Reasons for celebration
Outdoors while you can!
Monday, July 7, 2014
Sunday, July 6, 2014
Expecting Miracles
Hard to live up to,
"Rejuvenating Bath Gel"
A full tube, perhaps?
And yes, it was like this when we got here. Given the state of the shower curtain, I'm thinking this was a housekeeping issue, not packaging mishap.
Road trip continues through Tuesday. Expect short posts or none at all.
Saturday, July 5, 2014
"A Guy Thing"
My teen sons* refuse to share a bed with one another or any other guy. Last night neither would share the king bed in our hotel, with one preferring to sleep on the floor.
Several parents have told me that this is not uncommon among boys.
I have some theories on the reasoning, but first I ask y'all- is this the norm?
How long does this trend last?
*Reminding them that they shared a womb makes for some amazing eye rolls.
Friday, July 4, 2014
Two Road Trips
 |
| Shriveling butterfly corpse Hotel parking lot, Ames, IA July 4, 2014 |
getting from here to there
is a matter of logistics and options.
How much must I bring?
When must I be there?
Who else is coming?
How can I afford to travel?
For a butterfly,
it's more about riding the air,
moving toward the next plant.
It's a short life,
but a lovely one.
Thursday, July 3, 2014
Where Will You Innovate?
From Al Gore's current Rolling Stone article:
In poorer countries, where most of the world's people live and most of the growth in energy use is occurring, photovoltaic electricity is not so much displacing carbon-based energy as leapfrogging it altogether. In his first days in office, the government of the newly elected prime minister of India, Narendra Modi (who has authored an e-book on global warming), announced a stunning plan to rely principally upon photovoltaic energy in providing electricity to 400 million Indians who currently do not have it.
Wow. So new tech is going to people who have never had the Same Old Thing.
In religious circles these days sometimes the innovation happens outside of bricks and mortar churches. Part of this is that bricks and mortar costs a lot of money--startups don't have it. But also, there isn't an existing infrastructure to work through/around and less time spent on "We can't do that" and "What we have now is working well enough."
For some time now we Unitarian Universalists have been hearing about Congregations and Beyond.
And at General Assembly Faithify was launched, a way to crowdsource donations for exciting new projects on a wide range of passions.
Next up is NextGen Ministries* -
a developing umbrella initiative of the UUA that will help spark new faith communities and congregational ventures to reach younger adults and other groups with high growth potential in Unitarian Universalism. NextGen Ministries projects, will be creative, collaborative, diverse, tech-savvy, mission-focused and action oriented, embodying the spirit of our new ventures in faith. They will be started by individuals and groups both inside congregations and outside congregations.
It's a ripe time for innovation.
What's your big idea?
How will you change the world?
I'm going to have some vacation first, before I start plotting.
*That's a working title, calling to mind Jean-Luc Picard. Not necessarily a bad thing.
In poorer countries, where most of the world's people live and most of the growth in energy use is occurring, photovoltaic electricity is not so much displacing carbon-based energy as leapfrogging it altogether. In his first days in office, the government of the newly elected prime minister of India, Narendra Modi (who has authored an e-book on global warming), announced a stunning plan to rely principally upon photovoltaic energy in providing electricity to 400 million Indians who currently do not have it.
Wow. So new tech is going to people who have never had the Same Old Thing.
In religious circles these days sometimes the innovation happens outside of bricks and mortar churches. Part of this is that bricks and mortar costs a lot of money--startups don't have it. But also, there isn't an existing infrastructure to work through/around and less time spent on "We can't do that" and "What we have now is working well enough."
For some time now we Unitarian Universalists have been hearing about Congregations and Beyond.
And at General Assembly Faithify was launched, a way to crowdsource donations for exciting new projects on a wide range of passions.
Next up is NextGen Ministries* -
a developing umbrella initiative of the UUA that will help spark new faith communities and congregational ventures to reach younger adults and other groups with high growth potential in Unitarian Universalism. NextGen Ministries projects, will be creative, collaborative, diverse, tech-savvy, mission-focused and action oriented, embodying the spirit of our new ventures in faith. They will be started by individuals and groups both inside congregations and outside congregations.
It's a ripe time for innovation.
What's your big idea?
How will you change the world?
I'm going to have some vacation first, before I start plotting.
*That's a working title, calling to mind Jean-Luc Picard. Not necessarily a bad thing.
Wednesday, July 2, 2014
Traveling Into the Future
Early Friday morning we'll heading out on a road trip, journeying back to my homeland in the midwest. I've made a similar journey nearly every summer for the past fifteen years.
Back in the day I had a whole AAA bag of tools- the Triptik, a foldable US Map with a highlighted route, and books for each state on the journey so we could find a reasonable hotel*.
Now it's a smartphone with Google Maps and traffic notifications and various review sites for lodging and restaurants. I might take a Triptik along, to hand to my sons when they ask how much longer.
And in just a couple more years, it's possible that they will do the driving, while I update my blog.
Back in the day I had a whole AAA bag of tools- the Triptik, a foldable US Map with a highlighted route, and books for each state on the journey so we could find a reasonable hotel*.
Now it's a smartphone with Google Maps and traffic notifications and various review sites for lodging and restaurants. I might take a Triptik along, to hand to my sons when they ask how much longer.
And in just a couple more years, it's possible that they will do the driving, while I update my blog.
*And this was a vast improvement over the journeys of my childhood, when we didn't have a Triptik and never got to stay in hotels...
Tuesday, July 1, 2014
So Much News, So Little Time
I've read that you shouldn't publish things until you've had some time to process them. Make sure your thoughts are in order and not clouded with anger or despair or even an ecstasy you can't live up to.
And yet this puts a person at a distinct disadvantage to keeping in conversation with the issues swirling around us every day. Days (weeks?) of processing can make a person seem out of touch, especially in today's culture of instant responses.
So shall we throw caution to the air and just let our emotions guide our tongues (or fingers)? Or should we maintain a log of contingencies--here are logical and just reactions to an issue being decided this way, and here's a reasoned approach to the opposite decision?
I'm going to have to think some more on that.
And yet this puts a person at a distinct disadvantage to keeping in conversation with the issues swirling around us every day. Days (weeks?) of processing can make a person seem out of touch, especially in today's culture of instant responses.
So shall we throw caution to the air and just let our emotions guide our tongues (or fingers)? Or should we maintain a log of contingencies--here are logical and just reactions to an issue being decided this way, and here's a reasoned approach to the opposite decision?
I'm going to have to think some more on that.
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