The Reluctant Heroine

I wrote an article on Queen Esther that appears in the July issue of InTouch magazine, produced by Charles Stanley's ministry. If you want to read it, follow this link, then scroll ahead to page 28.

Going, Going, Green

Want ideas for going greener without making enormous lifestyle changes all at once? Green fashions, what to do with milk cartons, stuff like that? Check out eco-chick's blog.

Wordless Wednesday

Foul Foods

My earliest memory of bananas happened when I was four or five. My mom was cutting one, and I asked for a bite. She handed me a chunk, which I plopped in my mouth. Then I froze. Suddenly I ran to the bathroom to spit it out in the sink.

The only thing worse is liver. Recently I read a description of liver as “the oil filter of the mammalian machine.” Dude, so true. Care for an oil filter, anyone?

Did you know genetic evidence suggests some folks taste soap when they have cilantro? Which leads me to conclude that not all tastes are equivalent. If chocolate tasted to everyone like it tastes to me, we would never, ever, ever hear folks say, “I’m not that fond of it.”

I used to think I hated mayo, which I’ve heard described as “salmonella pudding.” But then I discovered that mayo and Miracle Whip were not the same thing. In my first year of marriage I made the mistake of using Miracle Whip as a substitute for mayo on a quiche. Not only do real men not eat quiche—they also do not, I discovered, eat cheap substitutions. Nor should real women. Or dogs, come to think of it. Como se dice, “retch!” en Español? When I told a friend I couldn’t understand what had gone wrong, she kindly informed me of the “no substitutions” rule. I bought some real mayo, and have used it ever since.

People can get creative when describing food they dislike. Consider these respondents' answers to an AOL survey about food:

Blueberries: They taste a little like aluminum.

Mushrooms: If I want to eat fungus, I'll just lick the shower wall.

Sour cream: Like expired chunky milk.

Oysters on the half shell: Like swallowing a fresh phleghmball.

Canned peas: Smell like somebody who hasn't had a bath for a week.

Cooked raisins: Remind me of roaches from my old apartment—or fat ticks. AAACK!"

Fried/sautéed onions: Leave a person's house smelling like the worst case of B.O. that ever was.

Writers are notorious for leaving out smells and tastes when seeking concrete images. See what an opportunity they've lost? What food do you wish were illegal?

Camp Week

Our girl left with the youth group for a week at camp yesterday. My husband returns this afternoon from five days in Missouri with his dad. And here's the challenge for me: restraining myself from going to coffee and lunch with friends every day and actually taking advantage of the uninterrupted writing time.

I'm working on the next issue of Kindred Spirit. The most recent one has an interview on the New Atheism that you might want to check out.

World's Book of The Year

"It is possible to avoid Jesus as Savior as much by keeping all the Biblical rules as by breaking them... Both religion (in which you build your identity on your moral achievements) and irreligion (in which you build your identity on some other secular pursuit or relationships) are, ultimately, spiritually identical courses to take. Both are 'sin.'" --Tim Keller, author of A Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism in an interview with World Magazine, which has named his work their Book of The Year

Remember the Poor (Gal. 2:9)

The global food crisis is forcing more and more people, millions of them, to go hungry. That's why Compassion International has set aside June 25, 2008, as a day of prayer and fasting. Meanwhile, as food costs rise the rate of charitable giving is down.

What is the global food crisis?
The World Food Programme calls the global food crisis a "silent tsunami" that affects families in every nation on every continent. Prices for everyday items such as rice, wheat and beans have doubled in the last year. The poor, most of all, bear the brunt of these increases. People who were already surviving on only $1 a day now spend about 80 percent of their incomes on food alone.

Why is the global food crisis happening?
Food shortages have affected developing countries for generations. But since 2005, food prices have risen a whopping 80 percent due to: rising fuel costs; increasing demand in nations such as India and China; natural disasters that destroy crop yields worldwide (including the U.S.); unethical governments; and the growth of biofuels.

That's why Compassion has asked those of us who have the luxury of choosing to go without food to spend one day living in solidarity with and prayer for those who have no choice.

I would also encourage you to give to your favorite charity that helps the hungry. If you don't currently sponsor a child, here are some links to kids needing sponsors at Compassion or Adopt-a-Legacy.

How to Pick a President

A couple of weeks ago when our friends Benji and Greta visited from California--one of whom is a Democrat and the other a Republican--they recommended an article to us called "How to Pick a President: Why Virtue Trumps Policy." I read it this week, and it gave me a lot of good stuff to think about. Check it out here.

MySpace Countdown Clocks

Herb Schell 1929-2008

Dedicated to Mr. Schell, who was one of the beauties of the earth and part of the love which from my birth was over and around me.

29 Years

Hard to believe my husband and I mark twenty-nine years of marriage today! This on the heels of Father's Day, on the heels of my niece's graduation. Lots of celebrating around here.

Also, we have less than $1,800 to raise to meet our Kenya goal! (A revised total includes $980 for immunizations. Lots of them. Thank God malaria pills are all that's left to complete the prep.)

Our team leaves three weeks from today. One afternoon last week, I took our girl and her friend out photographing docu-stills of their lives to share with students in the girls' school we plan to visit. Our girls dressed according to the school code, and we ran up to the middle school to shoot. We also got them practicing violin and flute. And in front of their respective homes. And of course, we had to swing by Sonic to cool off with some cold drinks, an adventure that also made it into the photo archives--just before the girls ended up on the neighbor's pool.

The past few evenings my hubby and I have spent watching the HBO series on John Adams. We love the history, but I have to say this version leaves us with an impression of Adams as somewhat of a jerk. What a contrast with the book on which it was based--John McCullough's John Adams. The script and casting have some weaknesses, but I still highly recommend the series.

I'm also reading Francine Rivers's Unveiled along with Walter Wangerin's The Book of God. What's on your summer reading list?

By Heart

I had brunch yesterday with a friend, Dallie, who is enrolled, as I am, in the UTD Arts/Humanities PhD program. As we talked about decaying bodies, she told me I really must read Billy Collins's poem, "Forgetfulness." So I found it today. What a hoot. Enjoy!

Prince Caspian

Have you seen the movie, Prince Caspian?

Saw it and loved it. Well done plot, characterization, setting--you name it.

Now, I confess that I watched it pretty much for entertainment. Yet Lewis actually had a master plan for the structure of the seven books in his Chronicles--a plan that went far beyond great storytelling. Apparently the qualities attributed to the seven planets in the cosmology of antiquity and the Middle Ages are embodied in the seven books about Narnia. Sounds like something Lewis would do, huh?

Ken Myers of Mars Hill Audio (sort of like the Christian version of NPR) conducts a series of interviews about the series, including one with a scholar who explains why Lewis thought the pre-Copernican view of the cosmos could still be of spiritual benefit. Though the view was not factual, Lewis felt its beauty revealed deeper truths.

For more info, check out the MP3s available from Mars Hill.

The Shack

Last month we had a brief discussion about The Shack. Dr. Glenn Kreider participated in the interaction and has since gone on to write a review of the book. You can find his assessment here.

Odd Headline

Obama Aide Quits Under Fire for His Business Ties

I read this headline three times this morning before I realized the "ties" were people, not apparel. Whew!

The Frozen Chosen

Last month my former coauthor, Dr. William Cutrer, spoke in Washington D.C. at a conference on “Emerging Issues in Embryo Donation and Adoption.” After reading up on the literature, he wrote this to me:

“Embryo freezing [cryopreservation] involves gradually replacing the water inside each cell with a chemical related to antifreeze used in automobiles, so the water doesn't freeze, explode, and kill the cells and the baby. Tiny ice shards can penetrate/perforate the cell walls, killing the embryo in either the freezing or thawing process. If they freeze an eight- to sixteen-cell embryo, they expect a couple of the cells to be destroyed in the thaw, even in the embryos that survive—a testimony to the remarkable recuperative ability of the human embryo. But, knowing this makes me even more opposed to cryopreservation. We'd never risk a "real" baby that way, and I believe they are real babies.

I still favor the adoption of currently frozen embryos, but I'm even more opposed to cryo... freeze eggs, and gasoline prices, not babies.

Team Kenya

SoulPerHearts

My friends at SoulPerSuit are leading an online Yahoo group through Colossians using my Cappuccino study. And each week participants interact with the text using their artistic skills.

One of the women granted permission to share hers with you. This is her version of Col 2:2, "...that their hearts may be encouraged, having been knit together in love, and attaining to all the wealth that comes from the full assurance of understanding, resulting in a true knowledge of God's mystery, that is, Christ Himself."

Wordless Wednesday

The winner of the Bible Study drawing was Kelley, who opted for Cappuccino with Colossians.

Even though the drawing is over, you can still add your great ideas to the wonderful list others have provided for engaging minds and soul this summer.

NYT on Infertility

Today's NY Times has a number of nice audio, video, and written pieces on infertility. To access them, go here. Just know that whoever chose to label the video on ICSI as "artificial insemination" got it totally wrong.

Kenya Update

Last Friday my daughter thought it amusing that I had to get five shots when she got only one. This after the yellow fever shots the previous day. (If we don't get them, the shots will be "given" to us upon arrival in Africa. No thanks.) We're also on the required eight-day typhoid regimen (oral), after which we're to start with the anti-milaria meds and a follow-up Hepatitis shot right before we leave. Not that anyone needs to punch my martyr card or anything. I'm not complaining. Seriously. It made me so glad I live in a place where I don't have to concern myself much with diseases spread by blood-sucking bugs!

Today the team met for the second time, and I was asked to speak with a distinguished group of leaders in Kenya (when we get there) about women's leadership. Right up my alley.

We're taking our girl, and she is slated to talk with kids at an all-girl school about what it's like to get an education in America. So we plan to put together some photos of her school, and of her playing her violin, and of fun time with her neighbor friend to give the kids she meets an idea about what her life is like here.

This came on the heels of a mostly fab week. Last Monday our friends Benji and Greta visited from Southern Cal. Then my sister's daughter Devin graduated from high school on Saturday (they live six blocks from us). So another of my nieces, Heather, flew in from Portland for the celebration and my sis's in-laws came from California. Add my bro-in-law, my niece Erin, and Dev's boyfriend, and that brought the total to eleven of us having too much food, fun, fellowship, Bunko and movie time. Feeling very rich these days...

Summer Plans?

In our local district, today is the last day of school. And last Friday was my last day of teaching at the seminary. It's transition time.

With the academic year behind us, folks switch gears to think of time off and travel. But what about engaging our brains? And our souls? Here are some suggestions:

Watch a documentary about Einstein.
Read John McCullough's John Adams.
Pick up a copy of an arts magazine.
Visit a museum.
Invite a friend to have coffee. Or tea. Or sparkling water.
Go to the library and browse.
Read up on solar energy.
Bake cookies with a kid.
Tour a factory.
Do a four-week study in a book of the Bible.

To encourage you along these lines, I'm giving away a free copy of the winner's choice of one of the Coffee Cup Bible study series. Enter to win by leaving a comment that offers a favorite suggestion for how readers can engage their minds or souls this summer. Winner TBA on Tuesday.

Wordless Wednesday

Murder Your Modifiers

Mark Twain said, "If you catch an adjective, kill it." Stephen King said, "I believe the road to hell is paved with adverbs."

So why do these guys detest modifiers?

Because they flag places where wordiness reigns. New writers usually have to cut their stories by ten to fifty percent before editors take them seriously. A surefire symptom of overwriting is using an abundance of modifiers. Along those lines, I read this today in a dust-covered issue of The Writer (my favorite writing mag):

"If the copy reads: 'When the "yellow, round orb of the sun stealthily and smoothly creeps into the azure blue early morning sky," one may wonder why the sun didn't simply rise; it would have saved a good deal of trouble for all concerned,' says Max Keele, editor of Fiction Inferno. If you feel the need to modify every verb with an adverb (or two), or every noun with an adjective, chances are you're not picking the right words to begin with. Look for stronger nouns and verbs that can stand alone."

For example... She dragged her feet = she trudged. He stepped loudly = he stomped. Instead of saying someone owned a really huge dog, a writer can say he owned a dog the size of Secretariat. Readers will get the idea. Surely. Totally. Completely.