We were talking about the Apostle Paul traveling around doing his apostle thing when this conversation took place (recreated as well as I can): Man: Well, I see the rules that Paul set forth and wonder why we’re not following them better. Teacher gets a gleam in her eye and turns to me. Teacher: Jeannine, do you have any ideas
Read moreI started this month with the best of intentions: everyday, write a poem and post it on facebook. A worthy goal, and the type of challenge I normally relish. Crash and burn this time. Publicly. This is my response to the questions about where the “Roses are red, violets are blue” has disappeared to. The last year–fourteen months, if I’m
Read more“My most significant relationship is with my phone.” Yes,that sentence did slide out of my mouth Thursday, hours before I learned Steve Jobs died. And since my twitter feed exploded with tweets about his death, instead of analyzing how pathetic my relationship with my phone is, I’m considering my relationship with technology in general. The first personal computer I used
Read moreI’m great at words, letting them roll out of my mouth in Mississppi-sized river of noise. But when deep emotion is involved, I go mute, opting for the cheap laugh if I have to say something. Often, though, the words do come, and I attempt to atone for my silence with a flurry of blogs, emails, and text messages. This
Read moreI didn’t think I’d forgive Barbara Ehrenreich for her narrow-minded, condescending book Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America a few years ago–and I still would like a couple hours to talk to her about it, preferably with no heavy objects in my reach–but this article about modern feminism may redeem her just a bit. In the article,
Read moreAnd much more am I sorrier for my good knights’ loss than for the loss of my fair queen; for queens I might have enough, but such a fellowship of good knights shall never be together in no company. Thomas Malory, Le Morte de Arthur A new school year started this week. It’s the first week in years–11? 12?–that
Read moreEpiphany #20437: WWE wrestling and strip clubs are essentially the same thing. Obvious differences, I’ll concede, but at a primal level, they function the same way. Maybe. Beyond the obvious trait the two share (waxing–lots and lots of waxing), both are vicarious proofs of Freudian principles. In Civilization and Its Discontents, Freud claims that men have certain immutable drives, and
Read moreWhen I heard those words as a child, I knew that the Man in the Yellow Hat was going to have to rescue Curious George in just a few pages. The formula was clear: George got curious, George got in danger, George got rescued…usually by the Man in the Yellow Hat. Even now, George’s antics lead me to intense questioning,
Read moreNote: when I wrote this in 2011, the idea made satirical sense to me. Now I’m leaning the other way: Baby Boomers and earlier generations should only get a half-vote. They have a less vested interest in the future, and it shows in their voting patterns. I have a radical proposal, one that could transform democracy: change the voting age.
Read moreI miss Sparkle and Twinkle. Years ago–well, not really that long ago, seeing that time is relative–I told my daughter stories about Sparkle and Twinkle, twin elves who lived in Santa’s house at the North Pole. It sounds so simple when I say it that way, but we had a mythos equal to Tolkien’s Middle Earth before Sparkle and Twinkle
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The Wave Returns 