Sick-day Chris here, reading Facebook. The article below, originally posted by Karyn Hunt, is a great invitation to join the race conversation. Frankly, if you live in the USA and don’t speak out against racism, I fear for you. There are two many people among my parents’ generation who probably never spoke out, either, and when they speak now, they can only speak in hushed voices, with some degree of fear, speaking of “them.” I fear that your future might be like theirs.

Let’s “end the them.” (more…)

One of my friends is a teacher who is spending the Christmas season in China this year. She sent an email to a group of us, telling us a little about what it’s like to be in a country that isn’t overrun with Christmas hype. This is my response to her.

For some reason, I really, really like this letter. Thanks for sending these out to us.

You probably don’t know this: my birthday is on Christmas! So was my grandpa’s – I was born on his 75th birthday. Want to know how old I am? He was born in 1889 – do the math. ☺

Anyway, most Americans, when they find out my birthday is on Christmas, assume (or guess) that I must have hated it, especially when I was growing up. (more…)

I have a degree in Vocal Music Performance, and I paid for it myself. I also got a Masters degree in MIS and Database Management Systems, again on my own dime. I now manage a database development team for a major Internet company (one I’m pretty sure you’ve heard of). And you know what? While my technical Masters helps with the more mechanical and analytical aspects of my job, it’s the things I learned in the University of Iowa College of Liberal Arts that help me actually be effective at what I do.

If you want someone to just get a job, send them to a votech school or a community college. Nothing wrong with that, and they should be able to become plenty competent via a program of narrow, focused training. I’ve certainly trained a lot of people in programs like that myself.

But if you want people to lead, to innovate, to be exceptional, you have to teach them how to think holistically, and how to work organizationally. Not just how to solve analytical problems, but how to solve entire problems, with all their analytical, social, political, tactical, and strategic dimensions. Teach them how to think, how to understand, and how to influence. One of the ways people can learn this is through the challenge of a broad education that forces them to study areas outside of their comfort zone.

Long live the Liberal Arts.

I was a vocal music major in college, but did not write many songs. Of those I wrote, I remember few. But of those I remember, this one is probably my favorite. And yes, I know this is the age of YouTube, so there should be a video, but I want to present the lyrics here as a poem. I love words, and I love the physical placement, grouping, and isolation, of words in poems. Not sure about the way I’ve handled the placement here, but the words still encourage me on those dark days.
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I’d really rather grow like a squash. (more…)

When I was younger, there were days that I was convinced that I could be the world’s best lawn mower, a mathematical genius, a world-class athlete, a truly great husband, or any number of other things. Yes, I said “world’s best lawn mower,” really. I was very conscientious and hard-working, and that translated into well-mown lawns for my family and for my grandmothers. (more…)

Some things become part of your past. Others seem stuck forever in your future. Still others show up in the here-and-now, only to reveal themselves to be different from what you thought they would be. My posts on Lost Things almost took the name Given Up Things instead (and I still like the acronym GUT), because each of these things represents something that used to be an expectation, but now may be only a hope, or even a concession, and each of these has been “given up” to God in prayer.

You don’t have to look far on the Internet or elsewhere in today’s mainstream culture to hear that we are all special. I totally believe this is true (see UT2). Every person bears the image of God, but it is expressed differently in each person. There is intrinsic value in human life, and in each and every human who lives it. But that is not the way I want to approach that I, myself, am a singular thing. Instead, I want to talk about growing up, and living, as an outsider, a loner. (more…)

Today is my Dad’s birthday. He is 77! That’s just a cool number (more…)

There is exactly one place that I want to be this side of heaven. Thinking back, there’s always been one such place. And that place is home.
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