Parenting Trends and the Church

Read New Republic's article How Older Parenthood Will Upend American Society and Seeking Alpha's Chinese and American Demographics Contrasted and weep.  Or, if you are in my shoes: feel guilt and shame from the Parenthood one and a depressing vindication with the other.

Macro view: I know such news isn't new.  The Romans dealt with this issue as did almost every culture where women have choice regarding their futures-- the mother's death has been a common side effect of birth throughout history.  We've largely distanced ourselves from that reality, but we haven't the costs of parenting-- women still bear the brunt of that.

Micro view: I also come from a family who has only one aunt who started having children in her 20's.  My mom had her first child at age 31 and her last one at 41.  My grandmother had her last child at age 41.  Neither my brother or uncle has any birth defects. It never occurred to me that I would have children in my 20's, but it also never occurred to me that I'd be single at age 33.  It's as one older lady told me at church, "But, you're not that ugly." And, statistically speaking, the odds of either happening are minimal to nonexistent.  I am a brave new world with little guidance.  The evangelical church is geared towards men and families.  Maybe that's the problem with the modern American church?  We're more interested in demographics than God, worship and obedience.  Churches have foci on "seekers" or "family-friendly" or whatever.  Maybe we should be a little more focused on God-- and the seekers and families will come?

It seems to me that the demographic shifts are being studied in terms of education and income.  But, I wonder what deeper issues related to identity and spiritual belief are at stake?  Where is the church in this seismic shift?  I'd like to see a study linking church attendance and debt to income levels into the marriage and children mix.  Where does the shift in importance of entertainment, stuff and education fit into the mix?  I think the shift from a saving culture to a credit culture is a shift in conceptualization of the future and personal responsibility: an anthropological and theological shift.  We're talking about trends in sexuality, households, and lifestyle-- this is profound.

I'm finding the only worthwhile way to combat the worry (macro and micro) has been digging into a study of Exodus.  How's that for an apparent non sequitur? But, then again, maybe not.  Yahweh responds to all of Moses's legitimate worries in Chapter 3: "I am."  This answer denotes God's authority and presence.  The verb is of "active being."  God is also equating being God of the fathers (Abraham, Jacob and Isaac) with being the God who is present and active (and in charge of) the Israelites in Egypt.  God is as present now as He was then.  As problematic as this seems, perhaps slavery and attempted genocide weighed just as heavily on the Israelites... or more so.  Maybe like Moses, I should change my question from "who am I" to asking God "who are you?"

ignorance

I have no idea went on the world today: how South Sudan is doing, how Wall Street is crumbling, who's running in the different primaries. It's nice and scary. Needing a job does give me more overall focus, but I'm taking it a little far. And, I cancelled my subscriptions that kept me smart: Atlantic, Economist, Nat Geo, Runner's World because it was an easy way to save money. Now, I'm reading books. I read some smarmy 19th century short stories (Colette and Somerset Maugham), a cookbook and commentaries on the Psalms and Ecclesiastes. My roommate has decided to resubscribe to the newspaper; this is good.

fractal geometry musings

I watched this program on fractals last night. Benoit Mandelbrot "discovered" them in 1975 when he worked for IBM. He's a brilliant mathematician who irritated the European establishment; so he said, "Screw you guys. I'm going to America." As I understand it, he came up with an equation that explains repeating patterns in nature and some 19th century math conundrums. Thus, creating fractals. Mandelbrot came up with "fractals" from the Latin for "broken". Geometry and most of math is looking at smoothness; whereas, fractals investigates roughness. It's a way of looking at parts instead of the whole or in relation to the whole. It's a way of applying math to the visual world. Until Mandelbrot's breakthrough.

The two main components my brain latched onto were 1)self-similarity and 2) inter dimensionality because I have a natural fascination with these concepts. (Our mom should have let us play with Barbies so we would have a fighting chance at normalcy.)

Self-similarity is how the whole and the part reflect each other's pattern. For instance, think about an oak tree and a twig from that oak tree. Stand the twig up to mirror the tree. Its branching system is the same just to a different scale. This is true with clouds and blood vessels. And, the larger the system the more efficient it is. A elephant is 200,000 times the size of a mouse but only requires 10,000 times the amount of calories-- which means it's twenty times more efficient. There's a built in economy of scale.

Does self-similarity exist in history? Is there a natural lapping over of micro and macro history? Does my personal history reflect the larger history of the US or according to the Scriptures? Is Yahweh and Israel's relationship the pattern for my relationship with him? Is my identity crisis endemic of the US as a whole?

Then there is inter-dimensionality in respect to fractals. In Euclidean geometry, there are clearly defined dimensions. A line is one-dimensional. A quadrilateral is two-dimensional. A cube is three-dimensional. But, is it possible to for something to exist between two separate dimensions? Fractal geometry says YES! Something can be 2.376-dimensional. The higher the fraction the rougher the edges and closer to the higher dimension. It's a really interesting version of liminality. Liminal comes from the greek for "threshold"; its the space in between two known spaces.

This concept intrigues me because it seems to bridge a link between broken-ness and growth, which I think is true. We know it's true with building muscle and that is why rest is so integral to athletic training. This concept reminded me of my favorite Puritan quotation, "God breaks every heart differently" and the Buddhist concept of a storm breaking before beauty is born. Craziness and broken-ness can be interpreted as progress in some circumstances.

I like how Mandelbrot bent math to fit reality. He didn't adapt nature to a principle but played with the principle until it fit the reality of nature. This is the same reason I'm so much more comfortable with biblical theology than systematic theology. Biblical theology is 3.8976 dimensional to systematic's 3.2374 dimensional. It's rougher but more realistic.

CD Review: Mat Kearney's City of Black and White

(This was my first assignment for my freelance journalism class.)

My sister Susan is on top of all things new in pop culture because she has to be. It’s her passion… and job. Especially when it comes to music. In the music, nee the coolness department, I used to be an embarrassment to her; then as we matured, I progressed from a project to a challenge, and am now an opportunity. According to her, the work involved in making me cool is the equivalent to a second job. And, for the most part, I’m a willing recipient of her efforts in my coolness makeover.

For the most part… But, even little sisters need some self-respect. So, I resisted her recommendation of Mat Kearney based on the song “Nothing Left to Lose”. I turned the station whenever that song played because of its annoying chorus that reminded me of a preschool rhyme in how it extended the end of each line with an “ee-ee-ee”, demonstrating a serious error in judgment and taste.

However being the wily, persistent marketer she is, Susan slipped a Mat Kearney song onto a mix she sent me. Susan, aware of a) my strong aversion to Mat Kearney’s apparent lameness and b) my weakness for poetic lyrics, chose the perfect song. “What’s A Boy to Do” hooked me with the lines “Guess I’m looking for the right way to do this/ Guess I’m looking for the right things to call pretty” that got lodged in my psyche. It’s as if Mat and I became friends over a cup of coffee and great conversation. My sister is good at what she does.

But, it wasn’t until I bought “City of Black and White” that I became an official Mat Kearney fan. If that yellow CD had been fabric, it would be threadbare. Kearney is also good at what he does. He provided excellent thought-provoking company for my work commute for several months. He has intelligent, introspective lyrics that escape self-absorption. His gaze reaches above the rim of his belly button without coasting down the vapid road to pop.

He extracts the essence of the human condition from the mundane, foregoing sentimentality in order to reach something greater: compassion and connection. For example in “Closer to Love”, he sings, “She got the call today, one out of the grey/ And when the smoke cleared, it took her breath away/she said she didn’t believe, it could happen to me/ I guess we’re all one phone call from our knees/…. And don’t apologize for all the tears you’ve cried/you’ve been way too strong now for all your life….”

Then, with the chorus in “Lifeline”, he redeems the “ee-ee-ee” fiasco with these lyrics: “The world is too big never to ask why/ The answers don’t just fall from the sky/I’m fighting to live and feel alive….” Instead of wallowing with the emo kids in perpetual angst, Kearney wrestles with the black and white in order to grasp hope and meaning. He’s looking for the right thing to call pretty and invites us to join him.