Explore " book clubs" with insightful episodes like "Book Club: Pride and Prejudice", "Episode 23 | Personalities vs Book Preferences", "Strategies for Peer-to-Peer Conversations and Student Led Book Talks", "Book | Happy Money: The Japanese Art of Making Peace with Your Money | A Conversation with Author Ken Honda | The Perspectives Podcast With Dr. Susan Birne-Stone and Marco Ciappelli" and "How to Plan and Implement Book Clubs for Secondary ELA" from podcasts like ""Stuff Mom Never Told You", "Mentally Morbid", "Middle School Café - A Podcast for Secondary ELA Teachers", "ITSPmagazine" and "Middle School Café - A Podcast for Secondary ELA Teachers"" and more!
It is time for the long-awaited episode on Jane Austen's enduring classic novel Pride and Prejudice. We navigate issues of class, romance, expectations, first impressions, and of course, pride and prejudice.
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Have you ever wondered why you are always drawn to the same genre of books? Or why your best friend refuses to read something you love? *cough cough* Well, look no further! Join the crew as Kayla dives into a research study that finds correlations between your personality and your favorite books! We also go DEEP into explaining why no one can understand Anni’s messages.
This episode focuses on how teachers can use student-led book talks as an alternative to traditional book clubs. This episode provides a plan of action for implementing this type of discussion in the classroom, as well as additional resources and ideas for getting students thinking and talking about literature.
By having students lead discussions, teachers can help create an environment for meaningful conversations and promote higher-level thinking. It is important for teachers to step back and allow the students to take charge of the discussion, as this will help build confidence in their speaking abilities and foster deeper conversations with their peers.
In this episode about Student Led Book Talks, I share:
Related Resources:
Related blog posts:
Be sure to join the Secondary ELA Facebook group where we will be continuing the conversation about encouraging peer to peer conversations though book talks.
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Guest
Ken Honda, Author
On Twitter | https://twitter.com/KenHondaHappy
On Facebook | https://www.facebook.com/kenhondahappymoney/
Website | https://kenhonda.com/
Hosts
Dr. Susan Byrne Stone, Therapist, Coach, Professor, Consultant, Talk Show Producer & Host and Mentor
On ITSPmagazine | https://itspmagazine.com/itspmagazine-podcast-radio-hosts/dr-susan-birne-stone
Marco Ciappelli, Co-Founder at ITSPmagazine [@ITSPmagazine] and Host of Redefining Society Podcast
On ITSPmagazine | https://www.itspmagazine.com/itspmagazine-podcast-radio-hosts/marco-ciappelli
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Episode Introduction
"The Perspectives podcast is a new show on ITSPmagazine, co-hosted by Marco Ciappelli and Dr. Susan Birne-Stone. The first episode features Ken Honda, the author of "Happy Money," who discusses the different perspectives of happy money and the importance of having a positive relationship with money."
Welcome to the first episode of the Perspectives podcast, hosted by Marco Ciappelli and Dr. Susan Birne-Stone. In this episode, they invite special guest Ken Honda to discuss the different perspectives of his new book Happy Money. The show takes a closer look at the various aspects of our lives, including technology, cybersecurity, relationships, personal experiences, books, life hacking, personal development, sociology, and psychology.
Ken Honda is an entrepreneur and author whose passion for writing began after his retirement at the age of 29. He is known for his books on happy money, a concept that involves giving and receiving freely, and he has sold over 9 million copies of his books globally. In this episode, Ken shares his inspiring journey of self-publishing and how he gave away 2.3 million copies of his gift booklets for free, costing him around 2.5 to 3 million US dollars. His story is a testament to the principle of free giving and free receiving, which he believes is a universal law that works.
Ken also emphasizes the importance of our relationship with money, which he believes touches every aspect of our lives, including our relationships with family, work, and our peace of mind. He asserts that having a positive relationship with money can transform our lives and lead to happiness and financial stability. Ken shares his approach to happy money and how it has helped millions of people worldwide.
Listeners are invited to tune in to this exciting first episode and join the discussion on the perspectives of happy money. The hosts encourage listeners to share their thoughts and subscribe to the Perspectives podcast for more insightful conversations about various aspects of life.
About the book:
Ken Honda—Japan’s #1 bestselling personal development guru—teaches you how to achieve peace of mind when it comes to money with this instant national bestseller.
Too often, money is a source of fear, stress, and anger, often breaking apart relationships and even ruining lives. We like to think money is just a number or a piece of paper, but it is so much more than that. Money has the ability to smile, it changes when it is given with a certain feeling, and the energy with which it imbues us impacts not only ourselves, but others as well.
Although Ken Honda is often called a “money guru,” his real job over the past decade has been to help others discover the tools they already possess to heal their own lives and relationships with money. Learn how to treat money as a welcome guest, allowing it to come and go with respect and without resentment; understand and improve your money EQ; unpack the myth of scarcity; and embrace the process of giving money, not just receiving it.
This book isn’t to fix you, because as Ken Honda says, you’re already okay!
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Resources
Book: Happy Money: The Japanese Art of Making Peace with Your Money: https://www.amazon.com/Happy-Money-Japanese-Making-Peace/dp/1501188372
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To see and hear more The Perspectives Podcast content on ITSPmagazine, visit:
https://www.itspmagazine.com/perspectives-podcast
Watch the video version on-demand on YouTube: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLnYu0psdcllTkgK7HdPLCEtb-uEXkPfGM
Book clubs can provide a great way for secondary ELA students to engage in discussions about life and literature. When planning and implementing book clubs, teachers should take into consideration the time needed to plan the unit, the interests of their students, and how to facilitate student led discussions.
In this week’s episode, I share how to plan for your first round of book clubs and share some things I’ve learned along the way. I will share practical advice on everything from choosing the right books to facilitating successful student led discussions. I share tips on how to create a successful plan for their book clubs, manage group dynamics, and reflect on each discussion day in order to make improvements.
Download your copy of the FREE Book Club Planning Guide here!
In this episode on how to plan book clubs, I share:
Related Resources:
Related blog posts:
Be sure to join the Secondary ELA Facebook group where we will be continuing the conversation about book clubs.
Tune in on your favorite podcast apps Apple, Google, Amazon,
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Are you the kind of teacher that loves hearing students engage in authentic conversations about books and life? Then this week’s podcast episode is for you!
In this week's episode, I'm taking a deep dive into the power of using book clubs to teach reading. Through authentic conversations, book clubs offer real world experiences and allow students the opportunity to take ownership of their learning.
By intentionally grouping students based on their interest in the book, rather than reading level alone, book clubs encourage meaningful conversations about literature. Reading becomes a social activity as 3-4 peers come together to explore the plot, characters, and life lessons learned through reading the story.
In this episode on book clubs, I share:
Related Resources:
Related blog posts:
Be sure to join the Secondary ELA Facebook group where we will be continuing the conversation on Book Clubs. This week I will also share a few books I use as Book Club options!
Tune in on your favorite podcast apps Apple, Google, Amazon, Spotify, Stitcher, and more! If you’re loving this podcast, please rate, review and follow!
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Some industry gossip on the author who pretended to commit suicide to sell books. Also, an online romance book club! Then thoughts on the Mary Sue character and whether we're really still talking about this.
This is the online romance book club I mention https://www.meetup.com/Romance-Lovers-Book-Club/
Here's the TV Tropes article on the Mary Sue character https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MarySue
FIVE GOLDEN RINGS is now available here: https://jeffekennedy.com/five-golden-rings and SAPPHIRE is available here: https://jeffekennedy.com/sapphire
THE LONG NIGHT OF THE RADIANT STAR, a midwinter holiday fantasy romance in the Heirs of Magic series, now available!! https://jeffekennedy.com/the-long-night-of-the-radiant-star
SHADOW WIZARD, Book One in Renegades of Magic, continuing the epic tale begun in DARK WIZARD. https://jeffekennedy.com/shadow-wizard is out now! Including in audiobook!
Interested in Author Coaching from me? Information here: https://jeffekennedy.com/author-coaching
ROGUE'S PARADISE is out (https://jeffekennedy.com/rogue-s-paradise). Buy book 1, ROGUE'S PAWN, here! (https://jeffekennedy.com/rogue-s-pawn) and book 2, ROGUE'S POSSESSION, here! (https://jeffekennedy.com/rogue-s-possession).
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Anne Bogel has spent the last six years of her life doing something uncanny: Every week on her hit show, What Should I Read Next, she excavates a guest’s reading life in fine detail. Then she recommends books that always seem to be the perfect choices for that guest, no matter who they are.
It’s not just her unusual ability to pair book with reader that keeps her show at the top of the charts. It’s also the way Anne approaches hosting – as the art of practicing deep hospitality for her guests. That keeps her in listeners’ hearts, year after year.
It also makes Anne in-demand as public speaker. As intimate as she is with her podcast guests, you might never guess how raucously fun she is in front of a live audience!
If you dream of moving effortlessly between studio and stage, this episode is for you.
Anne Bogel is an author, the creator of the blog Modern Mrs Darcy, and host of What Should I Read Next? podcast and Modern Mrs Darcy Book Club. Anne loves talking to readers about their favorite books, reading struggles, and of course what they should read next. Anne lives in Louisville, Kentucky, with her husband, four children, and a yellow lab named Daisy. Follow Anne on Instagram.
What Should I Read Next episodes discussed on today's show:
Ep 350: “Book mail keeps us together”
Ep 351 “Book Club Favorites: LIVE from Bookmarks!”
Anne Bogel's holiday gift book recommendations for your favorite hosts and producers:
Scroll down for hosting takeaways from today's show.
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Takeaways
1. We may not think of it this way, but the word “host” comes from the word “hospitality.” Anne takes that literally – she and her team practice hospitality consciously. They do everything they can to make their guests feel welcome and at ease. That hospitality starts with the way they invite guests, to how they prepare them, to the ways in which Anne calms their nerves at the start of an interview. The result of such care shows in the relationships she builds with her guests – and, as a consequence, with devoted listeners.
2. Anne practices hospitality in the manner that Priya Parker describes in her book The Art of Gathering – and that means understanding and explaining the purpose of that gathering or interview at the very beginning. “It can feel silly at first to name your purpose,” she said. But it helps you and your guests immensely to say: "What is our purpose in being here today, in having this conversation? What do we hope you take away from this?" Don’t let these important guideposts remain unspoken.
3. You’re not the same host in a quiet studio as you are in front of a live audience. Or at least you shouldn’t be. Before you host an episode – or a live event – visualize how you want the audience to feel. As Anne says, the visual for a conversation with a single guest might be two people at a table leaning over their lattes. But the visual for a panel discussion in a room of hundreds of readers is big! As she put it, “Come on in. The water is warm! Big Momma’s shepherding! There’s room here for all of us, and we’re gonna have a ball.” They’re both positive kinds of energy, but they differ dramatically.
4. Hosting a great roundtable takes a different kind of expertise than hosting a conversation with a single person. It requires deft moderation, an ability to think like an orchestra conductor and sometimes a tightrope walker – along with the diplomacy to manage several egos. Anne plans ahead to give guests equal time and to ensure a lively flow of conversation. And she also thinks about how to inspire guests to tell stories that they haven’t told before – by artfully asking for specifics…like a memorable experience at a book club. And remember – sometimes that first story sets the tone for all the rest.
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Credits
Sound Judgment is a production of Podcast Allies, LLC.
Host: Elaine Appleton Grant
Podcast Manager: Tina Bassir
Production Manager: Andrew Parrella
Audio Engineer: Kevin Kline
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Published several decades ago, This Bridge Called My Back: Writings By Radical Women of Color remains a relevant and powerful tool for true intersectional feminism.
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I recently ran across an article in the journal Psychological Science called “The False-Hope Syndrome: Unfulfilled Expectations of Self-Change.” In it, Janet Polivy and C. Peter Herman describe the cycle of failure when we give ourselves unrealistic expectations, faulty self-assessments, and inadequate tools for self-change.
It says, “Why do people persist in attempting to change themselves, despite repeated failure? Self-change is often perceived as unrealistically easy to achieve, in an unreasonably short period of time…embarking on self-change attempts induces feelings of control and optimism that supersede the lessons of prior experience…Some sorts of self-change are feasible, but we must learn to distinguish between realistic and unrealistic self-change goals, between confidence and overconfidence. Overconfidence breeds false hope.”
Every person sitting here in this room is here because they believe that they can change. Either presently or at some point in the past, we have been unhappy with some defect in our character, some prior action that we are ashamed of that we want forgiveness for, maybe some present habit that we want freedom from. The gospel call has come to us with the great hope of transformation. For some, it was the words, “believe and you shall be saved.” For others, it was “keep the law and you shall be saved.” But fast change often doesn’t last very long, and I’ve been left with the lingering question, do we have a realistic understanding of how rare lasting change can be?
While statistics vary, one study shows that 85% of addicts in recovery relapse in the first year. Some of the reasons they discovered were 1. Withdrawal. Withdrawal symptoms include cold sweats, restlessness, vomiting, insomnia, and a general feeling of unwellness that can last from 6 to 18 months depending on their frequency of prior use. 2. Mental health. Often, the addictions themselves are not the problem, but the underlying problems are anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress. 3. People. Whatever your choice of addiction, you will likely surround yourself with like-minded people who enjoy the same things and keep you in this cycle, making it difficult to be sober. 4. Places. A person’s habitat is based on their habit. A person struggling with addiction has to change the places they frequent that will likely cause them to be triggered. 5. Things. This could be items like wine glasses clinking, a show, or a game that reminds us of a past life. 6. Poor self-care. Poor self-care sends the message that your well-being is not important, and consequently, you are not important. This includes things like diet that can affect mood and this can trigger a relapse. Others include 7. Getting into relationships and intimacy too soon in ways that mask the real issues that need to be dealt with, . 8. Pride and Overconfidence, 9. Boredom and Isolation, and finally 10. Uncomfortable Emotions.
So what distinguishes the gospel from another self-help message? This is a question I’ve been asking myself since the pandemic. This introverted and reflective period of time has allowed me to watch myself in ways I haven’t previously. Patterns of myself, cycles of my being. Sometimes the problems we seek to solve are unable to be solved because we’ve misdiagnosed the problem. “Thus says the Lord concerning Shemaiah the Nehelemite… Shemaiah has prophesied unto you, and I have not sent him, and caused you to trust in a lie.”
This is how Jeremiah 29 ends, with God having to correct the words of a prophet who gave a false diagnosis to Judah. This false prophet, along with another false prophet in the previous chapter Hananiah, were prophesying to Judah that their time in captivity would be relatively short. Hananiah boldly proclaimed, “Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, saying, I have broken the yoke of the king of Babylon. Within two full years will I bring again into this place all the vessels of the Lord’s house, that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon took away from this place.” (Jeremiah 28:2-3). Five months later, this prophet died. In the following chapter Jeremiah sends these words to Babylon, letting the exiles know that their time in Babylon shall indeed be very long, seventy years to be exact. It came with this warning, “let not your prophets and your diviners…deceive you….for they prophesy falsely in my name...after seventy years have come to pass at Babylon, I will visit you, and perform my good word towards you.” (Jeremiah 29:8-10). Their time in Babylon was not going to be 2 years, but 70, an entire lifetime. The false prophets predicted fast change, and they were sorely mistaken.
The first step in any addiction recovery is to admit the truth. Now many of you sitting here might not struggle with alcohol dependency, so I hope we can take these principles and draw from them what applies in our own life. In the twelve step program for Alcoholics Anonymous this truth is “1. We admit we were powerless over alcohol–that our lives had become unmanageable.” When the disciples questioned Jesus saying, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” Jesus replied, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life.” (John 14:5-6). If we’re looking to follow the Master, if we’re looking to find Jesus, we know where to find Him, we find Him wherever truth is allowed to shine. We follow Him when we follow after the truth.
When reading passages like Jeremiah 29, there is a temptation to read prophecy and focus on the numbers and the correlation to time. The seventy years might have to do with seventy weeks in Daniel 9 beginning at the building and restoration of Jerusalem, etc. One key experience that can get lost in this pure approach of numbers, is what the sentence of 70 years actually meant for the people who were living through the experience of an exile that would last a lifetime.
Some events in life are life-changing. They alter the course of our reality for the rest of our lives. There are traumas in life of which there is no bouncing back. There are parents who have lost children, children who have lost parents, and those who have endured physical and emotional injuries that are lifelong. There are diseases and cancers that erode an individual, and rob them of strength until their dying breath. There are some captivities that we do not recover from. Some losses, which we experience, no amount of time can assuage the grief. It is a sadness we carry with us to the grave, like the loss of a child. Captivities of this nature are essentially permanent. This life will pass and we will die in our captivity. So what do we do? What do we do with the permanent grief we carry with us? With the life long injuries that forever affect and change the course of our futures?
The first step, like any step to recovery, is to admit the truth. As Jeremiah 29:28 says, “your exile will be long.” Yahweh does not offer false hope to the exiles. They will spend the rest of their lives in exile. They will die in a foreign land. This kind of truth telling is also something that is also important for our transformation. While, I often seek to avoid labels, I’ve started to doubt whether or not I’m doing myself a service when I use language that disconnects me from the former versions of myself. Phrases like, “I’m a new person,” or “I’m no longer that person” or “I’ve been made new.” While yes, it is important to celebrate our victories, and acknowledge our progress and successes, I don’t want to lie to myself by creating a narrative that doesn’t keep me accountable to all the versions of myself that I have been, and the challenges that I will have to continually acknowledge as I embark upon this journey of self-transformation. ...
The Mark of Cain
By Kendra Arsenault
“16 He causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads, 17 and that no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.” (Revelation 13:15-17).
I recently moved to a city that still has “Blue Laws” in place. This is particularly interesting to me because Blue laws show the history of a city and the history of its values. It’s also something I’ve often heard talked about in sermons regarding future Sunday laws. For those of you who might be unfamiliar with what a “Blue Law” is it’s a law that was created back in colonial times and still stands today, but is not enforced. The fear surrounding “Blue Laws” is that the laws that prohibited work on Sunday back in the early 1900s will be reinforced at the end of time since they’re still technically a law. While on a city tour a few weeks ago, the tour guide shared with us some of the more unknown blue laws that are still on the books today. Some of these would be quite interesting if they were brought back.
Aside from some of these quirky laws, we learned about the history of how the city treated convicted criminals. During Revolutionary times when America was struggling for independence from England, there was a particular pardon called, the “Benefit of Clergy,” which allowed members of the church to be tried by their parish rather than by the state and thus escape the death penalty. In exchange, they would receive a branding on their thumbs. This branding included a T for theft, an F for felony, and M for murder. This was a one-time branding. If they were convicted again, they would receive the full penalty for their crime. This branding often made them unemployable tho and turned them into homeless wanderers, often dependent upon the kindness of family and friends for food and shelter, or working laborious jobs that no one else wanted. To be branded with this mark ensured that you would live a hard life.
This branding for the criminals of old, reminded me of a similar story in the Bible, where God branded a murderer rather than give him the death penalty. This branding sentenced this murderer to a life of wandering and reflection. This branding is the Mark of Cain.
The mark of the beast is often spoken of as a terrifying branding that will be forced upon the faithful if they’re not so very careful. Maybe it’s an implanted chip or a change made to our DNA through a vaccine, but whatever it is, it’s always this external force that we must be vigilant to guard against. It’s a principle in exegesis to return to first mentions in order to gather more insight on how a mysterious term might be used in different parts of Scripture. The first mention of a mark, is the mark given to Cain. And it was not a mark forced upon him in his innocence. It was not a mark that he received because he lacked discernment or did not watch carefully what was happening in the world around him. It was a revelatory mark, a mark that revealed a hidden secret, his very real guilt, the guilt of bloodshed.
When I think about the Mark of Cain, I see it as the mark of violence. October is Domestic Violence Awareness month and I thought it would be appropriate for us to discuss how violence shows up in prophecy. The mark of the beast is not something external that is placed upon the innocent thus turning them evil. It is a mark that reveals what is already in the heart. And as wide as the gap between Cain and Abel, there is a crying contrast between those who earn the Mark of Cain, and the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
In contrast to those who bear the mark, Revelation goes on to describe another kind of people saying, “Then I saw the Lamb standing on Mount Zion, and with him were 144,000 who had His name and his Father's name written on their foreheads.” (Revelation 14:1).
Jesus is spoken of in contrast to the beast, as a Lamb. His followers, bear His mark. The mark of Abel. The mark of being slain, the mark of those victimized by the Cains of this world. Jesus in so many ways, is our example, a model after whom we pattern our lives. But Jesus is more than that, He is savior, a Savior from ourselves.
“David Buss, professor of psychology at the University of Texas-Austin, surveyed 5,000 people for his book, The Murderer Next Door: Why the Mind is Designed to Kill, and found that 91% of men and 84% of women had thought about killing someone, often with very specific hypothetical victims and methods in mind. Though we may like to think that murderers are either pathological misfits or hardened criminals, as author David Buss highlights, the vast majority of murders are committed by people who, until the day they kill, seem perfectly normal.”
Now this book goes on to highlight the ways our brains have been wired to deal with perceived danger and that at times, our brains misfire. The rage we experience in a traffic jam or when someone says something cruel and injurious to our ego and we go red with rage, all of this a misfire since there is no real existential threat of danger, no, kill or be killed scenario happening. And yet violence is incredibly accessible for us.
October is Domestic violence awareness month, and Domestic violence statistics since the pandemic have risen. Families have been under incredible amounts of stress since the pandemic, financial stress, the loss of family members, where one or both financial providers have been fired from work. There have been lots to be angry about. Mallory Littlejohn, Legal Director, Chicago Alliance Against Sexual Exploitation paints this picture. "It's a really horrible situation. Imagine needing to wake up in the morning, go to work, take care of your kids, because they're homeschooling, [but] you're working from home and so was your abuser." Data obtained from the Illinois Domestic Violence Hotline received 28,749 calls for help in 2020. That's a 16% increase from the previous year and at its busiest, the hotline received almost 150 calls in one day.”
This is a single hotline number, in a single state. 30,000 calls that year. Multiply that by 10 states, by 50. Violence is its own epidemic and it is rising. But there is a beacon of hope in it all.
Jesus is called “Immanuel” God with us. The book of Revelation ends with the declaration, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.” (Revelation 21:3). Jesus is the ultimate pattern of what it means to dwell well with other people. He has lived with contentious, judgmental, even violent dome...
Today we are talking with a friend from my Book Club, Jessica. Jessica is a wife, and busy mom of two who loves to read. She uses books as a way to connect with others through Book Club, and says she became closer with her best friend from dental school through trips to Costco and Barnes & Noble together. In this episode, Jessica expresses how her reading journey has evolved throughout all of life’s seasons. She reads different genres based on what was happening in her life. Jessica expresses the value of rereading books and seeing how her perspective changes as she reads them through a new lens. No matter what season of life you are currently in, I hope this episode encourages you to pick up a book. And, I hope that book is exactly what you need in this season.
Episode Highlights:
● Being a busy wife and mom of two
● Love for reading
● Rereading books and seeing them through a new perspective
● Being a part of a book club
● Reading for different reasons
● Reading through different seasons
● Cal Newport Deep Questions podcast
● Find a complete list of books and authors mentioned on the podcast episode page
● John Grisham writing process - starts Jan 1st (not Jan 8th like I said in the episode)
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Every since I was a young girl, I have often had dreams that predict something in the future. It’s never a significant something. Sometime’s it’s an old friend that I haven’t connected to in a while, who calls me the next day out of the blue. Other times it’s an odd piece of clothing that I recognize from a dream I had the night before. Once I dreamed of a friend in tears, who I found out the next day her grandmother had just passed away. At this point, I think it’s a pretty universal experience to have one of those moments where a person calls or texts you and you say to yourself, “I was just thinking about that person!” I don’t believe my dreams are prophetic in the way that we see prophecy working in the Bible. But I do think there is something mysterious about the fabric that connects us all. Like the gravitational mesh that holds the earth in the middle of space, a mesh that is affected by the presence of earth and changes shape because of it, there seems to be a mesh of spiritual gravity that connects all of us. Maybe it’s the thing we call “intuition” or a “sixth sense.” So many of us, due to the busyness of life, become numb to our bodies, and the inner voice of truth that speaks in the silence of stillness. It is the still small voice that tells us uncomfortable truths.
Recently I had a dream, which is sometimes my body’s way of telling me things that I do not want to hear. In this dream, I was in a rainy marsh in the middle of no distinct place. There were various animals around in the greenery, many taking shelter because of the rain. A family of finches sheltered in a bush; a mom and several babies puffing their bodies and fluffing their feathers to keep the rain from soaking into their coats. Suddenly, I see a lost little duckling, soaking wet and dragging its little feet on the muddy ground. It was all alone. Tired, hungry, and lost. The little duckling was trying to drink from the muddy waters beneath his feet, and began to get sicker the more he drank from the contaminated streams. My compassion went out to this little duckling and I gathered his little body into my arms and brought him to a nearby pool. The water was cleaner. Immediately he took a drink and life began to be restored to his weary little body. He began swimming after the tiny crawfish that darted beneath him. Suddenly he got stuck in the sand below and soon would drown without my help. I quickly dug him out of the sand and brought him back to the surface. But now I was worried. How would this little duckling be able to survive on his own? I turned my back for just a moment and death was close at his heels. I gathered him into my arms once again, and this time as I did so, something strange happened, as in dreams they often do. I could see him trying to contort his little body into the shape of a finch. Like the family of finches we had seen earlier--he was trying to be like one of the little ones. He not only wanted, but needed to be accepted into this family of finches in order to survive. Afterall he was all alone. But in order to survive, he had to make changes that were painful to him and deceitful to himself. He had to become something he was not, in order for others to love him. My heart grew deeply sad as I watched this duckling change his shape. Something about him deeply resonated with myself and how I operated in the world.
We are not a species that can survive in isolation. We must have community. As someone who was born of an afro-latina immigrant mother, I come from a long history of women, people groups, who often have to contort themselves in ways that are painful and destructive in order to find acceptance in the struggle for survival. I began to ask myself, “What ways have you molded yourself and contorted your identity for the sake of survival? What Bible characters can you think of that needed to do the same?”
For starters, I’d venture to say, most of all the women. Living in a patriarchal society, women lived and still do live at a disadvantage. This disadvantage forces them to accept norms, and double standards, that they would not have to accept, if they were truly equal.
I was recently scrolling through my Twitter feed, and read this quote from @_bryana_joy, another woman who is tired of the gendered discrimination that women often face at the hands of religious leaders. She wrote, “I want @garyLthomas (& @Zondervan!) to know that for an untold number of women, his words in Married Sex are triggering trauma responses & great anguish this week. We. are. tired. We are so, SO tired of being told that men desperately need sex & we don't. We are SO tired of being told that our bodies have an almost-mystical power over men & that we need to use our sexuality strategically to retain our husbands' affection. We are so tired of being treated like a separate species primarily defined by our sex appeal. I want @garyLthomas to know what it's like to be a woman suffering with vaginismus/dyspareunia & forcing herself through agonizing pain & hours of dilator therapy every week in sheer terror that the man she loves will leave her if she can't fulfill his sexual expectations...I want @garyLthomas to recognize that scaring women into performing sexually by threatening them with the collapse of their marriages leads to serious trauma, insecurity, & an inability to trust their husbands—even when their husbands *aren't* raging sex machines.”
Women. Are. Tired. Tired of the contortions that are unnatural to themselves, that are forced upon them by institutions claiming to know God. As a woman, I can concur, we are tired. All throughout the Bible we have seen the effects of inequality, but have normalized as some idealized form of “the way the world should work.” In the story of Abraham and Sarah, if inequality were not at works, she would not have to accept being taken to the house of Pharaoh. Hagar would not have to accept being treated like cattle serving no greater function than to bear a child. Leah would not be forced to remain in a marriage where she was unloved and unwanted. Jochebed would not have to settle for being merely a wet nurse to her own child. Ruth would not have to beg for the hand of an older man, nor Esther contend for the affection of the king among his many wives.
These stories that make up our sacred history, do not reflect the ideals of God, but rather the effects of sin. The ideals of God can be found however, in day He had created to set aside as a tool to cut through the systems of men, and create an ideal of equality. This day was a foretaste of the New Earth, a moment where the chains of gender inequality, racial inequality, and the nationalism that fueled bigotry against the immigrants would be broken. A day where the covenant of marriage and the equity of one’s wealth was not shared merely between spousal parties. It is a day where all humanity is tied together in a common marriage, the Sabbath.
The Sabbath, which has often been the marker of what makes an Adventist an Adventist, was the first piece of scripture that I had ever memorized. Little did I realize how much wisdom was packed into this little passage of sacred text. Coming from an agostic home, but joining a community of Adventists when I was twelve the first verse I ever learned to memorize was Exodus 20:8-11 in the KJV. “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days thou shalt labor and do all thy work. But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God. In it thou shalt not do any work. Thou nor thy son, nor thy daughter, nor thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle...
Season 1 Wrap-Up
EM Forester said, "Only Connect." It was a call to put our greatest energy into our personal relationships. What does that have to do with books? It is the connections that keep us reading- connections that we have, that we want, that we imagine. Connection is what brings books to life, and in this episode we'll explore that.
Reading an unpublished meditative piece, "Your soul floating endless grace..." jaiyajohn.com. Books online everywhere...
Support the showReading the short story, "Once, in ancient times, there lived an old king...," from the softcover edition of my book, Fresh Peace: Daily Blossoming of the Soul. jaiyajohn.com. Books online everywhere...
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