Brian Roffino
Writer * Worldbuilder * Life Coach
Barbara Brown Taylor Shares Her Gifts: A Fabulous Writer Can Make You Think
First, read this:
The only clear line I draw these days is this: when my religion tries to come between me and my neighbor, I will choose my neighbor… Jesus never commanded me to love my religion. – Barbara Brown Taylor, from Holy Envy
Okay, I said the J word. Some are religious people, and some are not.
BUT great thinkers can parse an idea from it’s context to see if there is still merit in it. Take a look at that idea and see what you all think. What does it ask of you? What does it tell you to do?
How does it push you to think more critically in each separate situation?
Okay, now I’m going to tell you something here – I LOVE Barbara Brown Taylor’s ideas. She commands a richness and finesse with language that could make even atheists want to be stronger people.
Read some of these powerful and thought provoking quotes and see which ones resonate with you. Why do they? Who are these ideas pushing you to be?
Three more favorites:
“The only real difference between Anxiety and Excitement was my willingness to let go of Fear.” ― Barbara Brown Taylor, Learning to Walk in the Dark: Because Sometimes God Shows Up at Night
“You shall love the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.” Those most likely to befriend strangers, in other words, are those who have been strangers themselves. The best way to grow empathy for those who are lost is to know what it means to be lost yourself.” ― Barbara Brown Taylor, An Altar in the World: A Geography of Faith
“To make bread or love, to dig in the earth, to feed an animal or cook for a stranger—these activities require no extensive commentary, no lucid theology. All they require is someone willing to bend, reach, chop, stir. Most of these tasks are so full of pleasure that there is no need to complicate things by calling them holy. And yet these are the same activities that change lives, sometimes all at once and sometimes more slowly, the way dripping water changes stone. In a world where faith is often construed as a way of thinking, bodily practices remind the willing that faith is a way of life.” ― Barbara Brown Taylor, An Altar in the World: A Geography of Faith : This one reminds me that one does not have to be religious or trying to be holy to be a good person. I LOVE that.
GoodReads Barbara Brown Taylor Quotes LINK.
A related Hero who found her way by trying something scary and strange – Nadia Bolz-Weber Story LINK.
Happy Hunting!
John McWhorter: A Credible Writer for Making Sense of a Complex America
One of the first discussions I have about readings with my college composition students is that two common components can get in the way of understanding new readings: 1) Vocabulary, and 2) lack of Background Knowledge. (Vocabulary being helpful explains itself, but Background Knowledge is that info writers just assume you have for their average audience, though many don’t have it. BK references often sound like quick mentions or comparisons, say to Dave Chapelle’s Canceling or pulling a Ralph Nader.)
Another thing we focus on with college-level reading is credibility, bias, and trust.
For white people trying to make sense of what might feel like a changing America, for non-native Americans trying to understand why race is such an issue here, for people trying to make sense of strange politics: One voice I trust is Columbia professor and linguist John McWhorter.
Sign up for his NYTimes newsletter HERE (and see past issues here too). (These show subscriber only, but sometimes you can find these crossposted other places – google it. Or ask me and I can get it for you. OR, subscribe to the NYTimes. OR use your college’s databases to see anything the NYTimes produces.)
John McWhorter first came to my attention when I saw his name listed as a writer for one of the New York Times newsletters. Since I am a white person and I’m on a lifelong journey to learn more about race in the US, I thought I’d try McWhorter’s writing. Since 2021, for years now, he has build credibility with me as a consistently clear, engaging, sensible, and interesting writer. I learn from him regularly. (I particularly LOVED his take on television’s developing portrayals of black people and what works about HBO’s The Gilded Age.)
Those interested in making sense of the world and learning from the perspective of a black man and father should consider John McWhorter. Here’s an NPR article about a book and perspective of his.
Who do you learn from (about any topics)? Reply and tell us who you find credible and why.
POST NOTE: while doing research for this post, I scanned John McWhorter’s twitter posts for the first time. (I don’t tweet or read most tweets – who has time for that?) I was surprised to discover that he seems to have a feud with Robin DiAngelo, author of White Fragility, a book I have read and learned from also. What does this mean exactly? I can say that I enjoy and have learned from what I’ve read of McWhorter’s NYTimes posts, but apparently, even though I think highly of him, I don’t agree with everything he believes. Some of his points I still have to consider. This is far more normal than people may realize.
Pay attention when you read. If your body says “Yes!” or “Wait, what?” that may be you’re brain reminding you to stop and think for yourself.
The Atlantic Scores Again: American Left and Centrists Can Learn from French Progressives and Centrists.
Read this story from the Atlantic’s Thomas Chatterton Williams about what happened this July in France when problems with a growing Far Right movement (think anti-immigrant, pro-business, smaller-government, but much more complex than that) threatened everything.
France, at first, floundered. Then it didn’t. It woke up and worked together. Note: I rarely talk about my own politics because I’m a small-time novelist and English professor, who deeply wants to make my students work for their own thinking, not give them mine.
And yet, here’s something I’ll give everyone for FREE: extremes in a political spectrum, both far left and far right are not helpful/positive to most people. Far right politicians are extreme conservatives, who are often anti-immigrant, suspicious of government, and too friendly with big businesses (they are sometimes so pro-business to the point where they’re generally okay with Henry Fords, Elon Musks, and other unnamed rich white men squeezing the middle class smaller to extract more wealth from them – and sometimes, far-right people are okay with those rich white men controlling more/having more political power).
Far left politicians are often distrustful of businesses and capitalism, sometimes too focused on reducing rights to property, or are hyper-focused on small issues like climate change or cruelty in animal industries, and sometime too dependent on regulation to inhibit businesses, but too focused on individual rights like legalizing all drugs, (and sometimes that hyper-focus on niche rights or issues can put large industries out of business, causing a soft economy, job loss, and broader economic issues).
My first suggestion to people wanting to better understand why extremes aren’t the best choices for politicians is to tell people to listen (to a variety of different voices), to read more (from people who think differently from them), and to try to imagine life from other perspectives. This can develop empathy for “other sides”. For example, people arguing that we must close the border and severely limit immigrants coming into the US are often surprised by immigrant stories (the violence people flee, the taxes they pay, the pure goals of providing for their children they have). It doesn’t change the issues of a more open border but it at least helps stop people from dehumanizing immigrants. There are actually plenty of great ideas and great points on many sides (of plenty issues).
Some of the conversations happening at the extremes can be fascinating… but unrealistic. Switching to only green energy! Yes! But how? Hmmm. Abolishing public schools so I don’t have to pay for other people’s kids! That may sound interesting, but what would the results be? Look closer at who will definitely be able to afford the good schools still and who won’t. Totally unrealistic, and not the America anyone wants. It is cruel, especially to lower income families who would then almost certainly never be able to get out of poverty.
This Atlantic story about France is inspiring – another strong democracy can wake itself up to avoid extremes. Can the United States?
STEP ONE: READ/LISTEN/GROW. Set aside at least 5 minutes per day at least four days per week to answer some questions you have through unbiased sources. Wikipedia is okay. Fox or MSNBC are not exactly. In fact, start looking for news stories that are designed to make you angry or ticked off. THAT IS MANIPULATION. Sometimes there’s also propaganda, misinformation, and disinformation there too.
STEP ONE B: keep finding more sources you can trust, like the Atlantic above, the Washington Post, the New York Times, and plenty of others.
Note: anyone who tells you not to trust any media but them is lying to you. Don’t automatically trust any media at all (including me). Let them build up trust and use Reagan’s often used maxim: “Trust but Verify” to check other sources too.
STEP TWO: identify your VALUES. Not your party, your values. Sometimes a party veers away from their own stated values (and yours).
STEP THREE: VOTE. if you don’t vote, your voice matters less. Use that power or someone else will. Or someone might take that power away.
(STEP FOUR): Take breaks, but don’t ever stop reading and growing. Build up your vocabulary, your ability to express yourself to people of all backgrounds, and build up your resilience/stamina to stick with stories and topics and solutions. We as a country need good ideas.
Step up or other people might put you to sleep and take your place away.
January 6 Committee Continues Today: Americans Need to Watch and Listen to Each Other
Many normal and apolitical people (people like me) don’t want to weigh into this political stuff like with Former President Donald Trump and the January 6th Committee. I personally don’t want to isolate sensible people who are conservative or sensible people who are more liberal or progressive.
But at a certain point, everyday people do need to weigh in and help others get a sense of how to think, what to think, or what to listen to versus what to ignore.
Today’s news is a complicated blend of biased facts, unbiased facts, misinformation, and flat out lies, so it is important to be skeptical of EVERYTHING AND EVERYONE (including me).
Here’s what I think about the January 6th hearings: There is verifiable evidence here and Americans as a whole must be able to come back to some facts we can all agree on. What we believe about some of these facts can be divergent, and that is normal in America, but we cannot pretend that facts do not exist.
There are reasons to still like President Trump or support his legacy, or like President Biden or support his legacy, but we cannot
You cannot trust just what one side says or just what any one news source reports, and I have seen enough to believe that some people are trying to manipulate you.
CLICK HERE or Google “January 6th Committee Hearing Livestream” and/or “October 13” to see what is happening today in Congress. President Trump was just issued a subpoena.
Cycles of Change and Stability – Finding Purpose in the Normal – Great Song
One thing I love about a new semester is that a predictable cycle starts again.
One thing I DON’T love about a new semester is that a predictable cycle starts again.
There is comfort in the sameness and there can be stagnation in it as well.
I’m reminded of the Catholic prayers I recited over and over and over growing up in stogy churches and slow droning ways and how I searched for freshness in the words every time. I often found nuance. I did not always. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
I guess it’s about MINDSET too, and so many things are. I just need to remember to see the positive and move towards the finish lines I want.
This Cycle, Clouds on the Horizon
I begin a cycle again in a strange time, a time of darkness and apathy, of fear and racism and the hints of danger past the ramparts, pennants through trees past the fields. Some seek blood to shape our world into one without the others.
And amidst this, most of us have to drive, cut grass, sauté vegetables, feed the dog, pay the phone bill, and wake up too early for work.
How are we to find meaning and purpose in a world shouting at us, shouting through us, a world so full of distractification devices that people have left the ramparts?
Being intentional matters – setting plans that will either show us meaning or show us the way closer to it. And also not falling prey to the siren call of that which lulls us into our slumbers and atrophy.
I’ve got a few goals for the year myself. Do you?
One Man with a Purpose
In this time of heat before the fall, of the bustle before the semester begins, I found a surprise in the chaos.
Enter Oliver Anthony’s song, “Rich Men North of Richmond,” rich guitar folk twangs and an angry, despondent voice, at the launch of a clown show of a political debate. It was at least a hint of pure life and real human worry at the head of a river of posturing and misrepresentations.
His song may not be for everyone and some are reading their lenses into the words. One thing that many can agree on is that this is a person who sees struggle and wants it to be different. He’s using his song to point to some hardship that many face.
Anthony’s message is worth discussing. It must resonate with people: at the time of this writing, it has garnered 41 million views in two weeks.
Here is an artful song with a shade of a dream that has been shared before and needs to be shared again.
I enjoy that Oliver Anthony responded in a video after the debate and said he wrote the song about those leaders. I can understand that. So many leaders today sound the same: ivy-colored, full of meaningless phrases, and lack of detail about clear action on the hard choices we need to be making. We need humans who listen, who know the feeling of having double digits in the bank account, who remember what it was to say no to something important like food or medicine because those were the only choices.
Let’s let servants and listeners into the white rooms. Let’s ask those who will serve others balance some budgets and make some hard choices.
Join this conversation. Go watch some of the Response Videos (which is apparently a thing? Can you tell I neither Tik nor Tok?). See what others say. What do you think?
We can all do so much better, and we WILL. Let’s do it together.
Read. Think. Come up with simple ideas. And VOTE.
Great Reads: The Urge
In my Comp 2 classes, I have started letting my students select a reader and one of my classes picked a great one. (This originally evolved from an issue/worry with Florida’s Governor Ron Desantis’s new restrictions on classroom topics, but in the end, it ended up being great allowing students to have choices.)
The Urge: Our History of Addiction, by Carl Erik Fisher is a worthy read.
Here are a few perks that make this book worth your time (especially for anyone interested in Psychology, CBT and therapeutic fields, and/or medicine):
Great organization and broad overview
The 11 chapters each take a look at one piece of the puzzle as humanity has tried to make sense of the complexities of our urges, from antiquity on through the therapists and treatment centers of today.
This book also moves back and forth between historical stories and Fisher’s own story of struggle.
Fisher is honest and shares his OWN credible tale
I am not always a fan of a memoir story – there are just so many, but Fisher takes the concept of a memoir/addiction story and marries it with a historical focus. It is not too much of either and both parts, the historical and the personal, are stronger for the inclusion of the other.
To explain, each chapter often starts with history, or a historical situation, usually focusing on one historical figure’s story, and then after a few pages, it switches gears to Fisher’s tale. Since high school, he’d been a drinker, and that seemed to accelerate as he got further into college and then into his medical residency. He doesn’t soften his story but instead includes what some would consider to be highly embarrassing moments. He does this to earn credibility – he’s been through his own experience of addiction, denial, failure, acceptance, and recovery.
I do wonder a bit at what choices were made about how to intersperse his story with historical accounts. At least once or twice, shifting gears from the terrors of 18th-century medicine to a Fisher moment and then back seemed a bit abrupt. Then again, I listened to most of this via audiobook, so it might have been more clear in print. Still, perhaps clearer subheadings would have helped with the transitions and with later reference. (At least once, when trying to find a section of his story, or the section about the woman who helped champion Alcoholics Anonymous, I simply could not remember and could not quickly find what I was seeking).
A Global Lens with which to View Addiction and Urges
One of my favorite takeaways from this book arrives in the increased awareness I have at the complexity of addiction and the variety of addiction stories. Chapters 10, 11, and the Conclusion were profound and helped me shift some of my own shame thinking to a place that is more compassionate and nuanced (toward myself and others).
Addiction is biological, and mental, and social. It is a kind of illness and it is a kind of coping strategy. It is far more than just Aunt Rhonda’s continual request for one more glass of wine or a gamer’s just a few more minutes of playing.
In fact, most interestingly, I loved the data that revealed most people can get out of addictive states without any sort of help at all (70% I think?). All readers should pay attention to the Chapter 10 or 11 data on the heroin-addicted veterans retuning from Vietnam in the 1970s. Most stopped heroin use cold-turkey and without help. With help, either social, therapeutic, or through medicines and addiction-suppressing drugs (yes, that’s real – Methadone is one), many people can find more control in their lives.
I’ll read this book again sometime, especially the last few chapters that discussed the varieties of AA programs and the new paradigm with which to view addiction. Some of the earlier chapters, did get a bit into the weeds, though they offered so much perspective on how the Temperance movement led to Prohibition (and why that failed), or how the “War on Drugs” evolved in the late 70s and 80s (and why THAT failed too).
This is just an interesting book (and enjoyable to listen via audiobook) with a highly compassionate, honest, and effective writer. Highly recommended (8.5-9/10).
Disinformation & Propaganda: The Issue that May Divide and Crumble the World
Maria Ressa, one of the most well known journalists from the Philippines, fighter for FACTS, and as a result, winner of the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize, is sharing right now (Wednesday, April 6) about how fragile Democracy is right now.
She is speaking as part of the Atlantic’s Conference on Disinformation. What an incredible magazine addressing an important topic.
What do you know about this? How do you vet and sort whether information (from social media or news) is reliable?
Ressa: “[Democracy] all rests on the facts,” meaning that real discourse depends on real conversations where individuals and sides discuss from the same truths. That is happening less and less these days.
Ressa is full of such great information!!!
Conference on Disinformation: YouTube LIVESTREAM LINK.
