ON BEING SANE IN UNSANE PLACES

If you’ve taken General Psychology in the past, you may have had to read an essay by D.L. Rosenhan called “On Being Sane in Unsane Places.” It is a wonderful, timeless, humorous, insightful article. I’ve taken some liberty here with the subject and setting of Rosenhan’s story. The original setting in his article was a lunatic asylum, but for those of you are high teachers, have supervisors with Type “A” personalities or who are observers of contemporary politics, you will...

Safe spaces

SAFE SPACES

I was first introduced to the concept of Safe Spaces a decade ago in academia. I had already announced my retirement and was within ninety days of the effective date. I must have missed a memo or something because after returning to campus following a few days of absence, I noticed several office doors in my hallway had a device or discreet emblem or token designating the office as a “Safe Space.” Mine did not. To paraphrase the Bard, the...

Runaway stage

RUNAWAY STAGE

Most of us have seen old Westerns set in the nineteenth century on television or in the theater.  There are wagon trains, cattle stampedes, gunfights in the street, saloon brawls, hangings, stagecoaches and so on. Today, we no longer have wagon trains, cattle stampedes and stagecoaches, but we still have gunfights in the street, saloon brawls and at least attempted hangings by criminales trying to stop Congress from certifying a lawful Presidential election (2021.) There is a familiar motif to movies with...

IF NOT NOW, THEN WHEN?

The other day I was searching for something online and the name of the town I lived in came up in a banner ad.  My home town was basically a gas station and a tree. You could get gas and climb the tree, but that was all the excitement there was in Fosterdale, NY.  So, when I saw that ad, I wondered what had happened in my hometown? Did the gas station catch fire?  Did someone chop down the tree?  As it turns out,...

What we lose by ditching DEI

WHAT WE LOSE BY DITCHING DEI

I remember the first time I saw a truly handicapped person working in public. He was a young man with Downs Syndrome who worked at the local WalMart store as a greeter. People would come in and he would wave at them and smile. Don’t bother asking him where the loungerie department was or whether there was still a sale on studded snow tires. He would not be able to process sophisticated questions or anything other than very basic communication....

EPISTLE TO THE REMNANT

It’s amazing how we learn even as we age.  Just as you retire and look for that life of leisure, something pops up and bites you in the butt.  Like a pandemic.  Or a revolution.  Something you never dreamed of being a part of.  Now, I’m starting to understand for the first time in my life what’s it life to be a part of a persecuted minority. Oh, I’m a white male in a country that’s 60.9% white (2022 census) and I’m a Christian in...

Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Spy . . .

BONHOEFFER: PASTOR, SPY . . .

For my biography of Deitrich Bonhoeffer, please click here. This movie centers on a famous pastor who lived in Germany’s golden age known as the Third Reich (or Realm.) The previous two Reich’s, according to the Nazis, were the Holy Roman Empire and the half century or so of the German Empire ending with the conclusion of World War I. Acting was good, and most of the film was shot in Ireland. Period effects were as expected. It was over...

Finding living water on a dying planet

FINDING LIVING WATER ON A DYING PLANET

Imagine living a few centuries ago in some part of the world that was absolutely isolated from greater civilization. And this was a part of the world that was also dry and barren. Maybe the area was the Sahara, or the Gobi Desert in Mongolia, or perhaps the Patagonian Desert in Argentina, or the Great Arabian, Australian or American Desert.  And these remote areas exist even until today. All that heat and sand! A third of our planet is desert, and...

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