In light of today’s not-so-historic New York snowstorm, many of us have been left pondering the true nature of the white menace. Luckily, there are photographers like Paula McCartney who has made it her personal endeavor to reveal the many beautiful forms of snow and ice.
SpaceX and Boeing spoke together in public for the first time with NASA and unveiled their plans to ferry astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS) in 2017. NASA selected the companies last September to build manned spacecraft for its Comme…
Twitter may be the social network where you tell the world what you had for breakfast, but new private messaging features now allow you to share it on a need-to-know basis. The support for private conversations – added to Twitter today, along with new video features that streamline the sharing of clips – builds on the social service’s existing Direct … Continue reading
Streaming multiroom audio favorite Sonos has updated its platform, making controlling several rooms of playback more straightforward, and boosting appeal on tablets. Sonos Software version 5.3, currently available to beta testers before it goes live for all users, builds on the updated Sonos controller app that the company tweaked last year – adding multiple streaming account support, among other things … Continue reading
January is art month in LA, and we have four excellent ways to see more new art this week – Sunday is FREE Museum Day around town, the Art LA Contemporary Fair is in town, as well as the intriguing LA Art Book Fair, and the Autry holds it’s Masters of the American West annual survey of contemporary western artists.
For a list of what we think you should look at during Free Museum Day, Click Here!
Every once in a while someone asks for advice: “How do I learn more about the Bible?” In church we act like the Bible is important, but few among us feel confident we understand it — or even that we know what’s in it. Here’s my best shot at the question.
I’d encourage folks not to outthink themselves. Start simple. One might begin with one of the Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John. John is most commonly recommended, but I think it’s more important to just pick one and go with it. If you pick Matthew, don’t let the opening genealogy get you down. The story really does pick up. And as you understand the Bible, Matthew’s genealogy turns out to stand among the most interesting passages in the whole thing. In any case, each Gospel tells the Jesus story in its own distinctive way. It only takes a couple of hours to read one of the Gospels, and then you can compare them with one another if you really get interested.
Alternatively, you might begin at the beginning. Read Genesis and Exodus. Like the Gospels those books are stories, and we do just great with stories. Sure, you’ll run across odd names, strange customs, and unfamiliar places. That’s okay. The stories here are very powerful. The biblical authors were hardly naïve: their stories raise challenging questions about God, humanity, and the world. Keep your eyes and heart open. You might surprise yourself.
Folks often ask which translation to read — or which of the gazillion study Bibles they should purchase. Honestly, all the major translations are fairly reliable. Yes, they differ from one another in various ways — English style, reading level and vocabulary, and sometimes ideas — but that’s just because translation is complicated. You won’t go wrong if you start with the New Revised Standard Version, the New International Version, or the Common English Bible, among others. You might go to biblegateway.com and compare translations before purchasing one. In fact, if you get hooked on the Bible you’ll want to compare translations anyway.
Study Bibles are trickier, a feeding frenzy for publishers. A study Bible includes introductions to each book of the Bible along with other helps: short background essays, notes accompanying the text, maps, indices, and so forth. If you’re looking for a study Bible, I recommend making sure you can identify the authors who create those materials and their credentials. And I prefer teams of scholars who come from varied religious backgrounds. If forced to recommend one study Bible, I’d refer you to the New Oxford Annotated Bible, which features highly regarded scholars and no denominational agenda, but others are just as good.
As you become more familiar with the Bible you may want a little more information on some of the details. This is where a good Bible dictionary comes into play. The Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible or the HarperCollins Bible Dictionary both offer affordable and accessible information from reputable scholars. Look through one when you get the chance, and you’ll be surprised. You’ll find little essays devoted to each book of the Bible, key concepts, and important places and people. You’ll also see good entries on a range of topics such as the Psalms, slavery, archaeology, the Holy Spirit, and Emmaus.
You will perhaps want deeper information on the biblical books or key biblical concepts. Some helpful online resources have emerged such Luther Seminary’s enterthebible.org or the Society of Biblical Literature’s bibleodyssey.org. But you also might enjoy deeper discussion of the biblical books, their meaning, and the history of their interpretation. The brand new Fortress Commentary on the Bible comes in two volumes, one devoted to the Old Testament and Apocrypha and one to the New Testament. A diverse team of leading interpreters walks us through each biblical book, providing a detailed overall introduction of each book followed by comments on its major sections. What’s unique about this little resource is that each section discusses the ancient meaning of the text, the history of its interpretation, and its current significance.
The one thing I’d encourage you to do — if you have the time and the commitment — is to find one of the in-depth church-based courses that overview the Bible. If you don’t have one nearby, start one! These courses are pretty serious: they require you to commit several months and to prepare for your classes. Homework! I’ve experienced the United Methodist Discple: Becoming Disciples through Bible Study program and seen its benefits in people’s lives. One could say similar things for Kerygma’s Discovering the Bible: A New Generation or (I’m told) the brand new Covenant Bible Study from Abingdon Press. The great thing about these programs is that they all happen in community — and that’s where Bible study really belongs.
Once you begin to explore the Bible, you’ll likely find yourself wanting to learn more and more — and asking increasingly challenging questions. This is the advice I’d give to someone starting on the journey.
I’m sitting in a chair, waiting to do an interview for my job, when she walks through the door, this woman I haven’t seen in eight months but have known for years, and she looks at me and drops her mouth and says, “Oh my God. Don’t tell me you’re pregnant again.”
And it’s obvious that my six-months swelling belly is not the bloating of a meal gone wrong.
I just smile and wait for the words I know will come, and she doesn’t disappoint me.
“Don’t you know by now how this happens?” she says.
No, I don’t. Would you please enlighten me? Because, good Lord, who wants six accidents like I’ve got?
That’s what I want to say. I don’t, of course.
I usually try to take these comments with good humor and lots and lots of patience, because I know people are just trying to say something, and they think it’s funny, and they don’t know how many times I’ve heard it before.
But now that we are entrenched in our fifth pregnancy, the comments happen during nearly every encounter with someone I haven’t seen in a while.
“You’re pregnant every time I see you,” someone else says today, and I just shake my head and flash my obligatory smile and wait for the next punch.
And it comes, just like I thought it would, from a guy who flippantly remarks, “Yeah, my wife and I believe in family planning.”
And it’s this misconception right here that makes me want to scream it from the rooftops: Just because we have a large family doesn’t mean we didn’t family plan.
Sure, maybe we didn’t plan in the “traditional” ways, with birth control pills and rings and prevent-a-pregnancy cups, but there are other ways to family plan, like counting days and taking temperatures and being careful.
It may be news to many, but every one of our six babies was planned (well, except for the extra twin we didn’t anticipate).
I know it’s hard to believe that a family in our day and age and a society like this one would choose to have six children, and maybe it seems a little crazy (it is) and wildly expensive (yes), but we did. And even though there are days when I wonder if we really were crazy, and I shudder to think about our grocery bill in a few years, and I cringe beneath the insensitive comments of other people, I wouldn’t change a thing about our lives.
I used to be one of the most annoying control freaks a person could ever be. I used to think a clean and tidy house was a non-negotiable. I used to walk through life distracted from the best parts — all those tiny little pieces I needed a child to show me.
Now I’m the mama who can’t keep up with school paperwork and says oh well, and I’m the mama paying library fines every few weeks, and I’m the mama stepping over a discarded shoe and laughing about how this one is here and the other is clear across the room, balancing on the edge of a couch top, and how in the world did that happen?
Now I’m the mama who will slide down stairs in an oversized box just for a laugh from my boys, even though I almost break my back. I’m the mama who laughs myself silly at an ABC song the boys recorded with their daddy and turned slow motion. I’m the mama who stops on the walk to school so we can observe the ways those squished earthworms look like a J and an L and an S and an E, and who cares if we’re late?
I like this person I’ve become.
So, to all the people who feel the need to comment on how maybe we need to take our hands off each other until we can figure out where babies come from; and the ones who say we sure have a huge family and “better you than me,” like having a large family is some kind of curse; and the ones who want to educate us on their ideas about family planning — I say thank you.
Thank you for reminding me just how amazing my nontraditional-according-to-numbers family really is.
Thank you for helping me realize more clearly and firmly and surely that this is who I want to be, a mother of six boys, a woman losing a grip on her ordered-just-so life.
Thank you for showing me that this is family planning at its best.
Originally posted on Crash Test Parents.
@media only screen and (min-width : 500px) {.ethanmobile { display: none; }}
Like Us On Facebook |
Follow Us On Twitter |
Contact HuffPost Parents
Also on HuffPost:
Long before Condoleezza Rice served as America’s first female National Security Advisor and the first African-American female Secretary of State, she was a child growing up in the racially charged city of Birmingham, Ala., in the 1960s. Here, Rice witnessed a disturbing mix of segregation, tension and violence, telling “Oprah’s Master Class” how the experience and memories of her time in Birmingham have had a profound impact on who she is today.
“It was a scary place in 1962 and 1963,” she recalls in the above video. “Birmingham was the most segregated big city in America.
“I didn’t have any white classmates, any white teachers,” Rice continues. “We rarely interacted with white people.”
But Birmingham also had another side, a side where people were determined to excel and prove themselves, despite the circumstances.
“We had ballet lessons and we had French lessons. We even had lessons in etiquette — what fork to use,” Rice says. “The parents were determined to prepare their kids to be really excellent… You were always told you might have to be twice as good. That wasn’t actually a matter for debate. It was a fact that was stated.”
Not only was a poor performance not tolerated academically, but even outside of school, the adults held their children to high standards, focusing on the importance of exceeding expectations.
“It was a wonderful combination of community that was, in some ways, so segregated that they rigorously controlled the messages that we received,” Rice explains. “That message was: It may be a very racist place, and you may not be able to control your circumstances, but you can sure control how you react to your circumstances. Here’s how you react: You’re twice as good, you work hard, you do everything better than they might do it.”
Meanwhile, Birmingham had become the epicenter of the nation’s Civil Rights Movement — and the fear that accompanied it. “It was a place that really did invoke a lot of fear — night riders and Klu Klux Klan and all of those images,” Rice says. “Birmingham was beginning to be known as ‘bombing-ham’ because there were so many unsolved bombings.”
One of those bombings occurred in Rice’s own neighborhood. Another also hit close to home, figuratively speaking, when four little black girls were killed in the 1963 bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church.
“Everybody knew at least one of them. Denise McNair had been in my father’s kindergarten. I’d played with her. She was a little friend,” Rice says. “I just remember that night, asking my parents if I could sleep in their bed, which is probably a sign of how really scared I was.”
Still, Rice retained some sense of security. “There was always a bedrock feeling that it was going to be OK in the loving embrace of our parents and our community.
“I do think that those of us who grew up in segregation were able to spot at a hundred paces when somebody was underestimating you,” she continues. “When somebody underestimated me, it made me want to prove them wrong.”
Related: Diahann Carroll shares her first painful experience with segregation upon leaving her hometown of New York.
More from “Oprah’s Master Class”
@media only screen and (min-width : 500px) {.ethanmobile { display: none; }
}
A lot of people haven’t seen the Best Picture nominees this year, so we can assume that possibly no one — maybe not even Academy members themselves — has seen the short films. But there’s still time!
Starting Jan. 30, the recognized titles will play in over 350 venues across the U.S. and Canada. Check out the full list and head to the theater, or just wait for them to be on VOD in February (because, let’s be real, you’re not getting off your couch):
Live Action
“Aya”
“Aya” tells the story of two strangers who meet at an airport when a man mistakes a woman for his chauffeur, and she is so intrigued she goes along with it. Basically, Mihal Brezis and Oded Binnun’s short is the closest thing to a rom-com we could expect to be nominated for an Oscar this year: a serendipitous meet-cute, except understated and with subtitles.
AYA – Short Film – Official trailer from Oded Binnun עודד בן נון on Vimeo.
“Boogaloo and Graham”
In 1978 Belfast, a father gives his sons, Jamesy and Malachy, two chicks, Boogaloo and Graham. They become vegetarians, make plans to start a chicken farm and just generally grow obsessed to their pets (in part, through a montage set to “Why Do Fools Fall In Love?”), before having to grapple with the way their family is about to change.
Boogaloo and Graham Trailer from Out of Orbit on Vimeo.
“Butter Lamp” (“La lampe au beurre de yak”)
A photographer and his assistant photograph Tiebetan nomads against an unexpected mix of backgrounds (from The Great Wall to Disney World) for a mesmerizing look at cultural dissonance.
The Butter Lamp (Trailer) from Mostra Ecofalante on Vimeo.
“Parvaneh”
“Parvanah” follows an Afghan immigrant as she travels to Zurich and explores an unlikely friendship.
PARVANEH – Trailer from hiddenframe on Vimeo.
“The Phone Call”
In this 21-minute short, a shy telephone operator works a help line and receives a call that changes the way she sees the world. The foreboding tone combined with English accents of Sally Hawkins and Jim Broadbent may leave you wishing it was a “Black Mirror” episode. Although, “The Phone Call” is much more sentimental than anything going on in Charlie Brooker’s head.
The Phone Call Trailer from Lizzy Graham on Vimeo.
Animated
“A Single Life”
A two-minute look at the phases of life that could easily work as the opener for the next Pixar film.
A SINGLE LIFE – TRAILER from Job, Joris & Marieke on Vimeo.
“Feast”
With “Feast,” “Paperman” head of animation Patrick Osborne takes on a simple yet touching premise: a man’s life as told through the meals he shares with his dog.
“Me and My Moulton”
Remember “Arthur”? There are no anthropomorphic aardvarks in “Me and My Moulton.” The similarities ring true in the deadpan educational vibes with which director Torill Kove walks through a Norwegian girl’s life, as she grows up and learns to appreciate her family despite their shortcomings.
Me and My Moulton – Official Trailer – English version from Mikrofilm AS on Vimeo.
“The Bigger Picture”
In “The Bigger Picture” an eerie mix of stop motion and life-sized painting is used to depict the dark comedy that is caring for an elderly mother.
The Bigger Picture Trailer from daisy jacobs on Vimeo.
“The Dam Keeper”
Somehow, the beautiful animation in Robert Kondo and Dice Tsutsumi’s short makes the unfamiliar story of “The Dam Keeper” — a precocious pig tasked with keeping “the darkness” away — feel like your most beloved childhood storybook come to life.
Documentary
“Crisis Hotline: Veterans Press 1”
“Crisis Hotline” takes on the trauma of veterans through the lens of the crisis hotline’s trained responders. Sort of like if “The Waiting Room” went with a different American inadequacy, and took on the veteran care in place of the health-care crisis.
“Joanna”
This 40-minute film is a gorgeous look at a mother’s final moments with her son as she faces an untreatable illness. There is no in-depth explanation of what Joanna is dealing with. No heavy confessional interviews. Just glimpses at a parent-child bond, cherished as it ought to be (but often isn’t) sans extenuating circumstances. “Joanna” is as heartwarming as it is poetic. And director Aneta Kopacz refuses to wallow, reflecting the beauty in Joanna’s story with as much intensity as its inherent sadness.
JOANNA TRAILER ENG from Wajda Studio on Vimeo.
“Our Curse”
“Our Curse” functions as a personal statement from director Tomasz Sliwinski and his wife. Over 40 minutes, the two grapple with the reality of the fact that their son was born with Ondine’s Curse (congenital central hypoventilation syndrome or CCHS), a disease which will likely leave him dependent on a ventilator for the remainder of his life. “I forget I have a child,” she says one night, looking hollowed-out over a glass of wine, during one of the many confessionals throughout the film. Here we have a raw form of parental anguish, disturbing if only because of how rarely it is seen outside of closed doors.
NASZA KLĄTWA / OUR CURSE (trailer) from Tomasz Śliwiński on Vimeo.
“The Reaper”
In “The Reaper,” a longtime slaughterhouse worker (hence the subtle title) faces his own relationship with death in light of his gruesome surroundings. “The animals just came in and stared at me,” he says, recounting a dream against a montage of bloodied cow bodies and steel. “They said, ‘It’s your turn.'”
La Parka / The Reaper trailer from CCCMexico on Vimeo.
“White Earth”
“White Earth” could have easily folded out into a feature-length film, though it benefitted from zooming in where it did. This documentary depicts the families of the (mostly) men who uproot their lives to work on the oil rigs in North Dakota. Director J. Christian Jensen spends almost no time with the men themselves, opting for an unflinching look at what life looks like for the people closest to them instead.
She’s graced the cover of Playboy more than any other woman to date, but Pamela Anderson doesn’t think of herself as model material.
In a lengthy interview with Parade, the “Baywatch” alum discussed her current projects, including a new contract with a modeling agency. Anderson told the publication:
“I’ve just signed with Next Modeling agency for commercials and appearances. That is funny. I’ve never felt pretty enough to be a model. I think I’ve provoked feelings with how I look. But not as a beauty, but as a mischievous little rascal!”
Fans got a glimpse of Anderson’s high fashion makeover when she covered the fall 2014 issue of No Tofu magazine in relatively minimal makeup and designer duds.
Although the mother-of-two may have her reservations about her looks, the 47-year-old told Parade that she’s comfortable with aging:
I don’t really feel like I want to chase youth. I want to get old. I want to experience all the seasons of my life. I just don’t want to be afraid of it. And I think in this industry you’re surrounded by a lot of fear of getting older and fear of your looks leaving you. And I thought well, I’m lucky then because I never really felt that great looking. I felt like I had fun. I felt like I could be sexy. I could be provocative and I could use my image to get attention for things that I cared about.
The blonde bombshell has been a longtime advocate of animal rights, working with organizations like PETA to protect them. In May 2014, Anderson launched the Pamela Anderson Foundation, which serves to “protect human, animal and environmental rights.”
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
