Lessons from Jaws

This week marks the fortieth anniversary of the theatrical release of Jaws. I'm happy to say that I've finally seen it on the big screen.

It's an awesome flick for a number of reasons, but what sticks with me is the unlikely hero. (Yes, I'm avoiding spoilers on a movie nearly as old as I am.)

It's a lesson for life. We tend to wait for the experts--those with the specialized knowledge and training to do the big and scary things. Failing experts, well... won't somebody else do it?

Ducking behind our fear and our obligations and our busyness, we can come up with seemingly rational ways to claim that the work is not ours to do.

But no matter how gory and terrifying (or endless and uncomfortable), we just might be the ones to blow it all open and find the way through.

Alchemy

Born and raised in Wisconsin, I take my melted cheese seriously.

This week I got a bag of sodium citrate, AKA, Magic Queso Maker.

Heat up the liquid of your choice, add just a bit of this food grade salt, and then the shredded or sliced cheese of your choice. Even the crumbliest, crackliest of cheddars will melt smoothly, rather than turning into an oily and grainy concrete. You can do this in five minutes in a regular saucepan, or even with a microwave--no need to unpack the fondue pot from that cluttered cabinet above the fridge.

I'm not going to get too much into the molecular gastronomy/modernist terminology, but sodium citrate acts as an emulsifier, helping things to combine rather than separate.

It's been a week of rough news--painful demonstrations around the funeral of Freddie Gray in Baltimore, the earthquakes in Nepal, yet another school shooting, and the usual confluences of snarky partisanship and reactive fear.

It would be reasonable enough to want to distract ourselves with melted cheese and go no further. But how can I, how can we, act as an emulsifier to bring people together, to combine creatively?

I do not claim to have all (or even a hefty minority) of the answers, but I continue to listen, to look for opportunities to engage, and to boost signals.

And maybe I'll bring queso.

Piety

Tomorrow is the Pi day of the century*, so tonight I must evangelize.

I wholeheartedly encourage every last one of you to eat at least one piece of pie tomorrow.

What is a pie, you ask?  Well, I believe in the inherent worth of all pie, and in each defining the label as they see fit. 

Be they sweet, or be they savory
Have they two crusts, one crust, or no crust at all!
Might they be baked or cooked, or even raw!

From a pan, casserole, or baking sheet- round, square, free-form.
May they fit in one person's hand, or feed a multitude

Note: This quick concept map does not begin to mention the many fine hand pies found in nearly every culture. Empanadas, pasties, samosas, tiropita...oh the drools...

I understand that some of you will find in my beliefs certain heresies.
A cobbler or a casserole? You consider those to be something else entirely. Delicious, but not pies.

But I believe that pie should be denied to no person, no matter if they have celiac disease or gave up sugar for Lent or are simply fussy. Maybe they just want some creme brulee.

I will not say no to them.
I will be too busy eating pie.

Tomorrow's pie plan:
Breakfast: Peach cobbler and a crustless quiche (smoked salmon and cream cheese)
Lunch: Little Caesars bacon-wrapped pizza
Supper: Strawberry-rhubarb pie and a corned beef shepherd's pie
And remember all--3/14 is Einstein's birthday. He expanded our understandings of the universe. Surely we can expand our understandings of pie?


*3/14/15 (esp. around 9:26:53) reflects the first ten digits of pi.

Productive Leadership

Forty-seven US Senators took it upon themselves to write to Iran, going around accepted structures and practices. 

And then the Iranian foreign minster Javad Zarif gave them a wee bit of a crash course in international law.

Other than being glad that Zarif is an international law expert, I'm pretty appalled by all of this.

When leadership cannot come together to find truly workable solutions for life's issues and instead they decide to go rogue and escalate situations unnecessarily? Ugh.

And yet we find these conflicts outside of the Senate. 

Heck, we see it sometimes in churches and other nonprofits. Figuring out a communal good and trusting one another takes time and flexibility and maturity. It requires a certain level of relationship, which we need to explicitly support.

Surely we can do better than the Senate.

A Wild Wild Day In Texas

Fifty-one weeks ago I blogged the day that federal judge Orlando Garcia declared the Texas constitutional amendment against same-sex marriage to be unconstitutional.


Four months ago I grumbled here when SCOTUS did not choose to address any marriage equality cases.

Last month it was about the first weddings in Florida, and wishes for the Fifth Circuit hearings to go well.

Last night I looked at the decision in a Travis County (Austin, Texas) probate court, and shook my head at the early celebrations that Texas was suddenly a marriage equality state. I said, "we aren't really any closer to marriage equality than we have been for a year."

This morning I put that post on my Facebook page and moments later saw the news--

A judge ordered the Travis County Clerk to give a marriage license to Sarah Goodfriend and Suzanne Bryant, and the couple wed immediately after. WOW!

Much of the morning was a whirlwind, as we heard more about the story--that no, Travis County wasn't giving marriage licenses to everyone--there was a medical issue. And then the Attorney General started piping up, calling for immediate stays to shut everything down, and going so far as to declare the marriage null and void.

He has ignored two court rulings stating that a Texas law is unconstitutional to tell two women who have loved one another for over three decades, raising two children and now battling cancer, that HE is upholding the law. 

Villainous. Cruel. Utterly unnecessary.

Within four months, I fully expect marriage equality to be the law of the land, here in Texas and across the United States. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is not standing on the side of love, or on the side of history.

When A Headline Doesn't Tell The Story

Tuesday social media had a field day--the state of Texas as a rainbow flag!
People were really excited.

Buuuut, from a practical standpoint, we aren't really any closer to marriage equality than we have been for a year.

What happened-- a county probate judge said that Texas's ban on same-sex marriage was unconstitutional. Same thing said by another judge a year ago. Arguments were heard in the Fifth Circuit last month and now we're in a holding pattern. The speculation at this point is whether or not the Fifth Circuit will decide, or leave it up to the Supreme Court in June.

Vaccines, Guns, and Seat Belts

"I've heard of many tragic cases of walking, talking, normal children, who wound up with profound mental disorders after vaccines." - Rand Paul, ophthalmologist

If we replace "vaccines" with "handgun accident", how does that change the conversation and the risk?

I am amazed (but am glad) that we have managed to legislate seat belt and car seat usage so widely, given the energy behind other risky behaviors. Heaven knows, seat belts are not without adverse effects, and they definitely impact personal freedom.

Real life, however, rarely lines up neatly on a continuum, and indeed, there's rarely only one axis.

Winter Storm Prep and Comfort

Winter Storm Juno* is already predicted to be a historic storm, with nearly three feet of snow possible in some of the biggest cities of the US East Coast. With heavy snow and high winds, some areas may lose power, and getting around will likely be treacherous for a while.

I grew up in Wisconsin, so being snowed in is not a foreign concept to me. The last time I dealt with extended outages, though, was when Hurricane Ike came to visit Houston in 2008.

Here are a few suggestions for getting through the next few days-

Before the worst of the storm hits-

• Charge your cell phones, find your candles and flashlights just in case you lose power. 
• Prep some easy food--if you lose power, hard boiled eggs are way easier than raw ones... 
• Reassure family out of the area that you'll be fine and how best they can be in contact with you.
• Yellow pages. Find them if you can, but if you don't have any, this is a good time to write down critical numbers you might need. (Also handy is a phone that plugs into the wall just in case everything loses charge...)
• Make something that gets your home smelling excellent. Trust me on this one.
• Catch up on laundry.
• Give your heater a nudge up if you can, just in case
• If you have pipe freezing issues, please keep on top of them. (This storm is not likely to be 'bitterly' cold, but freezing is freezing.)
• Make deals with your kids on how you'll be weathering the storm. Especially "This is an awesome opportunity for Mom to sleep in. Make yourselves cereal." (Sadly, it's hard to negotiate with babies and pets.)

Staying comfortable during the storm-

• Consider this an excellent reason to fall in love with your blankets, fuzzy socks, and silly hats. 
• Books, jigsaw puzzles, board games (if you have company)
• Moisturize! I mean it!
• As delicious as comfort foods are, eat a vegetable. Or an apple at least.

If you have shoveling to do:
Yes, shoveling a few times as it falls is less heavy than two feet all at once. But if it's a whiteout, please stay inside. And please don't overexert, ever. If you collapse, some poor ambulance driver has to navigate the roads for you.


For folks elsewhere wishing they could help out, you might look into supporting Warming Centers in impacted areas as they provide shelter to homeless people.

What else do you suggest?



*No, I'm not really a fan of naming winter storms. Enough so that I mislabeled this storm as Iola originally...
It just makes people feel bad in a neverending winter.

The Vulnerability of Privilege

Eula Biss is interviewed in a recent Salon article, following the publication of her book "On Immunity". Lots of powerful stuff on fear, privilege, and vulnerability. Here's an excerpt-

One of the favorite narratives [of privilege] is that we’ve just worked harder, so we deserve more. But there’s another narrative. It has to do with vulnerability, and that’s a narrative that I first started thinking about and noticing when I was writing about race. It justifies certain ways of wielding privilege, on the argument that the person who is privileged is actually not powerful but very, very vulnerable and needing protection, and that the people who are dangerous are the people who are less privileged. There’s a story line that runs something like this: vaccination may be OK for some people, but my child is uniquely vulnerable. My child is actually too vulnerable to receive this preventative medicine, and therefore I’m going to opt out of this public health initiative to spare my child this risk.

My mind is whirling with other examples of this privilege/vulnerability issue-

Going to war. These days we don't have a draft, but even when we did, there were those who could somehow escape it. 

Castle doctrine. The idea that someone behind their locked door is more vulnerable than the person on their porch. 

It is human nature to want to protect oneself and one's offspring. But we also have reason and morality--we need to get beyond irrational fear.

"We Do Not Hit"

Kids are really really good at pushing each other's buttons.  Poke poke poke poke poke... until 

"MOM! HE HIT ME!"

Yes, the annoyed child lashed out and whacked his brother.

This played out more than a few times in my household. And each time, we firmly stated

"We Do Not Hit."

That hurting someone is a bad choice. (Yes, we also talked to the one doing the annoying, after making sure no actual first aid was needed.)

In Paris, satirists repeatedly poked. Poke poke poke.
Extremists took offense, stormed the magazine offices, and killed twelve people.

We do not hit.
We do not hit.
We do not hit.

AND we treat each other kindly and with respect. 

History and Future

I love living in the future.

In my pajamas, from the comfort of my couch, I'm watching streaming footage from a courthouse in Key West, Florida, where they're about to start issuing same-sex marriage licenses.

History is being made, and I get to see it.
And the Fifth Circuit hears oral arguments on Friday, January 9th. Oh, Texas, please!

To Serve and Protect... the Mall

It appears that I took a blurry picture. So let's caption it- Notice to protesters- No protesting of any kind on these premises. Protesters will be treated as trespassers. Violators will be prosecuted.

Last Saturday protesters went into the Houston Galleria and had a die-in.

This Saturday the signs above were all around the Galleria. And boy howdy--they had all sorts of security folks at major entrances, and followed the protesters from their perimeters, and yep. They meant it.

At one point they lowered the gates around Nieman Marcus, and not only mall security but Houston PD officers were standing on the stairs, protecting Nieman's. 

Whom do you serve? Protect?

Seen at the #HoustonProtest this afternoon

This picture is over sized so you can see the club this officer carries. Gee, I assumed a standard club was issued and required.

I got to the demonstration quite late--the majority of folks had already headed out after making their stand at this intersection and within the Galleria for the die-in. 

In general, the police I saw were polite and even friendly.  Rather a lot of them, too. There were fourteen officers on my corner, and at least thirty around the intersection overall, plus additional officers on bikes traveling with a group of marchers, and mounted police across the way. 

Don't Garnish A Rotten Turkey

Last week friends and I discussed and debated the best way to prepare a turkey. Dry brine? Wet brine? High heat? Butter? The conversation could have gone on forever.  And, chances are that even with all our differences, each of us ended up with a delicious turkey.

But what if the turkey was rotten to start with? Would we even believe that the staple of our Thanksgiving could have come out of the bag somehow less than the product we assumed we would get?

Would we still argue over the best way to prepare it? Would we blithely do our best to wash away the odors and the slime, then cover up the issues with some melted butter and extra garlic? Just hope we don't poison our families and our guests?

Body cameras for police? Onions for the gravy. Grand jury reforms? A parsley garnish.

The turkey that is this country's culture is deeply contaminated. That line about "all men created equal"? It has yet to be embodied by these states we claim to be united. 

Black lives matter.
Lives. That's far more than 'not deaths'--it's people growing and learning and thriving and loving.


I'm still listening. And still praying.

(PS: The turkey is just a metaphor. Sometimes metaphors aren't vegan-friendly.)

No Quick Fix

The logical piece of my brain keeps trying to figure out some way for the state of this nation to make sense. But some things are too broken, too sick, to complicated, to be quickly and rationally explained. If they were, they would already by fixed.

I saw comments all over Twitter today--interviewers wanting to talk to the white people.
More than one protester asked that white allies hand over the megaphones.

I hear that. As a white woman in the 'burbs, I know this isn't my call.

So I listen and read.
I pray.
I do my best to be open and ready for what might come next.

And by trade I'm a religious educator, so of course I'll share some of what I've been reading-

The Twitter hashtags #AliveWhileBlack and #ICantBreathe and  #EricGarner and #BlackLivesMatter.

So many blog posts and articles- here are just an overflowing handful.
Kiese Laymon's essay of the 'safety' of a Vassar ID
Kai Wright's article on broken windows policing
Fania Davis on an authentic reconciliation process
Yolanda Pierce's Litany For Those Who Aren't Ready for Healing
Tristan D. Lalla's experience fitting a profile last month
This frightening piece on the statistics of deadly force
The science of our bigoted brains

"I Can't Breathe"

My sons are asthmatic. I know too well the cough, the wheezing. The panicky look in their eyes when they can't get enough air. 

Eric Garner was also an asthmatic--while I know little of his health history, I can imagine his mother Gwen Carr taking him to the pediatrician, the specialists, the ER, with shots and meds and puffers. Worried that every little bug is going to turn into bronchitis or pneumonia. More treatments, scary nights, missed school, missed work... 

But she raised him up. He became an adult, got a job, started a family--six beautiful grandchildren.

Then that horrible day in July. Gwen Carr's son was put in a chokehold by someone claiming to serve and protect. He gasped that he could not breathe... and medical personnel nearby did not help.

There was video. Hauntingly hard to watch. But surely, the whole world would know what had happened, and while her child could not be returned to her, there would be some measure of justice.

And now in this Advent week of hope? The grand jury decided not to indict Daniel Pantaleo, the officer who put this mother's son in a chokehold. Even though there was video of the event. Even though the medical examiner had declared the death a homicide.

Yes, I am taking this personally. A woman's son has been stolen from her, and we are told it is not a crime.

Justice feels very far away.

Ugh.

Praying for Ferguson, for justice, for every single one of us, and all of us.

#BlackLivesMatter

Election Night Despair

Election day has a certain tendency to send people to either exuberance or the deepest pit of despair. 

Here in Texas, many progressives had hoped for a big change- making Texas blue. And it really did not happen. Margins came up wider than polls suggested. The status quo and the money men remain firmly in place.

The story in my home state of Wisconsin was similar. Oof.

Lots of folks I know are down down down in election night despair right now. But maybe it's time to pull out pickaxes and start mining?

My friend Jo wrote recently about the benefits of hopelessness, reflecting on Henry Cloud's Necessary Endings.  

What if this is the disappointment that makes folks really shift their strategies, step up their passion, and make the changes they want in their towns and states and country?

Change is hard.
Shrugging and cynicism would definitely be easier.
I close with these wise words from Texas hero Molly Ivins-

So keep fighting for freedom and justice, beloveds, but don't forget to have fun doin' it. Be outrageous... rejoice in all the oddities that freedom can produce. And when you get through celebrating the sheer joy of a good fight, be sure to tell those who come after how much fun it was!

Strengthening Our Resolve

"I'm not worried about churches in our tradition conforming to the culture. I'm worried about them not effectively engaging the culture," Moore said in an interview. "We have to be able to speak with conviction about what we believe. We have to speak to people."

The Moore referred to in this article is The Rev. Russell Moore, an organizer of this week's Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission National Conference.

According to the photo caption of the article, "Southern Baptists organized the three-day event to strengthen the resolve of Christians preaching the increasingly unpopular view that gay relationships are sinful."

To put it mildly, I disagree with their assertion that gay relationships are sinful, and I disagree with an awful lot of this article.

But yeowza, YES-- engaging the culture, speaking our beliefs with conviction--that's good good stuff for all of us. I think the conforming to culture is a danger for all people, regardless of their faith, and I am inspired by the idea of a dedicating several days to strengthening resolve on a single issue.

First thing, of course, we would need to agree to that single issue...

Just because you can...doesn't mean you should.

Oh, Blacklist.
Having an episode THIS WEEK about a plague spreading globally? This might be exciting television, but it is not responsible in the current climate of fear and panic.

Ugh.

And of course, they can kill thousands of faceless people, and then find some simple way to stop the flow and everything is miraculously fixed.

Writers can fix anything, can't they?