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Tuesday, July 14, 2015

Food for Thought ~ The Super Duper Random Edition

Food for Thought @ Mt. Hope Chronicles

[Find more images, links, and videos on my Facebook page or follow me on Instagram.]

Descartes walks into a bar. The bartender asks him if he wants a drink. "I think not," Descartes says.

And then he disappears.

[ha!]

:: The Really Big One. An earthquake will destroy a sizable portion of the coastal Northwest. The question is when. @ The New Yorker

[This is a fascinating, detailed, terrifying article. We live two miles east of I-5. I’m guessing that’s not much of a buffer. The boys have been busy talking about survival gear and knowledge the past couple days. Maybe we should take a month of “school” for a disaster-preparedness unit. Ahem.]

"Kenneth Murphy, who directs FEMA’s Region X, the division responsible for Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and Alaska, says, “Our operating assumption is that everything west of Interstate 5 will be toast.”

:: Ask R.C.: What Are Some Concerns You Have With the Homeschooling Movement? @ R.C. Sproul Jr.

[If you are a homeschooler, read this one.]

:: Cultural Apologetics and the Evangelizing Power of Beauty @ The Imaginative Conservative

[This post synthesizes so well with everything I took away from the CiRCE PNW Regional Conference. Go read it. P.S. CiRCE now has my favorite talk, Gregory Wolfe: Beauty, The Cinderella of the Transcendentals, available in video on their free resource page!]

If the Good, the True and the Beautiful, as a reflection of the Trinity, are the end to which we strive they are also, through their manifestation in love, reason and creativity, the means by which the end is achieved. Love is the path to goodness; reason is the path to truth; and creativity is the path to beauty.

:: Finding Your Place by Ennobling the World @ The Imaginative Conservative

"[A]s you move ahead with your life, you should try wholeheartedly to embrace the spirit of the places where you find yourself. Do this for even the humblest places, and for even the most transient periods of your life. Be fully present to them, in body and spirit. Make yourself a part of them. Turn off your phones and computers, turn off your anxieties and vanities, set them aside, walk outside, open your eyes, and look around."

:: There is Always Hope: Wendell Berry on the Environment, the Economy, and the Imagination @ The Imaginative Conservative

'He countered such gloom with the admonition to “have as much fun as you can.” And there is always hope: “My faith is that it can’t ever get so bad that a person can’t do something to make things a little better.”

'That is a profoundly humane vision, and our terrible responsibility.’

:: Filmmaker Wants To Stop Fathers From Giving Up Their Daughters @ npr

"There is a theory that stories are based on ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances," says Khan. "I choose instead to make films about ordinary people in ordinary circumstances that make the extraordinary choice."

:: The Next Culture War by David Brooks @ The New York Times

"We live in a society plagued by formlessness and radical flux, in which bonds, social structures and commitments are strained and frayed. Millions of kids live in stressed and fluid living arrangements. Many communities have suffered a loss of social capital. Many young people grow up in a sexual and social environment rendered barbaric because there are no common norms. Many adults hunger for meaning and goodness, but lack a spiritual vocabulary to think things through."

:: THE ART OF STORYTELLING, ACCORDING TO THE FOUNDERS OF STORYCORPS AND HUMANS OF NEW YORK @ IDEAS.TED

"There is nothing people won’t tell you if you ask in a compassionate and legitimately interested way.” — Brandon Stanton of Humans of New York

:: Man Buys 10.000 Undeveloped Negatives At a Local Auction And Discovers One of the Most Important Street Photographers of the Mid 20th Century @ Upshout

Incredible. I’ve added the documentary to my to-watch list.

1 comment:

Kim said...

Always love your articles! Such interesting thoughts to ponder!

As for the earthquake thing, it's the real deal. Your community agencies have actually been practicing for the Big One for awhile, because those who can get in from the coast, which will be devastated, will be coming to us in the valley. Our local agencies are just not advertising their practice runs much; they should! Portland recently put on a Power Out weekend. I believe it was sponsored by OPB for a few families, and they've written up the experiences for others to read.

It's a good summer to head up to Bob's Red Mill and buy some food bins, and stock up on essentials for your family. Really sit down one weekend and map out what you'd need for at least 3 weeks. If the power is out, and you have no water, the Life Straw Personal Water Pen/Filter would be good to have around. It lasts for a long while, and is cheap! Water filtration has come far from the old days. They can be found at Amazon.

It's something we've been focused on for our families and neighbors, and it's easy for me to get going on this subject. Families with small kids really need to think about preparations! It'd be fascinating for your family to work on this and then to write about it :-)

When we have the Big One, and we've been feeling tremors in the valley for quite some time, it will be 3 weeks before the National Guard can use the roads (at minimum), so plan for at least that!

Also, your kids would probably love watching the tremors on the Pacific NW Seismic Network.

Blessings!