Meanderings, 17 December 2022
Good morning!
Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash
Brittney Griner made some deep impressions:
WNBA star Brittney Griner didn't want any alone time as soon as she boarded a U.S. government plane that would bring her home.
"I've been in prison for 10 months, listening to the Russians. I want to talk," Griner said, according to Roger Carstens, the special presidential envoy for hostage affairs who helped secure the basketball star's release and brought her back to the U.S. last week.
She then asked Carstens, referring to others on the plane, "But first of all, who are these guys?"
"And she moved right past me and went to every member on that crew, looked them in the eyes, shook their hands and asked about them, got their names, making a personal connection with them,'' Carstens recalled in an interview on CNN's "State of the Union" that aired Sunday. "It was really amazing." …
"I was left with the impression this is an intelligent, passionate, compassionate, humble, interesting person, a patriotic person," Carstens said. "But above all, authentic. I hate the fact that I had to meet her in this manner, but I actually felt blessed having had a chance to get to know her."
American Evangelist Beth Moore took to Twitter to share regrets on behalf of her generation for promoting and glorifying the "Christian celebrity culture" that has spread like wildfire across the country.
Moore says many in her generation had good intent and a pure heart to see people come to know Jesus, but she believes there's something people should know. "I think we made speaking and teaching and traveling, and certainly book publishing look glamorous," she posted.
Moore continued to say she hasn't met one person in the industry who found celebrity Christianity to be glorious or glamorous. She addressed the upcoming generation to set clear and realistic expectations for speakers, pastors and authors to come….
It's easy to look on the surface of "celebrity Christian's" lives and think they have it all. Moore reminds everyone that things are never as they appear on the surface. Whatever God has called you to do with your life won't be "easy," but as you walk through the journey and reach the other side, the hard-fought successes will feel all the more gratifying.
Mike Bird and Paedo-communion?
One thing I go round and round on is paedo-communion, i.e., whether children should partake of the Lord’s Supper.
For Baptists, this is obviously less of an issue, because you only baptize believers upon confession of faith, and only the baptized may partake of communion. Consequently, only believers of a mature age will take communion, so that problem kind of fixes itself.
However, for those of us who practice infant baptism, I’ve always thought it terribly illogical to baptize children into the covenant family, and then deny them participation in the covenant meal. The Baptist scheme, whatever its failings, is at least logically consistent and coherent when it comes to children. Yet, as for me and my Anglican house, I want something covenantally coherent and comprehensive when it comes to children and communion.
Here is what I’m thinking!
I’m in favour of paedo-communion.
[SMcK: so am I. Here’s the irony: Those who see it as purely symbolic, have the least to lose; those who see it as divine presence, have the most to gain.]
NEWRY, Maine (AP) — A bunch of Santa lookalikes took to the ski slopes to spread some seasonal cheer on Sunday.
More than 300 jolly ol’ elves — all dressed in red — dashed together down a mountain with white beards and Santa hats flapping in the breeze at the Sunday River ski resort in Maine. A skiing Grinch and a skiing Christmas tree joined the party.
It wasn’t exactly a winter wonderland — there was little natural snow. The snow-making machines at Sunday River produced enough of the fluffy stuff for the annual tradition. Santa Sunday has grown in popularity over more than two decades, raising $7,500 this year for a local charity.
Totes also have something of an antifashion aspect: plainness is the point. But scarcity can be part of their value too. As a former bookseller at Book City, an independent bookstore with four Toronto locations, Catherine Phillips got a lot of free totes from publishers. Many are limited-edition promotional items and aren’t available for sale, which make them even more coveted among collectors. While one of her favourites is a tote with a slight rephrase of a quote attributed to Louisa May Alcott (“She is too fond of books, and it has addled her brain”), another is a promo item bearing the cover of Sheila Heti’s experimental novel Pure Colour. The one that gets the most comments, she says, is the tote bag she has from House of Anansi, an independent Canadian publisher whose authors include Margaret Atwood and Patrick deWitt. The Anansi bag simply has the brand’s logo, an unassuming letter “A” in a yellow circle, with the word “Anansi” below it. It’s showing, not telling—you wouldn’t know it’s a literary tote unless you happen to be a literary person. “I get stopped every time I wear that one,” Phillips says….
Phillips mentions the term “tote brag”—something she came across a few years ago—to describe the kind of person who lets a tote bag express that they’re an interesting person without them actually doing anything. In some ways, a $25 literary press tote bag is just as much an “it bag” as the Hermès Birkin. Birkins can’t be purchased by just anyone with tens of thousands of dollars to spare—they’re distributed at the discretion of shopkeepers. The bags are coveted because they project something money can’t buy: a level of access most people don’t have. It’s not dissimilar to the sway held by people who carry around the tote bag from the German bookstore chain Hugendubel, with its mysterious gothic lettering and one circular red pattern. Because it carries no discernible branding, it’s near impossible for outsiders to the literary world to identify. But, to the people in the know, it’s a status symbol.
The literary tote is the perfect signifier for this moment in time because of its inherent contradictions: its lofty, high-minded ideals are represented by an item that’s earthy and utilitarian. It communicates rarefied taste, but it’s too functional to be pretentious. “It’s just a bag,” Phillips says. “But it’s so much more than a bag at this point.” '
Decades after enrolling in college, a 90-year-old grandmother walked across the stage at Northern Illinois University Sunday - with her diploma in hand.
For Joyce DeFauw, it was a moment she wasn't sure would ever take place.
Joyce first enrolled at the campus in 1951, when it was the Northern Illinois State Teachers College. The first in her family to go to college, Joyce thought she would get a teaching degree. She later changed her major to home economics, saying it suited her better, according to an article from NIU.
Joyce attended the college for three and a half years and was a member of the bowling team. One day, she explained, she met a "good-looking guy" at church, and the two later got married.
Afterward, Joyce quit school then life "got kind of busy" for her and her first husband, the late Don Freeman Sr., the article stated.
Joyce had three children before her first husband's death then spent five years as a widow before marrying her second husband, the late Roy DeFauw. The couple had six children together, including two sets of twins.
Fast forward decades later, Joyce moved into a retirement home and acquired a computer, which she got used to with time. Joyce had resumed pursuing her degree when the pandemic hit. Still, she explained, the isolation and struggles with studying got to her at times.