whats going on

summer schedule is less strenuous.

tho' its harder to deal with the tasks that do vie for our attention with this season in full swing.

we're lucky to spend much more time with the kids these days. both of whom are very winning and delightful.

Addison is much more charismatic the older he gets -- and simultaneously -- more prone to temper.

Jaelyn is increasingly nurturing and kind. its funny that sometimes when your kids are in a phase where they aren't really *struggling* behaviourally -- you start to notice and think about some of the kinds of emotional battles they might face internally across their life. but i'm not blogging about those.

its one kind of irresponsibility to blog about one's own inner terrain. to discuss one's child's inner life seems an altogether more heinous kind of sin.

We show our house to disinterested buyers 3 - 5 times a week. we're beginning to rethink our move.

we've been able to see more friends and family over the last few weeks -- a quick trip to michigan, several dinner parties, lunches, coffees and beers with old students.

One of Lynn's students was killed in a car accident this week. This kind of thing is deeply horrifying. It makes the whole universe feel SO fragile and random.

Lynn's moved her birthday to July 25th in case you hadn't heard -- so -- if appropriate, you should start thinking about what card you'll be sending. We'll be at the cabin, so send it early.

i'm preaching (!) at my church in a few weeks. a funny byproduct of telling old "preacherboy contest" stories at a party after too many glasses of wine....

our day to day grind:

Lynn teaches secondary teachers at the downtown school every morning.

i teach an upper division "persuasion" course to five students on tuesday nights for four hours.

we're both mired in "assessment" tasks -- an ongoing reminder that the *business* of school is a bueracracratic maze of self-perpetuating, navel-gazing, oft irrelevant set of hoops that oftener than not rewards hoop jumpers.

which, i suppose, is a good lesson for everyone: hoopjumpers and asskissers get rewards when living and working in highly rationalized instutions.

and a reminder of the thing that i said to my student/friend russ the other day who was apologetically telling me that he was thinking of looking for a corporate pr job.

NO! i insisted to him. I WANT you to go work for Hoover or GM or GE or MONSANTO or MTV or NIKE. If nobody GOOD goes to work there -- than the evil and the greed can never be undone.

EVERYONE who wants to change the world on a systemic level -- must decide to work within institutions where they BOTH comply and RESIST!

I didn't say it then, but in retrospect, i should have said: isn't it HARDER to have good values and work in an institution that disagrees -- finding places where you can comply / resist with meaning and purpose -- than it is to only work in environments that are self-confirming?

and...

speaking of working for the man --

i agreed to be the department chair next year.

i'm right on track for the career i THOUGHT i wanted when I was graduating from college 12 years ago --

to be the PRESIDENT of a small college.

A job / life / career that i *do not* want now.

NOW?

i want to tell stories.

help more people to tell stories and live by stories.

and find more ways for justice and peace to eek out into the world.

...

we've taught our children the following axiom to which nathan and josiah have objected:

"violence always escalates."

doesn't too much compliance to institutions yield violence ultimately -- which will, in turn escalate?

and doesn't resistance to insitutions ultimately yield peace and justice. but do peace and violence ultimately escalate? de-escalate? it seems like some buddhist htinking might be helpful on this question. or some mennonite thinking.

anyone?

peace~

mugging

some people are offended when i say that i don't watch adam sandler movies or jim carrey movies. i've undergone several phases of thinking regarding the usefulness and value of these texts -- so thought i'd put some of my thoughts into the blogosphere for some reflection.

the free dictionary dot com offers this definition of a:

mug - the human face (`kisser' and `smiler' and `mug' are informal terms for `face' and `phiz' is British)

so mugging -- would be -- really using the face for some use, right?

and that seems, in my opinion to be mostly what Jim Carrey & Adam Sandler (the cultural products, not the people or the actors) are about.

They both have the ability to MUG in inspired ways.

Hilarious ways. When they use their face (or bodies) to perfection -- these guys are VERY very funny.

So why don't I watch their movies?

For me its always been a sort of dis-ease about the ways that MUGGING does not serve the story that they're telling.

I liked both of these guys in sketch comedy shows -- and IF i watch a portion of either of their movies -- I laugh. Hard.

But then, if i happen to try to watch a WHOLE story -- I don't. I groan. I grow weary. I turn them off. Because it seems like (in most cases) the story becomes incidental to the punchline of their gloriously funny faces.

Like the story is the setup and their FACE is the punchline.

I used to say that I didn't like them because they weren't acting. I still think that this particular STYLE of "acting" while it doesn't at all serve the story (or their "character" within the story) -- it also probably isn't who THEY are -- so it probably is a kind of performance -- "acting" might be an appropriate name.

But ultimately, I don't think there's anything BAD about what they're up to. I think it just belongs in sketch comedy shows. Not in movies.

Even the GOOD stories that some of their movies started out as -- are -- it seems -- ill served by this MUGGING.

Mugging does, now, however, serve up juicy "quotes" -- which end up getting bantered about in social groups -- weaving a textual fabric of continuity around most social networks like a warm media blanket. Not that there's anything wrong with that. In fact, it seems like a really great side benefit.

Clearly the biggestt and most central benefit to this kind of punchline-driven approach to character or story -- is that each MUG -- each quotable bit -- each hilarious gesture -- memorable line -- BECOMES a kind of an advertisement that is ongoing for the franchise which is --

Adam Sandler.

or

Jim Carrey.

which is why, I suppose that these movies are considered "vehicles" for their stars....but what gets eroded in a world where most people JUST see these movies INSTEAD of movies with more subtle humor -- which reward the patience and attention of a faithful audience is --

story.

and particularly comic story.

Kenneth Burke calls the Comic Frame -- "equipment for living."

and unless we can weave a comic perspective back into our understanding of WHOLE characters -- and broad sequential and consequential sweeps of human action --

we lose valuable equipment for living.

i'm not the culture snob i once was who sneered at these movies or anyone who watched them -- but i want to remind people that they're just watching sketch comedy when they engage these films. And that, while sketch comedy is a VALUABLE way to start building our comic frames -- its insufficient to build hearty structures which will allow us to the see the world more truly.

i'm eight minutes past the ten minute post rule. So that means you're asleep. Not reading anymore.

But if you are awake, I'd love to be engaged on this topic...

peace~

** in a technology-gaffe-deletion -- Gary makes the worthwhile contribution that *Punch Drunk Love* & *Eternal Happiness* are worthwhile exceptions. I concur and add *Man on the Moon* and *Truman Show*

where i'm from :: random thoughts :: strangers at stoplights

i wrote a post that i self-monitored (and decided not to post) while i was in michigan. a wall of depression broke over my head for no rational reason in the middle of a conversation / debate -- around the table-o-great-fun.

it was the old: i'm from here? i'm from here. i'm from....?

malaise.

my post was all about.

Ahh. We can never go home. *Home* is eroded by globalization and mass media and monopolizing capitalism.

the good news is that it was a brief wave of hysteria -- passed quickly -- had a fun weekend -- and by the end was able to say again.

i am from there.

there is where i come from.

i think i recently rediscovered the part of my fundamentalist heritage which had me entering (and winning, goshdarnit) preacher boy contests -- here on the blog. as a result i started sketching out a script -- a short & long version of _Preacher Boy_....

but from everything that i've been reading -- SAVED is a story straight from the same universe....

in some ways its hard to say with pride that i'm *from* a fundamentalist world -- but i think the difficulty is more in that i've chosen to emerge to a position not to far off from it -- still very associated with the structures and institutions of evangelical christianity -- more that loose connection than it is about any personal responsibility i bear for the horrible things i used to say and do and believe.

i'm thinking of switching to a new tagline for the backburner -->

Stories:Here & Now:Eachother . Dot . Blog

I've been thinking that that moment when you pull up next to someone on a city street -- at a stopline or in the passing lane, and you both look over at each other -- that that moment is pretty profound.

its like a hyper-performance of all kinds of cultural meaning.

Here we are: we think at each other: strangers. Staring at each other. How embarrassing. How normal. How fleeting. How ridiculous.

And then we don't think, but our milieu hums to itself:

How Identical They Are! How Oblivious!

How they rush together to an anonymous simultaneous secret!

How they move in tandem! But how unrecognizable their dance is to themselves!

Its getting late isn't it?

Today the world feels cruel and steely and absurd to many of my student/friends. And for them, to me it does too. I'm thinking of you all day, mourning friends.

peace~

security / obscurity

favorite memory of an adult sunday school teacher: "I think its important for us to remember that ANGER (poignant pause) is one letter away from DANGER."

how i wish i would have raised my hand to say with equal seriousness: "And lets don't forget, too, then that DANGER is one letter away from (poignant pause of my own) DANCER."

Mmmm. Serious nods all around.

Seriously, though, I'm locked out of my email account (and that is an excuse and apology to those of you who are waiting for an email from me) because I forgot to change my password.

And on the one hand, I love living in a world where knowing MAGIC WORDS actually beckons an alterante reality (passwords / internet), but on the other hand -- in moments like these i remember that passwords always stand for something more than just SECURITY.

Even in castles where little windows with grates over them in huge oaken doors slid open to hear (or not to hear) a password) -- passwords meant the same thing. In groups. Out groups.

Most of the time I am annoyed when I lose my access to the internet -- frustrated if I go a day without an email fix -- aggravated if I can't jot a thought into the blogosphere. But rarely do I take a moment to recognize that my password stands for privilege. That indeed all the varieties of obscure numbers and letters that are tied in some mnemonic way to my past and thus to my avatar presence in the www --> should simultaneously remind me that not everyone has such a bother in their world.

Some of you cram a few minutes in at the library. Some of you leave your connection streaming and open around the clock. But at least we all have passwords of some kind or another.

In keeping with my new life verse -- I want to recognize amidst my annoyance with I.T. today that -- this annoyance is great wealth. I want to invite you to, with me, name the privilege that you have of looking at the glowing screen in front you.

And, for our Estados Unidos readership -- Happy Memorial Day -- may our memories of sacrifice move us closer to --

peace~

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hair
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Both kids got major hair renovations today...i chopped addy's fro off -- while Jaelyn had her hair relaxed...



Jaelyn's thrilled with her newly long hair -- for the first time -- she can comb through it herself...

if you're interested in family pictures from our trip to michigan...