Month: April 2012

"What would the world be like if Christians actually believed in a humble God? If following a God of poverty and humility led them to abandon their opinions, prejudices, and judgments so they could be more open to love others where they are, like God?

Francis went about the world following the footprints of Christ, not so he could look like Christ, but because they were the footprints of divine humility. He discovered that God descends in love to meet us where we are and he found God in the most unexpected forms: the disfigured flesh of a leper, the complaints of a brother, the radiance of the sun, in short, the cloister of the universe. The wisdom of Francis makes us realize that God loves us in our incomplete humanity even though we are always running away trying to rid ourselves of defects, wounds and brokenness.

If we could only see that God is there in the cracks of our splintered human lives we would already be healed," - Ilia Delio, in The Humility of God. 

(Photo: A devout pilgrim of the Virgin of Copacabana walks in the road linking La Paz with the virgin's sanctuary, 140 km over the Titicaca Lake, near the border with Peru on April 5, 2012, during Holy Week celebrations. Christian believers around the world mark the Holy Week of Easter in celebration of the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ. By Aizar Raldes /AFP/Getty Images.)

David Jay, head of Asexual Visibility and Education Network (AVEN), draws a distinction:

In our culture sex and intimacy are velcro-ed. When I say ‘not drawn to sex' they hear ‘not drawn to intimacy' and that sounds alien. The desire to connect is a vital part of what makes us human, it's hard to imagine someone who doesn't have that on some level. But sex itself is just a set of physical activities, it's easy to imagine someone who's not into them once you take all the symbolism away.

The alternative:

If we stop defining our significant relationships only as those that are romantic or sexual, being single will take on a whole new meaning. If we broaden our emotional focus from the person we share bodily fluids with to the sum of our friendships, acquaintances, and colleagues, our communities will grow stronger. If we stop treating penetrative sex as the be all and end all of physical intimacy, we will experience greater heights of pleasure. 

Previous threads on asexuality here, here and here. 

A fascinating twist to the story of the diamond engagement ring:

A now-obsolete law called the "Breach of Promise to Marry" once allowed women to sue men for breaking off an engagement. Back then, there was a high premium on women being virgins when they married — or at least when they got engaged. Surveys from the 1940s show that roughly half of engaged couples reported being intimate before the big day. If the groom-to-be walked out after he and the bride-to-be had sex, that left her in a precarious position. From a social angle, she had been permanently "damaged." From an economic angle, she had lost her market value. So Breach of Promise to Marry was born.

But in the 1930s, states began striking down the "Breach of Promise to Marry" law. … Regressing the percent of people living in states without Breach of Promise against a handful of other variables — including advertising, per capita income and the price of diamonds — [legal scholar Margaret Brinig] found that this legal change was actually the most significant factor in the rise of the diamond engagement ring.

"The Best Cigarette" by Billy Collins:

Collins recently gave a TED talk about why he let the Sundance Channel commission animators to interpret his work:

Colin Marshall is a fan:

Not to get too grand about it, but isn’t this what poetry itself is supposed to do? Don’t the words themselves also cut out fragments of actual existence and position them, recontextualize them, and move them around in ways that surprise us?

Some stats:

In the past five years, annual sales of the top 10 beer brands in the U.S. — a group that includes giants like Bud Light and Coors Light — have dropped by 11.4 million bottles, or 8.1 percent, according to data from research firm Beer Marketer’s Insights. In the same period, the top 10 craft brewers, including Sierra Nevada and Samuel Adams maker Boston Beer Co., served up 1.2 million more bottles a year, a 26 percent increase.

But there's still plenty of room for growth:

In very simple terms, craft beer makes up just 5.68 percent of the beer market in the U.S. That number –just 5.68 percent– is hard for those of us living in the Pacific Northwest to comprehend. In Portland, that number is closer to 30 percent. In the Seattle area, about 25 percent of the beer we consume is craft beer. San Francisco trails slightly at about 20 percent. All other U.S. cities are much, much lower.

Jared Soares photographs the everyday life of hip-hop artists in Roanoke, Virginia:

His images present a world that includes young musicians hoping to hit it big and weekend warriors who go from their day jobs to rapping in their free time. Mr Soares catches them in quiet moments in their neighborhoods or backstage, as well as reveling with friends or on stage. There is joy. And hard work.

"You might think it would be all about sex, drugs, more drugs and getting high," he said. "But the real theme is hard work. One of the guys, Poe Mack, his whole thing goes back to blue-collar, hard work, no-days-off grinding. That he’s going to make it no matter what."

(Photo: "Mill Mountain Star is reflected in the sunglasses of Brandon Eugene" courtesy of Soares, who will be showing the entire series at the Look3 Festival of the Photograph in June.)

How not to throw a toga party: 

(1) The Greeks did not wear togas, especially not Greek gods. You’re thinking of the Romans. Please do not ever associate "Greeks" and "togas" again. If, however, you want to advertise your party with the catchphrase, "We put the TOGA in Saratoga," go ahead. You’re welcome.

(2) The word "Bacchanal" is, ultimately, a Latin word, derived from the name of the god Bacchus. Bacchus, as you seem to be aware, was the god of wine and of partying in general. (Though there is more to him than that.) However, since he’s a Roman god, it’s very unlikely that Greek gods would show up to his party. Hence, please encourage your attendees to unleash their inner Venus (the Roman Aphrodite) instead — if she must be unleashed in public and all that.

(3) Apollo is an exception to this rule, since Apollo’s Roman name is also Apollo. So encouraging folks to unleash their inner Apollo at a Bacchanal is fine — provided that you remember he is a god of enlightenment rather than drunken revelry. In fact, he’s usually so busy providing oracles, making prophecies, and healing the sick, that I doubt he has time for too many parties. Hence, unleashing one’s inner Apollo at a Bacchanal might not be the thing, unless you’re looking to end the party. That bright orb that stings your eyes the morning after and calls you back to reason? THAT’S Apollo. Invite him at your own risk.

(Hat tip: Hannah Waters)

Biloxi, Mississippi, 6.45 pm

Marcus Williams finds that the artificial insemination industry marginalizes the male side of things:

My first experience of how unimportant male fertility seemed to be to the medical establishment was when I had my first semen analysis ordered, in my early 30s. The context was my first marriage, and after several months of failed attempts to conceive the old-fashioned way, I asked my general practitioner during a physical if he could refer me for testing. I thought maybe I’d get referred to a fertility clinic—I knew such things existed—or at least a urologist. Instead, he referred me to a local all-purpose lab that among other things, could do semen analysis.

I showed up expecting at least a private room and a skin mag to help things along. Instead, I was taken to a public restroom in the office building and instructed to produce my specimen sitting on the toilet, where the stall had a flimsy sliding lock, but the main door into the bathroom could not be secured. Ooooh, sexy! … 

[One fertility doctor] had lots to say about in vitro fertilization (IVF) and intra-uterine insemination (IUI), either of which were possibilities if we used donor sperm.  His counsel regarding donor sperm was to "Talk to each other, your therapists, your spiritual counselor, or whoever," but all he seemed to care about was that sperm was a necessary ingredient to the fertility treatments that could get my wife pregnant. My fertility wasn’t his business. 

Some help has arrived:

While it’s just as likely that infertility is related to the male half of the couple, only 20% of men in duos struggling to make a baby get a sperm-count analysis early on or at all, according to data from SpermCheck Fertility, which earlier this month announced the availability of its at-home screening test for men. SpermCheck, which is approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, assesses sperm count with 98% accuracy in 10 minutes and does away with the unpleasantness of conjuring up a sperm sample in a doctor’s office. 

Creator Jeff Desom reveals his tricks:

I dissected all of Hitchcock's Rear Window and stitched it back together in After Effects. I stabilized all the shots with camera movement in them. Since everything was filmed from pretty much the same angle I was able to match them into a single panoramic view of the entire backyard without any greater distortions. The order of events stays true to the movie's plot.