FROM THE BACK PORCH

 A SUPRISING BIT OF LEARNING

                                                    

                                                                  The Secret of Sync

           What learning can come out of a busy, noisy, turbulent  Apple Store?

I sat with my personal tutor, Michele (Apple One-to-One) and tried to master the intricacies of moving files from  my new MacBookAir to my IPad Mini.  Michele is a master of quiet, patient questioning and waiting as I fumbled… Then, “AHA, there it is. I just did it!”  The MacBookAir was in sync, or synchonizing the data from its infinite innards to those of the Ipad. A tiny world image twirled on both machines until the “sync” was completed.

         I learned (again) the vital importance of sequence. I’ve been teaching that for years as a Dialogue Educator, and here I learned it anew. When I omit a step in the sequence, the process dies.  When all the steps are faithfully taken: click here, tap here, check this box here with a click…the process thrives.

           If Apple is able to do that between two metallic machines, why can’t we do it between two brain-rich, smart, experienced, kindly, thinking, feeling human beings?

           When I next find myself out of sync with my friend, or husband or wife or teen-aged son, I can take a lesson from Apple:  check the sequence of steps along the route  of the dialogue… (1) What did I omit? (2) Where did I skip a step? (3) When did I put in an unallowed step?  

            I rolled my eyes when my son said, “I’ll be home early, Mom, promise!” (3)

            I never asked him specifically to call me when he left the party.  (1)

            I  was not clear that I meant 10:00 p.m. home = early. 10:01 = late. (2)

       The process dies: he comes in at 10:30; I am all set to call the police! His phone was busy and I left ten messages in thirty minutes. He strolls into the house at 10:30 saying, “See, Mom, I told you I would be home early!” He was surprised to find me wild with anxiety and anger. 

      We were not in sync. Let’s see what a checklist of steps: ( the protocols of syncing two machines are always a checklist of necessary steps. ) 

_____“I’ll be home early, Mom, promise!” 

_____I take you at your word, Son. What time is early?

____“Ummm”

____“No, early is 10:00; late is 10:01. At 10:01 I start to worry.    (Clear Step #1)

         “Call me before you leave the party to say you are heading home. Since the Parker’s

house is twenty minutes away, I will expect a call before 9:40.

_____“Okay, Mom. Thanks.  Got it.”   (Clear Step #2 )

        Two clicks to sync: Tommy is home at 9:55 having called his Mom at 9:30 or so.  Mom did not offer physical signs of disbelief because the checklist was in proper, comprehensive sequence, and they were in sync.

Such protocols (check lists of steps in sequence) are non-partisan. Can we ask Democrats and Republicans in the House and Senate to try them? Can we do this in our classrooms, families, shops, offices? 

When I miss out on a step in using an Apple protocol (steps in sequence), my tutor gently reminds me: “Wait, you are on the right track. What did you miss?” The sequence is logical, almost natural. Once I see it, I can repeat it.

So the secret to sync is sequence and dialogue about the sequence. A checklist can help confirm the sequence; talking through the checklist together (dialogue) is really essential.

A SOUL FULL OF STILLNESS

    Ineffable!  There are no words to describe my experience this morning on Falls Lake in my blue kayak.  The stillness!  A diamond necklace of iridescent sunlight in the dark water!  Birds winging and singing! The stillness filling body and soul!

    My prayer was simple: Please, God, let me keep this stillness, this quiet, the sight of ninety shades of green in the April trees surrounding the lake. The blue, blue North Carolina sky filled with the new day’s sun. 

    Perry, my good friend, had driven my kayak to the lake in his well-equipped van.

 He helped me get into the kayak, easing my old bones into the seat, placing the life jacket behind my back, handing me the paddle.  When he pushed the kayak into the water from the landing, I filled up with tears of joy!  The eight years of waiting to return to Falls Lake made that moment very special.

     I’m home now, with a soul full of stillness, warm and dry, remembering, gratefully…the ineffable! 

   

   

LEARNING TO YIELD, LEARNING TO TEACH

  

    My esteemed teacher ( through his books  and generous e-mail responses ), Walter Brueggemann, loves the word yield.  I do, too.  Where does yielding work in my life?  

     I try to yield to my age (84 in June),  and celebrate that reaiity by a great deal of snoozing,  quitting outdoor work after forty minutes,  sitting by the fire in sheer joy.

       The ole fella said: Sometimes I sets and thinks; and sometimes I just sets.

      I try more and more to yield by offering a quiet response to what others say.  My voluble responses of the past are not necessary today, nor are they healthy for me or

for  the other.  A quiet response face to face can be a nod and a warm smile; on the phone , “Yes!  I see. “  Such yielding moves us both!

      I try to yield to the weather, celebrating rain and snow,  heat and humidity, glorious blue sky North Carolina days - without distinction.  All is grace.

      I try to yield to the  joy of cooking and of  dining  with friends.  Yielding in this case means taking time.  Slow down, Jane, you move too fast!

      I yield to my importunate cocker spaniel’s big brown eyes staring at me exactly at five p.m., reminding me: It is dinner time!

       I am trying to yield to the relentless “buts” that  respond to a suggestion I make.  It was only a suggestion. Thanks for listening.

      I see now that yielding, far from being a sign of weakness, is a sign of  deep trust and strength.  Jesus’ mother is reported to have said, as she yielded to God:  Be it done to me according to your Word.  Later in the story, Jesus is said  to have repeated his mother’s prayer, saying in the garden, 

“ Not my will, but thine, be done”.

        What  has all this got to do with teaching?  What you do speaks so loudly, I cannot hear what you are saying! 

         Thank you, Walter Brueggemann!

MAKE PEACE A VERB

MAKE PEACE A VERB

Let’s try it…It will be awkward at first but perhaps worth the discomfort. Let’s make P E A C E    a verb. 

Imperative:  Peace your home .  Peace your family. Peace your job! Peace your classroom.

Infinitive:   It is good for us to peace one another so that we are aware of the blessings that surround us.

Gerund:    He is so good at peacing a meeting!   She is great when it comes to peacing the old family aunts.  We need to hire someone who is good at peacing the different departments of this company.

Future Perfect Tense:  By the end of this course, you will have

Peaced a group of learners

Peaced a design so it works for learners

Peaced yourself so you were easy when you taught us

What might be some tactics for peacing?

A QUIET NOD INSTEAD OF A QUICK ARGUMENTATIVE RESPONSE

A SMILE instead of a frown of disagreement.

SILENCE instead of an immediate response.

QUIET instead of a blaring t.v. or radio news or the ipod chatter. QUIET might be one of the major tactics for peacing…

We are not adversaries; this is not a court of law. It is a house of peacing… no one wins here; and all win by being accepted, delighted in, appreciated, affirmed, honored, respected, hugged!

How about one thing at a time instead of multitasking?

How about early to bed instead of finishing up my list?

How about reading a book instead of watching another film?  How about reading a poem?

How about giving the puppy a generous belly rub? Ear rub? Watching him smile?

OK, dear John Lennon, Let’s Give Peace a Chance  -----  as a Verb!

       

                                         A CHRISTMAS EVE BLOG FROM THE BACK PORCH

THE BABY CHANGES EVERYTHING!

       I woke this morning composing this blog! Our Blue Candle prayer over the Old Testament has shown that God – Creator, Lover, Father, Son and Holy Spirit is excited about covenant with us. That covenant is the story of Israel – prototypical People of God, and of all of us: Irish, Ecuadorean, Mexican, Italian, German….we are also the people of God  by virtue of Israel’s YES to that covenant

      This covenant was initially signed in the flesh of Abraham by circumcision, and in the fullness of time, in the sweet, cuddly flesh of a six-pound baby boy, entrusted to Joseph and Mary. He grew up to show us in tall, strong flesh what God looks like, how God acts in the world. I often hear: No one has ever seen God – and I respond: Ain’t so!  I have! In the face and story of Jesus – the baby who changed everything.  

      My friend Sue and her husband Joe are new grandparents: Natalie Claire was born in October and she has changed everything for everyone in that family (and all their friends)!  Every family with a new baby knows that. Love is born again, the fruitful love of a loving marriage: the covenant of a man and woman now seen in the flesh!

       The metaphor persists: God gives a baby boy as sign of God’s covenant with us: so we can see, and touch and hear who our covenant partner is. No burning bush, no Pharaoh - defeating plagues, no flame by night or cloud by day: the New Covenant is as natural as the birth of a baby boy who is more beautiful than the rainbow! This baby is welcomed by the loving adoration of Mary and Joseph, by the poorest of the poor: shepherds and by the richest of the rich: scholar kings from the East. 

       In 2014 I welcome him anew, in my daily work of praise and thanks and awareness of the infinite manifestations and meaning of the metaphor. Thanks and praise, indeed.

    

READING WALTER BRUEGGEMANN

READING WALTER BRUEGGEMANN

     Reading Walter Brueggemann is for me, like a cold shower: a wake-up call, a kind but firm kick-in-the-pants. Two years ago, I set out to read his 55 ( now 57 ) published books. Modestly, I did not try to read all his peer-reviewed articles!  Hundreds!

     Little did I know that my faith was to be shocked, scrubbed, strengthened by his faith expressed through erudite, exciting, enigmatic and sometimes elusive passages.  What themes have emerged so far?

1.  I have read sixteen of his books – the more accessible, easier-to-read ones were my first selections. I heard Walter sing, over and over again, in many ways – his theme song:

Prophetic proclamation is an attempt to imagine the world as though YHWH— the creator of the world, the deliverer of Israel, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ  - this YHWH whom we Christians come to name as Father, Son, and Spirit— were a real character and an effective agent in the world.

Brueggemann, Walter (2012-01-01). The Practice of Prophetic Imagination (p. 2). Fortress Press. Kindle Edition.)

God -  a real character?  an  effective agent in our world?

Now that would be an imaginative step in the right direction. With that faith, we can relax into joy.

2. Another theme: Well-being - is the end of the Torah (the teachings), and of all that the Hebrew Scripture’s narratives teach. Our well-being is contingent on our recognition of God’s creative and redeeming work, our faithful thanks and praise to God and our avoidance of idols.  Hello!  Idols abound: on the Internet, at the mall, on t.v. and the Big Screen,on Wall Street and at out neighborhood bank! Brueggemann speaks of the totalizing Empire as demanding complete allegiance.

Again, it is the first time in my life that I associated my and society’s well-being with the commandments and rituals.  This story is about us!

3.  A favorite word of Walter’s in these books is commoditization – making a commodity out of other human beings. This is the ultimate idolatry. Our covenant with God is not for wealth, power or “wisdom”, but for our simple well-being.  The theme: each person is invaluable; each person is redeemed.

4.  Newness: God’s covenant is for ongoing newness:  fulfilled in the words and work of Jesus:

     Go and tell John what you have seen and heard:  the blind receive their sight,, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the poor have good news brought to them… Luke 7:22

God is an effective agent in our world – a real character, effecting newness.

5.  The power of dialogue

     Recognizing that we are all children of this Creator God, we turn to one another in dia-logue ( the Word between us )

What matters is that I speak enough to share myself,

That I listen enough to receive the other person in her fullness,

that we commune enough that both of us can be changed.  WB

As a teacher I have come to see that my responsibility is to evoke honest, passionate, serious dialogue in the pedagogical process.
 WB

More to come! Thirty nine ( or so ) more books to read!

• LEARNING FROM LIFE

       What have I learned from life this past eight weeks?  I have no kitchen - a silent flood

undermined the flooring, the bases of my cabinets, everything! My insurance company whom

I have paid faithfully for thirty-six years laughed at my claim! No way can they pay!

        What have I learned from life?  "Do not be afraid. I am with you."  I am with you as your 

friends, coming with pots of chili and corn bread; coming with Japanese noodles and a bottle of 

wine! Coming to talk and listen to my whinging and whining! I am with you as your caring family:

saying, "What can I do?"

         I've learned to make the remaining parts of my life that did not land in the dump as 

beautiful as possible. I've learned to give thanks & praise for what I still have: health, family,

friends, a community of faith, a sweet and patient cocker spaniel who rolls with the punches.

         I've learned to get moving: swim daily and walk when it is not too cold outside!  I've written 

a new little book  DIA-LOGOS: THE WORD BETWEEN US  The Power of Dialogue in 

Christian Formation. Watch for it!

         I've done due diligence in addressing the refusal of State Farm to pay my claim : writing letters 

to their CEO ( he never responded ), to the N.C.Commissioner of Insurance ( he never responded ) : 

their lackeys wrote consolation letters. I called  my State Senator and State Assembly 

Representative whose assistants responded with flair! We meet next week to strategize and to

address the unique North Carolina exclusion in state law that is preventing my being paid.

      I've learned a new level of patient waiting for workmen who have other responsibilities besides 

my kitchen!  I've learned a new level of kind responses to folks whose similar story is much worse

than mine!  I've learned hope: a memory of the future, indeed.  As my wise sister, Joan, said: "Tell 

me, Jane, would you have given yourself the gift of a new kitchen at this time of your life?" Thanks 

and Praise!