- Then after writers group we strolled out of the restaurant and stood on the sidewalk chatting last minute when several police cars whizzed down the road. We were in downtown Worthington (we met at Le Chatelaine). If you don’t live here I’ll explain that downtown Worthington is like Main Street, America. Kitschy little shops, a few adorable-type restaurants and a village green that has Sunday night concerts. But the main drag cuts through all of Columbus, which is what keeps Worthington from being quite a sleepy little suburb. Anyway, the police cars go by with lights and sirens and then the street was totally silent. Suddenly another car comes shooting down and slams into a streetlight, shedding it’s bumper and several other important-looking parts; bounces off the streetlight; fishtails down the block (knocking into at least one other car, maybe two); skids into the Graeter’s parking lot; whips around and roars down New England Avenue. We stood there stunned and then a million point one police cars suddenly careen into view from both directions, arriving at the intersection where the car left and then scatter leaving two of them to literally pick up the pieces. I have no idea where the guy was coming from, why he was running and whether or not they caught him. It was crazy and I was shaking hard for quite awhile after the street was clear again.
- Madison is going to the doctor today because yesterday she still seemed to be carrying herself differently from her non-fall on the couch. Today she seems fine (it’s always that way — like the day you’re supposed to get your hair cut it looks good for the first time in days). We’re going anyway. Noah is going rollerskating so he can wrench his neck.
- I can’t believe the primaries are dragging on. My heart can’t take it and it’s not even anywhere near November yet. You know, I always felt like Hillary was paving the way for a woman president by her stint in the White House as first lady; I never thought that first president would be her. I’m wondering if she took Ohio because Republicans could also vote in the Democratic primary. (You can vote in whichever you want — you just tell the folks at the table which primary you want to have a say in.) I think Obama is a better match for McCain and maybe they do, too. But I tell you — I love Michelle Obama.
- Speaking of Obama, the other day Madison pointed to some talking head on television and asked if that was Obama. I said, no, Obama had brown skin and then showed her a picture. She said, “Oh like ME!” And yeah, that made me want to vote for him a little bit more. I don’t want to get into a pissing contest about race versus gender but if I was only voting on the “who should go first?” ticket (and I’m not), it’d be race. I’m having a hard time articulating why this is but it’s not where I would have been pre-Madison. That’s something I need to meditate on for awhile.
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See, white people DO have a culture!
Feb 3, 2008 Race, Read/heard/seen
Mornings are exceptionally important to white people, as witnessed by their love of breakfast places. However, some white people never go out for breakfast on a Sunday Morning. The reason? The Sunday edition of the New York Times. A perfect white sunday generally works like this. Wake up at around 8:45, if the paper is delivered, then one walks to the front door, retrieves the paper and begins a pot of coffee. If the paper is not delivered, a white person will go out and usually buy the supplies needed for breakfast - bagels, orange juice, lox, cream cheese, or waffle mix. Some white people even pick up freshly brewed coffee with the paper!
Once coffee, food, and the newspaper have been procured, white people put on extra mellow music (Jazz, Classical, or for the cooler ones in the bunch, ambient trip hop or something along those lines). They then procede to read each section of the paper, stopping periodically to tell their partner about the interesting news they have just seen. “Looks like another civil war might break out in Africa,” “did you see that the Met is doing Tristan and Isolde?”
White couples usually fight over who gets to read the Sunday Magazine first. How do we know this? They will tell us repeatedly about how they always fight over the Sunday magazine.
(Note: White people also love to laugh about how white we are. Did you ever see that Simpsons? Where Homer is watching a black comedian going, “White people drive like this — deedle deedle dee — and black people drive like this” and here he acts really laid back and cool and Homer says, “It’s so true! We’re so lame!”)
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One cup of coffee is not enough
You know, one of the things that the hot shots in blog marketing will tell you is that you need to make sure your Title accurately conveys the contents of your post. I just can’t get with that.
I dropped Madison off at preschool and she strolled in with her arms open wide saying, “Here I am!” Because you know the world doesn’t start to spin until Madison enters the room! (It’s true — I did a study.)
Last week I was feeling very discouraged about her preschool because it’s too academic-y for me. It’s that damn trickle down No Child Left Behind. Ohio says preschools have to teach stuff that (I feel) isn’t necessary or developmentally appropriate. Preschool should be about play and about relationships and emotional development. I’m working on an article actually covering this curriculum about helping kids develop empathy and the ability to manage their feelings and you know what? Hey, Mr. Bush! Kids who are emotionally aware score HIGHER on test scores! You want early learning? Meet the kids’ emotional needs early on! You want higher math scores? Teach kids how to get along in the world and skip the flashcards! (The program I’m writing about is here and it’s nifty. I keep saying it to Brett when he’s grouchy at the kids. I say, “Stop! Now say to yourself, ‘Calm Down!’ Take a deep breath! Count! Think of a calm place! Now think of something else to do!” You kinda chant it and it drives him crazy but it’s working.)
I don’t think Madison is being harmed by this stuff — it’s only five hours a week after all and there’s no desk learnin’ — no worksheets and that kind of inappropriate junk for kids still learning how to hold a crayon properly — it’s just not what I dream of when I dream of preschool. (And I mean this literally because I loved teaching three year olds and sometimes when I’m watching her class I get itchy to hop in there and start singing “Five Little Monkeys Swinging in a Tree.” And I did actually have a dream about Madison’s preschool where it was all I loved about Noah’s old preschool and all I love about hers only squished up and perfected.)
Fortunately there are three things that make me really happy about the preschool (besides their NAEYC-accreditation, their affordability and close location, their strong sense of community spirit and the plethora of supplies):
- One particular teacher who is loving, kind, nurturing, home-y and all about feelings (a woman after my own heart) who seems to get Madison;
- The fact that this teacher happens to be black, which makes Madison very happy and makes me happy and who knows about our transracial adoption and is aware of our happiness and also appreciates that Madison might need some more attention;
- The diversity of the classroom (of eleven children there are three kids of African descent, one child of Asian descent, one child of Hispanic descent and three different languages — not counting English — spoken by kids in the class).
Madison said that last week the girls (and maybe the boys but she only mentioned two of the girls) were putting dolls up their shirts to pretend to be pregnant. This might have contributed to the “mommy” discussion, I think. Because if you’re playing at being pregnant yourself, you’re probably starting to realize that pregnancy is when mommy-hood starts. That’s another thing re., diversity — in this classroom MOST of the dolls have various shades of brown skin and there is one pink skinned doll whereas in Noah’s preschool it was evenly split although the class was uniformly white. Most quality childcare centers are huge into the multicultural thing (we had trainings galore about it at the NAEYC conventions and lots of articles in the Young Children magazine they put out) but at Madison’s preschool, given the make-up of the population they serve, it’s not just a theory.
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That first comment
Over at the Textured essay the very first comment is from our wonderful former babysitter who is quoted in the piece. She’s so great!!! (And if you need a really wonderful, trust-worthy, hard-working handy person and live locally, lemme know and I’ll hook you up with her! Her main focus is housekeeping, just in case you need someone to come over and help you keep your domicile sparkling!)
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Tags: essay
My neck still hurts
Sep 11, 2007 Race, Writing, work work work
But given the date, seems like I don’t have much reason to complain.
I wanted to write a little bit about structuring the Textured piece for Brain Child because I’m thinking about it as I struggle with this sample chapter and chapter outline but they’re hoping you’ll bring your discussions over yonder. I’m trying to think of something to say to kick things off. If you’d like, I’d love you to go read it and then comment at their comment page. I’ll be checking in there to respond to stuff.
Next a work-work-work update (i.e, a Smart Cookie update):
- This time my postcards got some hits to the site. I knew that the campaign was about long-term pay-off so I wasn’t surprised when the first batch got no (as in ZERO) hits. If I hadn’t been prepared I would have been disappointed and discouraged but I knew that I was counting on a snowball effect. Anyway, getting some hits from the second has been great and I added some services to a sidebar on my portfolio page because that’s the place people are clicking, too. (They’re skipping the “about” page some so if any of you are working on biz sites, I’d make note of that. It surprised me because I always read the “about” pages!)
- I’ve all of a sudden gotten a bunch of almost work (people who want to meet to talk possibilities) and a little bit of new work — emphasis on “little bit.” Again, I started this in March so that’s six months of pounding the pavement. Most of the work I’ve gotten I either got from online connections — mostly from this blog — or its consumer work. I think it’s taken this long because I chose to start in the spring and summer is slow slow slow and also because I didn’t really know what I was doing for the first three months.
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Tags: essay
