Reason #28

Ben has decided to change our dog's name. After we've had her for almost four years.

And you wonder why we don't have kids.

Joshua Tree

We made a quick getaway to Joshua Tree this weekend for camping and rock climbing. It was mostly this:



More fun in the desert? Who knew?!

White Privilege

This week I'm lecturing on meanings and values in my Personal and Social Adjustment class. Part of the chapter focuses on stereotypes, prejudice, discrimination and unintentional racism. The latter is illustrated in a fascinating way through Project Implicit. You can also find some interesting thoughts here.

In the last few months I've found myself unearthing prejudices I never knew I had. Truth hurts. And it's ugly.

Theories

We just got done talking to the cops about a call we made to the police station tonight re: the truck that's been parked on our street since 5 am. With the engine running. Right now they're dusting for prints. I'm tempted to go out and offer them my theories:

1) Someone wanted to see how long it would take before someone stole the truck.
2) Someone wanted to see how long it would take before their gas ran out.
3) A very stupid person is on the lam. Word to any wanna be fugitives: don't draw attention to your abandoned vehicle by leaving it running.

I'm beginning to think this neighborhood is just weird.

Generations

It's a problem and I can't stop

Awhile back I commented that I had developed an annoying habit of picking up new books to read before I finished the one that I was currently reading. Times 10. It now takes me approximately five years to finish a book. So, you probably shouldn't loan me any if you want to see them again any time soon. My sympathies go out to Barry, who loaned me THREE books back in January. And I still have them.

Currently on the docket:

Outliers

The Man Who Moved A Mountain

The Drama of the Gifted Child

Working in the Shadows

I came across Outliers after reading two other books my Malcolm Gladwell and it is by far my favorite (although they are all well-written and interesting). It challenges all of our assumptions about rags to riches stories and self-made [wo]men. Similarly, it challenges the notion that if people are not successful (or for that matter, if they're on welfare or homeless) it's because they're lazy or chose that life. In the last chapter, Mr. Gladwell states:

It is impossible for a hockey player, or Bill Joy, or Robert Oppenheimer, or any other outlier for that matter, to look down from their lofty perch and say with truthfulness, "I did this, all by myself." Superstar lawyers and math whizzes and software entrepreneurs appear at first blush to lie outside ordinary experience. But they don't. They are products of history and community, of opportunity and legacy. Their success is not exceptional or mysterious. It is grounded in a web of advantages and inheritances, some deserved, some not, some earned, some just plain lucky - but all critical to making them who they are. The outlier, in the end, is not an outlier at all.

Hmmm. Good food for thought.

And you thought YOU had a bad day...