michelle, mom-ified

to kill time at the airport this weekend, carrie and i hung around the bookstores to read magazines. and as we perused all the covers, i was amazed by the sheer number of articles about michelle obama. 

there were articles about her perfectly toned arms, her fashion sense (j-crew must be really cashing in..), and her romantic getaways with the president. one article was about michelle as a wide-eyed woman beginning her new, luxurious life in dc. some columnists debated if it’d be more appropriate for michelle to wear sleeved garments; others praised her mothering skills.

all the while, i was left wondering where’s the real michelle obama, because i’m not convinced that this “mom-ified” version actually exists. where’s the michelle that campaigned with her husband, the one whose oratory skills rivaled the president’s? where is the brilliant individual who earned degrees from princeton and harvard law, who worked at a big law firm and a big hospital, who held strong political opinions, and who had a big powerful voice? you wouldn’t know it from reading her headlines, but i suspect she uses her cognitive abilities for far more than just fashion choices.

sadly, that michelle is gone. while i recognize that there are political reasons why the white house wants her to be portrayed a certain way, i can’t help but think she could act as a role model for more individuals than just women who want nicer arms.

borges (and baudrillard) on facebook

baudrillard has a really interesting reading of a fascinating little story by borges called, on exactitude in science. in it, an empire decided to make a map so precise and detailed, it was as large as the empire itself. as the “real empire” evolved over time, so too did the map evolve accordingly. 

but then something interesting happened: the original empire crumbled to the ground, and all that was left was the map. well, according to baudrillard, this is because the people actually lived on the map – not the original empire – and the empire ultimately crumpled from disuse.

in other words, according to baudrillard, the people lived in a simulation of reality. this simulation was at first an exact 1-to-1 replica of an actual empire, but soon, the actual empire was gone and all that was left was the simulation. the representation no longer reflected the truth because the truth had died. it was no longer even possible to tear away all the layers of representation to find the real empire, because the simulation had replaced the real thing.

spit & mud

as he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. his disciples asked him, “rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”

“neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said jesus, “but this happened so that the works of god might be displayed in him. as long as it is day, we must do the works of him who sent me. night is coming, when no one can work. while i am in the world, i am the light of the world.”

having said this, he spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man’s eyes. “go,” he told him, “wash in the pool of siloam” (this word means “sent”). so the man went and washed, and came home seeing.

a few years ago, i led a bible study on this passage, and reflected on how it challenged me to consider how my orthopraxy matched up with my orthodoxy. when confronted with a blind man, the disciples asked a theological question about the sinful origin of the man’s blindness. but much to the surprise of the disciples, jesus explained the blindness wasn’t a punishment for some past sins – far from it. god made him blind so we could see god’s glory.  

at school, i often hear speculation about how some of our students end up in their predicaments. is it because the kid grew up surrounded by substance abuse? is it because there was no dad? or did the student just start hanging with the wrong crowd? certainly, these factors (and many others) can contribute to our student’s difficult life circumstances, but this scripture raises another possibility – is it so we can see god’s glory?

i also deny the resurrection of jesus

one of my favorite authors was recently on a north american tour to chat about his book and the different issues that it raises. 

he’s known as much for his clever word-plays, turns of phrase, and linguistic acrobatics, as he is for merging the insights of postmodern theorists with theology. to his critics who prefer straight forward answers, he can be absolutely infuriating. but to those who can at least sympathize with his philosophical inclinations, he is a much needed prophetic voice. 

at calvin college, a faculty member asked him if his philosophical beliefs led him to deny the resurrection of christ. 

he responded with this: 

Without equivocation or hesitation, I fully and completely admit that I deny the resurrection of Christ. This is something that anybody who knows me could tell you, and I am not afraid to say it publicly, no matter what some people may think…

I deny the resurrection of Christ every time I do not serve at the feet of the oppressed, each day that I turn my back on the poor; I deny the resurrection of Christ when I close my ears to the cries of the downtrodden and lend my support to an unjust and corrupt system.

However there are moments when I affirm that resurrection, few and far between as they are. I affirm it when I stand up for those who are forced to live on their knees, when I speak for those who have had their tongues torn out, when I cry for those who have no more tears left to shed.

fasting for lent

when i heard it mentioned that lent was fast approaching, two things came to mind:

first, i remembered what lent was like when dennis was sick a few years ago. 

we were all still really hopeful. though the prognosis was not good, the crippling symptoms of his disease had not taken over his body yet and going out to a movie or having dinner with friends was still a part of his life. of course we were all still scared as hell. it was cancer, after all. but we (chose to) believe that dennis would someday be a miracle story, one of the few survivors.

second, i remembered fasting.

that lenten season was the first time i took fasting to be as serious as life and death. i participated in a daytime fast and  invited everyone in my faith community to participate  with me (and many did — when dennis found out that all these strangers from iv were fasting from food on his behalf for lent, he felt so cared for and loved, and it meant everything to me that he would feel that way). so long as there was daylight out, we all abstained from food and prayed that god would heal dennis. just as lent culminates in the glorious resurrection of jesus, we hoped to witness first hand a similar restoration. 

but it never happened. in reality, things just got worse. we tried, and we did everything we could, but it didn’t work. 

god is not a magic genie. he won’t dance for me if i bring him an offering. and no matter how fervently i pray, or how much i try to sacrifice to show god the earnestness of my heart, it doesn’t mean he will answer me as i see fit.

but sometimes, i wish he would. and the weird thing is, i woulda still done the fast, even knowing what i know now, just because it helped us all cope a lil better.

throw out the lifeboats

he didn’t come in today, and i know that it’s not all his fault.   

the aforementioned skipper has had a life of violence, tragedy, and regular episodes of homelessness. most recently, his uncle died in a car accident. nobody blames him for not coming to school. most people in his shoes probably wouldn’t. but it’s also true that no one is willing to hold him accountable for his decisions to screw around the neighborhood. no one to drag him to school and force him to learn to read. he has a free pass to keep pissing his life away.

there are two general schools of thought when it comes to school reform. first, there is the jonathan kozol/ linda darling-hammond/ jim horn approach that focuses on reforming teacher unions, developing stronger teacher education programs, dealing with poverty, providing more funding for low-income schools and students, and shying away from using assessments for punitive purposes. linda darling-hammond was a leading candidate for secretary of education, has been a long time critic of organizations like teach for america, and is a hero to a lotta progressive education folks.

suck

one day after i delivered a helluva “you must stay in school and work hard” speech to my one and only asian american male student, he decided to skip the next three weeks of school. this wasn’t terribly shocking, since that was his second time coming to school since new years. 

brutal. i hope he comes back soon. until then, maybe i’ll dream up a more convincing approach.