Blog
Reflecting on Freedom
On this Independence Day, a passage from one of my favorite books, The Last Battle (the last book of the Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis) has been on my mind. It takes place in the last days of Narnia, and a wicked Ape has begun pretending to speak for Aslan and has plans to put the Narnians into slavery. "There! You see!" said the Ape. "It's all arranged. And all for your own good. We'll be able, with the money you earn, to make Narnia a country worth living in. There'll be oranges and bananas pouring in--and roads and big cities and schools and offices and whips and muzzles and saddles and cages and kennels and prisons--oh, everything."
July 4, 2020
Thoughts On Solving World Poverty
9 million people die from hunger each year. This number may double thanks to the lockdowns that have been imposed in the world’s poorest countries. Even before the lockdowns, about half the world lived on less than $5.50 a day. 10% of the population lived in extreme poverty, which is defined by the World Bank as less than $1.90 a day. On the other hand, the average American lives on $164.55.
July 3, 2020
Speaking As An Introvert
I’m an introvert. Speaking my mind when I'm face to face with someone has always been a challenge. Like many of my kind, I’m also sensitive and I cry easily. I find crying in front of people mortifying. When I am trying to do something difficult like talk about something I feel strongly about, these quirks I have can make verbal communication feel impossible. As a kid, many times I would either try to say something and end up crying and then feeling humiliated, or I would avoid speaking up at all. This pattern continued into my adulthood.
July 1, 2020
Teacherless Homeschool Case Study: 7 Years of Independent Learning
If you hate the idea of being a teacher, can you still homeschool your kids? Absolutely. I have three children and they teach themselves. We're seven years into this adventure now, and I'm grateful I decided to go the teacherless route. I had plenty of reasons for wanting to homeschool. I wanted my kids to have freedom in their education to: Go as fast or as slow as they needed to Have ample time to study things that were interesting to them Grow in a positive environment The problem was that a traditional homeschool, one where I was the teacher who taught each subject each day, was unworkable for our family back in 2013. I was impatient and perfectionistic. I had a 7-year-old who was stubborn and independent, and my attempts to educate him had put us at odds with each other. I had a 4-year-old and a 1-year-old who also needed my attention. On top of all that, I was working from home as a full-time software tester. Something had to give if I wanted to continue to homeschool and keep my sanity.
June 27, 2020
Tornado
Yesterday we were in the path of a tornado. It ended up missing our campground, but ended up tearing the roofs off a few buildings in town. It's always a tough call, to know whether it's safer to stay put inside our RV, or to go outside and stand inside a shower house. Tornadoes are, after all, unpredictable things. There's always that chance it could touchdown on the shower house and obliterate it, and leave our RV unscathed. You never really know. As a parent, it's a hard judgement call to make. But yesterday, when we looked at the radar, we came to the conclusion that the best choice was to head to the shower house.
April 24, 2020
Thoughts on Effort and Meaning
It’s supposed to be hard. If it wasn’t hard, everyone would do it. The hard is what makes it great. -Jimmy Dugan in A League of Their Own It’s been over a week since I deleted my social media accounts. In the future, I’ll write about my experience. Suffice it to say I’m thriving without it so far. But I have made things more difficult for myself. Facebook and Instagram gave me instant access to lots of people. I could quickly and painlessly like photos of their kids, know what they’re up to, and Facebook even reminded me when it was their birthday. Now if I want to connect with someone, it takes more time and effort. I have a suspicion that this is a good thing. My current hypothesis is that the added effort makes the contact I do make more meaningful and better.
April 11, 2020
Mastering Circumstances
“If a man does not master his circumstances then he is bound to be mastered by them.” -Count Rostov in A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles I’ve been thinking about this quote a lot lately. A Gentleman in Moscow is a novel that centers on Count Rostov, a Russian who has been placed under house arrest in the Metropol Hotel by the Soviets after the Bolshevik revolution. He must become accustomed to a life with restricted freedoms; he’s not allowed to leave the confines of the hotel, ever. Many Americans now find themselves in a similar situation, being ordered to shelter-in-place for an undefined period of time, though at least we can still leave our homes and get supplies when necessary, and eventually, we'll all be free to move about the country again. But for the time being, our freedoms are being restricted and we all must try to master the circumstances we find ourselves in.
April 4, 2020
Media vs Social Media vs Reality
After I had my first child and for many years after that, I did my best to stay on top of all of the news, every day. I felt a need to stay super-informed on everything that was going on in the world, I suppose out of an abundance of caution about what threats I should be concerned about for my children. I watched the local news and cable news, listened to talk radio, and read the newspaper and news website articles. I became very afraid of what kind of world I had brought my children into. Things seemed to be so horrible. Every day there was bad news everywhere. Then a change happened.
March 24, 2020
The Day I Thought I Was Dying
The day I thought I was dying began like any other day of my second grade year. I rode the bus to school, as always, and the day plodded along, like it always did, until the blessed reprieve of recess. The only thing out of the ordinary was that we had a substitute teacher that day, though I've long since forgotten her name. I went out on the playground as I always did. I usually played on the monkey bars, or slid down the slides, over and over again. There was a large wooden play structure that I especially loved. It was tall, and had the best slide, and a fireman's pole to boot. That day we were playing some sort of chasing game, and I hopped on the fireman's pole, like I had hundreds of times before. I overestimated the distance, or maybe my momentum made me slightly overshoot. Either way, when I landed on the pole my temple knocked against it. I slid down and continued the chase when I reached the ground.
February 27, 2020
On Writing
I've read a few books about the process of writing that I have found helpful. The first one was The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron. I initially read the book because I wanted to get back into drawing, and this book came highly recommended. She focuses mostly on writing, and as I read the book I thought to myself, I'm not a writer. She explains in the book that the exercises are helpful for any kind of creative endeavor, so I pressed on. I started doing my Morning Pages, which is a habit of writing three pages of stream of consciousness longhand. Yes that's a lot of writing. I did them for over 400 days in a row, and then I stopped. But that's a story for a different day.
January 16, 2020