Early Discussion

The Banjo and Africa

I spent this evening attending a discussion at Duke on banjos and their roots in Africa.  There are three reasons why I chose to attend:

  1. I have loved banjos ever since I realized that the melancholic and slightly creepy plucking during the Pirates of the Caribbean ride was, in fact, a banjo.
  2. Tickets were completely sold out to the “Thrown Down Your Heart” performance tomorrow night with Bela Fleck and a number of musicians from Africa.
  3. The banjo is from Africa?

Snow by any other name.

I hate snow.  Sure, it’s fun to lift your head to the first flakes of the winter but that excitement lasts me for, oh, say a day or two.  Which makes living in North Carolina perfect; in the three years we’ve lived here, this past year was the first one that brought any snow accumulation at all.  And that melted in a day or two, so I really didn’t have time to complain.

Religion is Making a Televised Comeback.

One thing you should know about me, if you don’t yet, is that I take my television seriously.  Not so seriously that I’ve actually rewatched DVD sets over and over, Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s musical episode excepted, but enough that I spend lots of time reading other people’s opinions on what it all means.  Too much time?  Absolutely.  But being able to watch shows that delve into our inner selves and explore the spiritual questions we all ask is a simple pleasure for me.

Greetings

As I glanced at my kitchen calendar this morning, I noticed I forgot my cousin Daniel’s birthday last week.  Sorry Daniel!  I usually like to send cards to people for their birthdays but have recently found myself settling for leaving messages on a Facebook wall or sending a super poke full of balloons.  If I’m feeling really industrious, I might seek out an e-card with songs and animation.

Busy, busy, busy.

I’ve often wondered, while plugging away at a computer under the fluorescent lights of doom, how businesses can be successful and only stay open during the daylight hours. I’ve always thought that most of us consumers are chained inside buildings at work or school from first light until the sun has set. But just while listening at my window this past week, I’ve determined that, strangely, about half of our neighbors are also home during the day.

Assisted Suicide: Act of Mercy or Cutting Life Short?

I was listening to “The Diane Rehm Show” on NPR this morning and her guest was John West, author of The Last Goodnight, a book written about helping his parents commit suicide. His father had terminal cancer and his mother was falling into mental decline and both asked him to help them meet death on their own terms when they felt their times had come.

I don’t know what I think about assisted suicide. I absolutely believe that life is precious, a gift from God that should be lived to its fullest. But I can imagine how it would feel to come to a point where life no longer seemed to serve any purpose but misery and/or great physical pain. Of course, death would seem attractive, an end to one’s struggles that I can’t claim I wouldn’t want when my own quality of life fell to some undetermined breaking point. If someone I loved asked me to help them leave this life with a little dignity, would it be too much to ask for?

Financial Dependence

As I sit on my deck, delighted to be able to spend the day doing work that holds meaning for me rather than cooped up in a cubicle, I am confronted by my first dilemma.

Where will my next paycheck come from?

Growing up or growing inward?

Lately, I have been feeling nostalgic. What, Becca nostalgic? I know, I know, stop the presses. But what I’m missing isn’t anything and everything, but one small, specific ability that seems to have disappeared from my everyday life. It’s the ability to just drop by someone’s house, unannounced, and spend time just chilling. Whether that be playing card games on the floor of the Ruth’s with Jennie and Casey, or watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer with the Archer House crew, or even sitting on Paul’s bed, reading an assignment while he’s “studying” at the computer.