Listen Up! Elevator podcast is here.

Putting this podcast out there feels a lot like standing on a high dive platform looking down past my toes at an ice cold pool. I'm taking the plunge.



More WildStuff over at wildthoughts.net

Mark Twain: The Law of Narrative

Someday – when I’m brave enough – I’ll write like Mark Twain. He manages to be sparse yet fully furnished. Like a minimalist home with a lived-in look. Artful and direct, he takes a meandering track through his stories that wonders all over but when complete seem like they couldn’t have taken any other way. […]



More WildStuff over at wildthoughts.net

gratitude: my worst shower

The sleazy midwest motel. The African safe house. Or the Idaho “cabin.” Replacing my bathroom shower head this weekend got me thinking about which venue could claim the title of MY WORST SHOWER EVER… Here in our comfy house in a safe, normal neighborhood it’s tempting to over emphasize the need to improve our surroundings [...]



More WildStuff over at wildthoughts.net

Tonight, CNN races to call American children "racist." Not so fast...

CNN reports that biased racial attitudes begin forming in young children and that American black and white children are both biased toward whites. And, they say they have a scientific survey to back it up. 





It goes like this.


An interviewer shows a young white girl illustrations of girls lined up from lightest-skinned to darkest skinned. Then, the interviewer asks her questions like: "Which girl is the smartest?" and "Which one is the good girl?" She points to the lighter-skinned girls. When the interviewer asks, "Which girl is the bad girl?" the little white girl points to the darker-skinned illustrations.


Her mother looks on through a live camera feed and cries. Obviously, scientifically, her sweet little girls is a budding racist. Or is she?


Not so fast.


This poorly crafted survey is an example of what  researchers call a "confounding bias" introduced by how the questions were phrased and how the test was presented. I'm not making any comments about race or racism here. I'm only talking about the validity of the survey from a scientific standpoint, as a way to remind us all to be careful what we accept as "proof" of a particular point of view. Just because people in lab coats stand around with clipboards doesn't mean it's science.


In this survey's case, there are a number of problems:

• This girl had no option to chose that "none of the children are bad." She was forced to make a value judgment. 
• Lack of variables. No other visual characteristics like hair color/length, eye color, clothing or even position of light and dark illustrations in the line-up were introduced in the line of questioning. Would the girl have made a different choice if the darker-skinned illustrations where wearing purple dresses and the survey taker's favorite color happened to be purple? The survey doesn't rule out these possibilities.
• Because of the lack of variables introduced, no correlation can be drawn between the girl's choices and her racial attitudes. It's scientifically useless.

Since this survey did not introduce any other possible variables - say, asking the same question but with the illustrated children arranged in a different order in the visual, for example - the survey isn't scientifically conclusive.


But then, why would a black child point to the light-skinned child as being "good" or "smart"?


The survey's results say that even black children pointed to light-skinned illustrations as being the "good" or "smart" children. How could it be anything but the child reflecting a belief that light-skinned individuals are somehow better then them or, at least, better off socially?


Here's something else to consider. Children are not able to think abstractly at this young survey-takers's developmental stage. When she is picking a child out of the line up, she isn't drawing abstract conclusions about value based on skin color. Quite the opposite, she sees herself as a "good" and "smart" child, so she picks the illustration that "is like me." (If you watch the video, you'll see this is the case.)


This survey could just as easily be viewed as a measure of a child's self-esteem than a test of his/her views on an abstract race construct.  Why would a black child pick a light-skinned illustration as the "good" one? Maybe his or her parents and teachers have sent the dark-skinned child negative self-esteem messages. Therefore, the "good" child is the one that is opposite to them. That's a self-perception that would fall on the shoulders of parents, teachers, and other influences in the child's life.


Since the survey didn't test for these possible variables for the responses it gathered, it's interesting but scientifically useless. Again, this is not a defense of any kind of racist behavior. But, in the race to call young Americans "racist" I'm just flipping on the yellow light of caution.


Just because this survey is labeled "science" doesn't mean it's the genuine article.

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Just the facts, ma'am. The art-i-facts.

Do you ever sit back and wonder what the bits and pieces of our modern lives say about what it means to be human? What we as people hope for, desire, despise, and value? The basic, nuts & bolts needs and assumptions we're using to build our lives as individuals and as a culture?

Archeologists use the artifacts left behind by a civilization to guess what that civilization considered important, what they believed, and what they desired to achieve. An unearthed scrap of pottery can reveal a lot information. Everything from technological advancements, to economic conditions, to the ideals of a culture can be reflected in the things they made, used, and left behind.

Such artifacts are valuable because they have both a function and a meaning. They do something for the person that used them and they say something about the people that made them. Sometimes the function and meaning of these objects are closely related. Sometimes they were quite distinct.

Artifacts don't have to be buried in the soil to be telling indicators of a culture.  You don't have to dig in your backyard for artifacts -- just dig in your closet. Clothes from the 1970's aren't really that old in the grand scheme of history. But to our modern eyes the tie-dye, polyester shorts, and Chuck Taylors of that decade are distant from us today. They are a reminder of the spirit of the times that inspired these fashion artifacts. A spirit that's somehow similar but very different from the spirit of our contemporary times.

Artifacts don't even have to be old. In fact, the clothes I'm wearing right now are artifacts that say something about me personally and my culture. We all know this. We know that what a person wears on their bodies is an expression of what's in their minds and on their hearts -- a small symbol of who they are. We check out each other's artifacts all the time. That's one reason why brand names are important to us.

So, looking at our clothes is an easy way to sit back and wonder what the bits and pieces of our modern lives say about what it means to be human. What about the other things? Maybe sit back, have some fun, spot a random object and try to think about what that thing says.

That's a conversation I could learn a lot from.

National Day of Unplugging: 10 commandments for high-tech Jews that we all could use

10 Principles for an Unplugged Day

1. Avoid technology.

2. Connect with loved ones.

3. Nurture your health.

4. Get outside.

5. Avoid commerce.

6. Light candles.

7. Drink wine.

8. Eat bread.

9. Find silence.

10. Give back.

 

Read more about the National Day of Unplugging from CNN: 

http://www.cnn.com/2010/LIVING/03/19/national.unplugging.day/index.html?hpt=Mid

Imagine not booting up, logging on, dialing up, downloading, streaming, hyper-texting, clicking, viewing, or browsing for one whole day. Sad to say, I don't know if I could really do it. It's worth a try....With all the chatter hushed, maybe I could even hear a still, small voice....

Pew Research Study: Young adults as religious as ever, but are less interested in church

Check out the article below from a recent USA Today...

Contrary to what we hear from today's church leaders, today's youth are no less spiritual than previous generations. The problem is Church - today's young people are much less interested in Church than the youth of yesteryear. Is it possible our "post-modern culture" that church leaders claim is the problem with America...really isn't the problem? If contemporary young adults are just as interested in religion as their parents, but less interested in attending church, then maybe church is the problem.

Every generation and every culture presents challenges to evangelism and discipleship. Let's complain less and work harder to find out what people need from church. We might have to make changes, but that's ok because we're not out for our own gain, right? Right. :)

Connecting God's dots can give you crazy pictures

Today has been a little discouraging. In the grand scheme of things, I have nothing to complain about. But right now I'm frustrated because I got two papers back and got a little roughed up on both of them. And the experience has me thinking about how we as people -- and as Christians -- interpret the things that happen in our lives.

Take my two bum papers, for example. Are they a sign? If so, what do they signal? Is God telling me to buckle down and do a better job next time? Or is he telling me to quit school because it's not His will for my life? Those are two very different possibilities that use the same evidence.  But I know people who base major decisions on the events in their lives because they connect the dots and think they see God will.

place place a in for everything its everything

As people, we are born with a strong desire to make sense the world around us. We seek to arrange everything we encounter inside a framework that organizes them, gives them context, and assigns them meaning. That's why you puzzled over the bold line of words above this paragraph for a few minutes before moving on. Your instincts told you that those words were there for a reason, that they somehow related to each other and that together they expressed meaning. In other words, you assumed there was...

A place for everything and everything in its place.

That's ok. It's totally natural.

As Christians, we have an extra layer we like to apply to help assign meaning to the events, sights, sounds, and people in our lives -- God. We believe that God is in control and he is organizing the scattered bits of our experience into a coherent sequence for a directed purpose. God, we think, is sovereign and he is scripting history -- including our history -- into a meaningful story.

Even if we can't comprehend it now, God is placing everything in its place. Normal people don't buy that, but we believe it. And we should, because that's how the Bible presents it.

Our faith is the problem

But in this regard, our faith can be a problem for us as believers. We so much want to assign meaning to what is happing in the world right now, that we jump the gun. We try to tell ourselves and others what God is up to in a specific situation, even though we don't always know for sure. In fact, a lot of times we get it wrong. Like Pat Robertson claiming the earthquake in Haiti is God's judgment for their sins. He's wanting to make sense of the situation, so gives it a meaning based on what he thinks God is up to.

Robertson is an extreme example, I admit. But, all of us Christians do the same thing - interpreting life in a way that fits our ideas about God and about how we want the story He's writing to turn out. I do it. We believe in God's sovereignty so strongly that we jump to conclusions too quickly.

This quote from N.T Wright sums it up:

One of the key words [in interpreting history] is Paul's little word perhaps, which he uses in Philemon...'Perhaps this is why Onesimus was parted from me for a while, so that you could have him back not just as a slave but as a brother' (Philemon 15). When Christians try to read off what God is doing even in their own situations, such claims always have to carry the word perhaps about with them as a mark of humility and of the necessary reticence of faith. That doesn't mean that such claims can't be made, but that they need to be made with a "perhaps' which is always inviting God to come in and say, 'Well, actually, no" (Christianity Today, April, 2001 p. 47).

So, I'm not going to make any bold claims or drastic conclusions because I got two bad grades in a row. Perhaps God is telling me to quit school, grab a camera and move to Africa. But I'm going to have to see a lot more of my story play out before I connect the dots that way.

And I guess the lesson is, be careful when you think God's telling you something based on a few circumstances. You and God might wind up having very different ideas about the meaning. It's best to let him put everything in its place...in His own time.

Posted via email from wild pansophia

The Future of Reading: How magazines can be better than ever

Apple's iPad has been unveiled, and it's potential as a web browser and electronic book reader has people like Josh Quitter thinking about the future of reading in an outstanding, forward-thinking piece focused on how the Internet could impact traditional print magazines.

Personally, I love magazines. I think they have the best chance of any current print format to survive the switch to digital because mags already integrate multiple media.

The visual component is an integral part of the experience. If properly harnessed, the multi-media capacity of the web allows for a richer reader experience than print alone. With the web, features like supporting video, interview audio, and flash animated maps and charts can be used along with the typical photos and graphics.

To survive, magazine outfits need to take three steps:

1. Offer full digital versions for much lower subscription costs than on newsstands.

2. Use the money they save from print production to flood the virtual pages with interactive multi-media content. Maps to click, drag, and scale. Photo slideshows. Audio and video from the interviews. Interactive charts. Links for further reading from past issues.

3. Boost interactivity by providing comment and response mechanisms for digital edition consumers. Schedule chats with the author. Allow a reader to annotate a portion of the article, make comments and publish them to the page. Other viewers could opt to see these annotations - like a collaborative pdf document.

Perhaps the changing tastes of readers is a by-product of a more formally educated population than we had 30 years ago. In college, you can't get by with writing a paper and citing only one source. In college, you learn that most people's writing is influenced by their personal views and not fully objective. As you are exposed to a variety of ideas, you find that often every perspective on a topic has some foundation in fact and can contribute to the discussion.

Perhaps that's why the next generation of readers wants conversation as much as they want information. They want their news and information from multiple sources and from a variety of perspectives. They don't merely want to be told, they want to be shown.

This is a lesson that every traditional medium can learn from as we transition to an increasingly digital age.

  

A book about a book about me?

If I were to write a book someday -- I mean a work of fiction -- I know what I would write. It would be a book about me writing a book about me.

A first person account of me constructing a third person account about myself for national consumption.

The me I would write about writing about wouldn't be a Me that friends would recognize. Neither "Me" (the one writing and the one writing about the process of writing) would be me exactly. They would be the Me's I would be if I let me be myself without being concerned with convention or with being comprehended.

Me (both of them) would be the character I wish I could be or that I'm relieved I'm not -- depending on my mood.

The first person third person autobiography would most likely poke fun at how most people construct what they think is reality based on their desire to be accepted by others based on their perception of what other accept.

And it would be a chance for me (this Me) to write like I think and not translate my thoughts into conventionally composed, single themed streams so others can follow. I could write in rivers, not streams.

"The Convention" would be a good title. That's where Me would get inspired to leave and write about himself. He would write a journal about writing a book about himself while dabbling in writing the book. The journal would be first person and the book would be third person.

And that's how I would write about me writing about Me.
  

Anatomy of a Story

Whether you're reading a book or writing one. Whether you're watching a movie, a commercial, or viewing a magazine; you are experiencing Story.

I've been studying Story for the past 8 years now. How to build them, interpret them, transfer them, capture and retell them, and how to assess their potential emotional impact on an audience. I'm still not very good at any of those things...but I have seen and told a tale or two.

The past couple of weeks I've been reading the Old Testament in large chunks. No, it's not because I'm spiritual. It's because I'm playing catch-up on all the semester end projects I should have been working on since October.(It's amazing what procrastination can do for your time in the Bible when you're in seminary.)

Anyway, reading it in large sections give you a great bird's-eye view of the major themes and movements. Usually when you read the Bible, you get bogged down in the details. You can't see the forest for the trees... You can't see the point for the facts.

In the middle of all this reading, I had an epiphany about Story. From a TV ad to a feature news story, to a travel magazine article, to the "greatest story ever told," I'm seeing a simple pattern in the little stories that make up Story. It's kind of a meta script for how good stories are put together in a way that keeps us interested, engages emotions and provokes response.

Others have already seen this pattern, this meta script for assembling good stories I'm sure...but I'm calling it:

Anatomy of Story

1. A hope is held.
2. A problem interferes.
3. The problem deepens.
4. The hope is revived.
5. The hope is realized.

Try putting the stories you come across through this filter. Does it work? Think about it in relation to the story of Christ and Christmas...

Ok...now I have to stop procrastinating and get back to my reading...

Feat or Flop?

It's the clash of two titans: Ethics vs. Curiosity.


If someone told you they broke into a sacred site and filmed what they saw, what would you think? What if the site has never been filmed before, and the video footage will answer people's questions or strengthen their faith? Do they have a right to keep these places under lock and key...or do we have a right to know?


In my latest article for crosswalk.com, I talk with documentary producer and host Brandon Trones about his guerilla filming techniques in the Holy Land for his new documentary...and about what the 40 day pilgrimage and fast he performed while he did his filming means to him and to us.


Holy Land Pilgrimage Goes Extreme in The Road Less Traveled


Read it and tell us what you think about these kind of extreme religious behaviors. Is it a feat, or a flop?

A married bachelor's 10-step, fool-proof plan

There comes a time in every married man's life when he must relive his past. I'm not talking about a mid-life crisis or a counseling session on a shrink's couch where you talk about your childhood. I'm talking about resurrecting those bittersweet days as a bachelor.


Oh, that time in the past when hearing someone describe your apartment as "a real bachelor pad" was a badge of honor. "That's right, baby. This is an art-free, candle-free, kitchen towel-free, toilet paper-free zone." You want to see some Monet or some little bubbling pots of potpourri, then go see a chick. If you want to admire my stereo and play some xbox, then push that pile of unfolded laundry to the side and have a seat. Those were the days, right?


Times have changed. Now my dinners include vegetables, my coffee table is stacked with candles, my car hasn't broken down in like, six months, and my socks smell like fabric softener. I'm clothed, seated, and in my right mind.


In other words, now I'm married.


But, for the last few weeks, strange things have been happening. Suddenly, I can't find the key to the mailbox, or my phone, or the salt shaker. Suddenly, pizza boxes are sprouting up around the kitchen again, like weeds in an unattended garden. Sarah, the civilizing force in my life, has been traveling. So, I'm The Bachelor once again.


I've been reading a lot of books about being married and keeping your woman happy. I'm not going to lie - I'm a walking encyclopedia on the inner workings of the female mind. So, while Sarah's away, I've decided to put all knowledge to work.


They say that when a woman's gone, she wants to know she was missed. She wants to feel appreciated and feel like you are a part of your life you can't do without. So, I've come up with a 10-step, fool-proof plan for letting Sarah know just how much she means to me:

• 1.  Order pizza like, every day. You can eat that thing for lunch and dinner. Brilliant.
• 2.  Play xbox. 
• 3.  Don't shave. For two weeks.
• 4.  Put off all essential home and work tasks. Once panic and confusion set in, procrastinate with more xbox.
• 5.  Text her every day to ask her, "When's trash day? XOXO"
• 6.  Roll up used kitchen towels and stuff them into random drawers.
• 7.  Bury the bills under some fast food wrappers on the table. The power company won't mind a little hot sauce.
• 8.  Sell the couch and buy a massive comfy chair. That's what happens when you only need seating for one.
• 9.  Run out of clean bowls and use the potpourri dish for morning cereal. Leave said dish in the sink with a few cheerios attached, for effect. 
• 10.  Pick her up from the airport wearing the exact the same outfit I dropped her off in last week. Explain the fact that my shirt smells like my apartment used to smell when we were dating by telling her that's just the pheromones in my new cologne. When that doesn't work, tell her I'm just kidding - I'm really in a focus group that's testing out dryer sheets that smell like deer urine. Those bucks'll never see me coming now.

The way I see it, the moment Sarah comes back, she'll immediately see how important she is to me and how I could never live without her. Jackpot.

If this goes well, I'll probably write a marriage book. I've got a lot of other fool-proof plans the men of America need to know about. 


You can thank me in advance.

GoWild: How to Turn Yourself into a Font for Free

So, I'm a procrastinator. I'd like to say I'm a recovering procrastinator, but I'm not there yet. The down side to putting all my tasks off until the last minute are the periodic moments of panic scattered throughout a typical week.

No middle ground for me! It's either a sense of calm and well-being as I ignore the work piling up. Or, it's the terror that strikes hours before the deadline. In the past, I tried to reform myself. Now, I just blame the problem on genetics and my childhood. It's easier that way.

The upside to my procrastinating ways is all the cool stuff I find on the internet while I'm distracting myself from my to-do list.

Take this website for example: www.fontcapture.com. It's a fun and easy tool to convert your own handwriting into a true type font that you can use on your computer like any other font -- even in design programs like InDesign, Photoshop, and Illustrator. Best part? It's free.

The process involves four easy steps:

1. Go to the website and download the template.
2. Print the template and fill it like (like I did above) with your handwriting sample.
3. Scan the completed template and upload it to the site.
4. Name your new font and download it.

Once you have it on your computer's harddrive, you can install it like any font. Possible uses? Create a new font for a design layout. Print nearly hand-written looking letters to friends and family. Fill out forms. "Sign" documents. Fool the teacher into thinking your mother wrote a doctor's note.

Or, if you're like me, you can finally realize just how bad your handwriting really is. You can download my font file to see for yourself. Ha! Have fun...