Sunday funnies

In audiobook news, I'm currently listening to Craig Ferguson's autobiography, American On Purpose. It's very touching in an amusing way, as is this clip from his citizenship exam:

But the facts of life keep changing!

So there's been a few things in the news this week about sex education. Last Sunday, Ross Douthat had a thoughtful editorial in the NY Times that (I think rightly) points out that much of the battle over what is effective is a disguise for "a battle over community values"--or personal values. Much chatter ensued.

Then on Tuesday, the Washington Post ran a story provocatively headlined, Abstinence-only programs might work, study says. There really should have been an asterisk after the headline. People jumped all over this, but the upshot was that this abstinence-only program wasn't what most people think of when they think of abstinence-only programs. "Ms. Brown noted that the abstinence-only classes in the Jemmott study centered on people with an average age of 12 and that unlike the federally supported abstinence programs now in use, did not advocate abstinence until marriage," it says VERY late in an article in the NY Times.

The thing I keep missing in all these discussions is any mention of how to help parents share their own values with their kids. What I'd love to see are programs for parents while their kids are in elementary school--not while their kids are in the heat of hormonal fury.

I remember with what trepidation I went to a workshop called Holy Hormones at the 2005 Earl Lecture series, Sex and the City of God. I still remember with what vehemence I insisted on bringing the workshop leaders to our parish to present--not to the kids, but to the adults.

The primary thing this workshop made me realize is our very paltry and limited our definition of sex education--indeed, sexuality--often is. Sex education for parents is about so much more than telling kids, "Don't have sex! (but if you are, here's how to do so safely)." The presenters had us asking ourselves, what's the right age for a person to see an R-rated movie? Shave their legs? Wear make-up? And then ask at what age we did those things?

There's also a curriculum for youth that I never used, called Love--all that and more, which sounds very good.

But the main thing for me is that I don't think we do enough in any area of society to help adults articulate what they have learned about sex and sexuality, and then what they would like their children to know. I wish there were a lot more of that. It's so ironic that we call teaching about sex "the facts of life" when the huge bulk of it isn't factual at all, is it? The basics are pretty simple, but the truth is--well, wow, a mass of culture, mixed messages, and the unknown.

Then, of course, you could always get the friendly school nurse to make things clear.

Gertrude? Gummo? Garth?

Seen in Oakland yesterday.

Obie, please.

A real, true, gen-you-wine entry in this quarter's Oberlin Alumni magazine. Only the name has been changed.

Owen Obie is living in a yurt on a farm in Maryland while he works on his master of science degree in herbal medicine from Tai Sophia Institute. He also plays the Chinese pipa with a local group.

I hope this is a brilliant parody on the Oberlin stereotype. I fear it is not.

Stephen Huneck

For all that I read a lot of obits, I don't often find them sad. I was saddened, though, to read of the death of Stephen Huneck, the creator of the Dog Chapel in Vermont.

Sad because he shot himself. His wife says it was because "he had been despondent over having had to lay off most of the employees of his art business that week."

On the Dog Mountain home page, his wife writes:

Dear Stephen

It helps me to know that God's love envelopes you. God's love surrounds us all. Your love envelopes me. The love of everyone who knew you, dogs, people and a few cats send their love.

We all love you.

We all miss you.

We will remember you always.

Your Loving Wife,

Gwen

I'm saying a prayer over this one.

Teaser Tuesday

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

* Grab your current read
* Open to a random page
* Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
* BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
* Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

This is much more of a teaser than I thought this book could be:

So there you have it--the ten new major improvements to the Square Foot Gardening method. Each one makes the entire system more productive, the work much easier, and the cost of gardening lower.

From All New Square Foot Gardening by Mel Bartholomew.

'Tis the season! Enjoy!

St. Brigid

Here's the part I like best in the little bio about St. Brigid of Kildare:

Kildare had formerly been a pagan shrine where a sacred fire was kept perpetually burning, and Bridget and her nuns, instead of stamping out the fire, kept it going but gave it a Christian interpretation.

Brigid herself was named, evidently, for the pagan goddess of healing by her druid father. Thus saith Wikipedia, anyway.

I don't know. I find something touching about all of this: that it's not, "This is evil and must be rooted out!" but "This is God's and should be loved and cared for."