Family
Ornithology
On our last day in Cameroon, one of Anna’s best friends stopped by for a visit, and I got some video (through the screen):
Bible
Trust as an act of faith
I’ve been thinking through trust a lot lately. Stephen Covey says it is essential to productive life in every way; having it speeds up everything, and not having it slows everything down. I think this is essentially true. But then we talk about how to build trust, and things can Read more…
Anthropology
Preaching and Teaching: Thoughts of an Extroverted Thinker
Following up on this post on the how personality affects our view of the purpose of conversation, I thought I should add some thoughts on less obviously collaborative speech acts, such as teaching and preaching. That is, preaching is typically a one to many act, with only one way interaction Read more…
Family
The Point of Conversation, by Personality
Anna and I have been messing around with the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) personality inventories (a short, free online survey to find your type can be found here). I’ve been surprised not only to find this a point of bonding between us, but also that the theoretical basis and applications Read more…
Family
Tired
We’ve been back in the states over six months now, so this update is long overdue; sorry. A couple months after our return, and we were having trouble thinking through how to communicate, and someone saw us in church and said Wow, you look tired. This turned out to be Read more…
Church
Transition, again/still
We’re behind on getting news out, but we’re starting a furlough/home assignment year. Part of the news issue is that we’re much in need of rest. So if you haven’t heard from us, please don’t take it personally; most haven’t. So we’re trying to get some rest, but can’t seem Read more…
Anthropology
Work in Progress
I saw this building this evening, and we commented on the logic of putting walls on the top storey of a building before the lower ones were done. Then as I thought about it, that’s a bit like what I’m doing with A→Z+T. The work on tone on words in Read more…
Anthropology
My COVID-19 Travel Experience (long)
This trip was probably the least well planned international trip that I have ever taken.
Thoughts
International travel through covidland
Our trip to Paris was fairly uneventful, apart from being told we had to take off our beautifully created cloth facemasks, and put on “surgical” masks, which get wet and dirty easily…. Then we saw that our trip to Atlanta was late, currently by three hours. Air France (from whom Read more…
Anthropology
Peninnah and Promises
I never met a woman named Peninnah until I lived in Africa. I recall first hearing this name, mostly because it was so strikingly novel that I assumed it was a mistake, and had to ask her name again. Even my spellchecker doesn’t recognize this name. But since that first Read more…