Ignorance on Parade -- Updated Thrice [Bryan]

This is not a stimulus plan, it's a spending plan. It won't create the promised jobs. It won't activate our economy.

Senator Mike Johanns (R)

I have rarely seen such breathtaking displays of ignorance as I have in the past few days. I am trying to decide who is dumber when it comes to the economic stimulus package, the media or the politicians like Johanns. It's a tough call.

Let's review where we are at . The economy is in serious, serious trouble. This is reflected in economic data out today, as well as personal experience. I know several families who have lost their jobs. How did we get here? Well, in 2005 the housing bubble pops. House prices decline. Banks heavily invested in bad loans nearly go under, and people see their equity evaporate or turn negative. Credit almost completely freezes. No one lends money and people feel poor. Businesses and families start to restrict spending, and investors get stingy. Businesses then need to cut back on production. Jobs are then lost. Due to this unemployment, people then buy even less, leading to more production cuts and more failing businesses. More jobs lost. This leads to yet more cuts in consumer spending and investment...and so forth and so on.

One way to deal with this problem is for the Federal Reserve bank to lower interest rates -- this makes lending easier and can entice spending. Alas, the Fed has lowered interest rates to zero and things keep getting worse. To break this cycle, somehow spending needs to pick up again, but no one is going to start spending or investing on their own in this climate.

Luckily, since John Maynard Keynes was around, we now have the idea of "counter-cyclical fiscal policy" solutions. When spending takes a nose dive, Keynes realized that the government can step in a make up the difference. The government can increase spending directly or lower taxes and hope that people will spend themselves. What happened in the Great Depression was that spending was cut and taxes raised at very inappropriate times (thanks to both Hoover and FDR), which is why it turned out so bad. Now we know better. We even know what kind of budget expenditures work best as stimulus: aid to low income families, unemployment benefits, and infrastructure investment (see chart below, which shows the amount of effective stimulus per each government dollar spent).

Now, most Republicans want to exclusively cut taxes for stimulus. While some tax cuts are necessary for quick stimulus, they are less preferable for two reasons. First, notice from the chart that tax cuts don't stimulate all that effectively -- people (understandably) don't spend their tax cut in tough times unless they need to. Second, tax cuts miss the chance to spend money in ways that help us to solve our big social problems. Last year, when the stimulus tax rebate checks arrived, pornography sales increased 20-30%. Imagine: instead of stimulating with porn, we invest that money in medical and clean energy research, broadband expansion, Pell Grants, roads and schools, bridges, high speed trains, and so forth. This is the stuff that makes for long term economic success. Porn doesn't. Tax cuts alone can't make the community investments that really make a difference.

It is maddening to me, not that people like Johanns disagree about the details here, but they don't even seem to understand the basic principles at issue. Either they do not understand, or they want to embarrass the other side so badly that they are willing to let the country burn to score a political victory.

Behold the fall of civilizations.

Update: I should add that expected shortfall in demand from the current recession is a whopping $1-2 trillion. So the problem with the current $900 billion stimulus is not that it spends too much; rather, it spends too little.

Update 2: So it looks like the Republicans have pushed for less spending on food stamps, state aid, and infrastructure. This is all a very bad idea. It is the opposite of what we want to do.

Update 3: I was talking to some guys today who said (1) we should worry that the government is just printing money (presumably this is a worry about inflation), and (2) just giving money to people in food stamps makes them dependent.

With regard to (1) I should point out that inflation is the least of our worries right now. If our currency does start to lose value (and prices rise) we should worry. But the Consumer Price Index has been falling recently. Deflation is the worry right now, not inflation. With regard to (2), I should point out that this is all about economic stimulus. Poor people need the money and will spend it. If that is the goal, you can't stimulate any better way. The increase is temporary whatever the case.

Speaking of Nirvana

One of the coolest guitar rifts riffs of all time:

Now I feel old [Bryan]

So, Nirvana's album "Nevermind" was a huge album during my formative years. The album cover depicted a naked baby swimming after money. Apparently, that baby is now 17 years old.

Things I will celebrate tomorrow [Bryan]

I will celebrate the first time anyone I have ever voted for has actually become president. My voting so far has been: 1996 for Bob Dole (yup!), 2000 for Gore, 2004 for Kerry -- one loser after another.

I will celebrate a resurrection of my faith in America and the ideal of democracy. I feel like I (we) made a difference this time.

I will celebrate an end to the Bush administration. Bush was a very ordinary man when we need an extraordinary man. He was small-minded, stubborn, incurious, and defensive, easily manipulated by the powerful people around him. He was completely lacking in self-knowledge, completely convinced of his own righteousness, and completely unwilling to take responsibility for any failure (like most of us). Instead of unifying the country in perilous times, he took every opportunity to exploit tragedy for political gain. I no longer hate Bush, like I did (I am ashamed to admit) during the height of the War. He seems a sad little pathetic man now, and I pity him. But Mr. Bush should never, ever, be given any sort of responsibility again.

I will celebrate the beginning of the Obama administration. Obama is the first contemporary politician I have ever admired on a personal level. He is a man who, unlike Bush, has done the hard mental and experiential work necessary to understand himself, to understand the world in which we live, and to understand other people and nations. He won't be perfect, and he may deeply disappoint us, but right now I am ready to trust somebody again.

I will celebrate that people within our own country and across the globe can see themselves in our new president. I do not only mean racially, although that is a big part of it (I continue to hear reports from across the country about how urban schools have been recharged by Obama's election). I also mean that anybody who comes from broken homes, anybody that wasn't born with silver spoons in their mouths, can enjoy this moment. I also mean that geeks, nerds, and, well, readers everywhere can enjoy this moment -- a true intellectual for president! I also mean that basketball lovers everywhere can enjoy this moment, and revel in the basketball loving cabinet that Obama has put together (this sounds corny, but I think basketball, above all other sports, teachers you a lot about team play, grit and determination, and respect for special expertise and excellence).

I think the next few years will be the last chance for America to restore its moral stature and become again a civilized nation. People worldwide are ready to give us one more chance.

Tomorrow can't some soon enough.

Ellie as Poet [Bryan]

I was rummaging through some old boxes yesterday and found some old papers from Ellie's undergraduate days, including from her creative writing classes. I was impressed. Here are two poems.

Aesthetic (1998)

we are trying
to find what is
which is not
to ignore what is
not but
to peel it
peel it away
peel it away and remove
feathers and veils and sequins
aprons and glasses and clothes
hair and skin and fat
muscles and tendons and organs
bones and cartilage and blood
and
Words
to pour out the
glass of mere existence
to find what is
still full
when everything is emptied
to keep eyeballs and
hold them in
our hands
to keep their big round
black spots
looking at us
to see something in
the Blackness


Poetry Is (1998)

Words that tingle
in the fingers,
Words that tickle -- a feather
in the throat;

Words that pulse red
in the chest,
Words that escape
from guarded thoughts;

Words that hollow
out sensations,
Words that live
in one world and another;

Words that track wet prints
on hard, dry sand,
Words that irrigate, flow
through clouded minds;

Words that seek assurance
in obscurity,
Words that blindly hit
on the mark;

Words that bloom beautiful
in fields of ugliness
Words that float answers
in oceans of questions;

Words that cry with the baby
in the night,
Words that hold the bitterness
of the failure of lifetimes;

Words that tell truth --
Poetry is.

What I'll be doing tomorrow [Bryan] -- Upated

I should add that Obama continues to do exactly what he said he would do -- bring the country together. From the New York Times today:

As contenders for the presidency, [Obama and McCain] had hammered each other for much of 2008 over their conflicting approaches to foreign policy, especially in Iraq. (He’d lose a war! He’d stay a hundred years!) Now, however, Mr. Obama said he wanted Mr. McCain’s advice, people in each camp briefed on the conversation said. What did he see on the trip? What did he learn?

It was just one step in a post-election courtship that historians say has few modern parallels, beginning with a private meeting in Mr. Obama’s transition office in Chicago just two weeks after the vote. On Monday night, Mr. McCain will be the guest of honor at a black-tie dinner celebrating Mr. Obama’s inauguration.

Over the last three months, Mr. Obama has quietly consulted Mr. McCain about many of the new administration’s potential nominees to top national security jobs and about other issues — in one case relaying back a contender’s answers to questions Mr. McCain had suggested.

From the Sunday Times:

From the shallow brittleness of George W Bush to the supple strength of Obama is a revolution in temperament and style not seen since Jimmy Carter gave way to Ronald Reagan 28 years ago. It signals the kind of administration that now looms before us: a conciliatory, inclusive, pragmatic form of liberalism. It’s a liberalism eager to learn from the insights of conservatives, and it is pioneered by a president-elect shrewd enough to know that generosity of spirit means more leverage and influence, not less....

We cannot know whether he will succeed, whether partisanship and America’s culture war will slowly eat him up, or whether in government, as he makes decisions with winners and losers, his aura will evaporate. But what we can say is that, so far, he shows every sign of meaning what he said about leaving that divisive, destructive froth behind. Just reading the papers every morning, we see every sign that the gravity of the crisis his predecessor bequeaths him makes this necessary.

The Washington establishment still doesn’t know quite what to make of him. For almost two decades the town has been divided ideologically and culturally — red and blue, neoliberal and neoconservative — shying and plunging in mood swings and feuding. For 16 years, under the guidance of political hatchet men such as Bill Clinton’s Dick Morris and Bush’s Karl Rove, these divisions have been seen as ways to wedge your way to short-term political advantage, to exploit American difference for electoral or PR gain.

The press learnt that cynicism was the only reliable guide to understanding politics and that world-weariness was the same as wisdom. That fear of seeming naive was what inhibited many in the press from greater scepticism about Saddam’s alleged arsenal in the run-up to the Iraq war.

It was an emotionally familiar and comfortable rut. The baby-boomer generation, reared and suckled on post-Vietnam divides, staged their battles like bitter spouses after years of a failed marriage who never really planned on divorce. Now, with this first post-boomer politician, the children who witnessed their parents’ endless fighting have taken over. And it’s the children who seem like adults.

Take a few largely symbolic things that Obama has done since November 4. He gave his chief rival and fierce competitor, Hillary Clinton, the biggest job in his government. He reached out to John McCain, his opponent in the autumn campaign, and will hold a dinner in McCain’s honour soon. He asked a powerful evangelical voice, Rick Warren, to give the inaugural invocation.

Last week he dined with a group of Republican columnists who endorsed his opponent. The dinner was at the home of George Will, the closest America gets to a Tory mind. He did this before he talked to any journalists who had actually supported him. At the Pentagon, Obama has asked Bush’s appointee, Robert Gates, to stay on. He asked Mark Dybul, Bush’s only openly gay appointee, to remain as global Aids co-ordinator. This is not Karl Rove’s America. In so many ways, it symbolises its undoing.

Obama acts like a kind of antacid to the American stomach. He has walked through the churn of racial and cultural and religious polarisation and somehow calmed everyone down.

Last spring he faced his biggest crisis — the exploitation by the Republican right of his incendiary former pastor Jeremiah Wright, a man whose penchant for polarisation was pathological. At a moment of extreme emotion and political peril, Obama found a way to give a speech that remains the greatest of recent times, to remind Americans of their complex and painful racial past, and not to condescend or cavil. The intellectual achievement of the speech was impressive enough — sufficient to provoke Garry Wills, the Lincoln scholar, to compare it to the Gettysburg address. That Obama wrote and delivered it as he heard in his ears every racial stereotype that had pummelled his psyche for his entire life bespoke an emotional maturity that still shocks....

He doesn’t charm like Clinton did and Bush tried to. Unlike both men, but especially Clinton, he appears to have no need to be loved by everyone in the room. He often finds it hard to disguise how tired he feels. He is capable of evoking enormous inspiration, but he has yet to be able to hide it when he is bored. There is a wryness to his conversation and a dryness to his humour, both of which are sustained by an intellect of power. The revered liberal jurist Larry Tribe has said that in decades of teaching at Harvard Law School, he has never had a cleverer student than Obama. I don’t think he’s exaggerating. Intellectually, Obama is in Bill Clinton’s league. But what he has over Clinton is emotional intelligence to buttress his grasp of policy.

What he gets, what he seems to intuit, is how to make others feel as if they are being heard. This is simple enough in theory but hard to pull off consistently in practice. His model is to figure out what another person needs and, if it helps Obama to get what he wants, to provide it.

He sensed that Hillary Clinton needed independent respect in defeat. He couldn’t give her the vice-presidency, which she desperately wanted, because it would have given her a dangerous rival power base if they succeeded. So he offered her the next best thing, and she, unlike her husband, was smart enough to say yes.

He realised that Rick Warren was an egomaniac and wanted some kind of platform, so he gave him a largely symbolic role at the inauguration and allowed Warren to preen. He knew that what Washington pundits really craved was not the truth, but a sense of their own importance. So he let them throw him a dinner party.

He sensed that McCain was in deep emotional withdrawal after his horrifying and crude descent into raw partisanship last autumn. And so he celebrated the old, bipartisan McCain and asked for his support in the Senate.

This is not typical for politicians in any climate and era. In the post-Clinton, post-Bush divide of the US, it’s a shock of sorts, and one most Washingtonians have yet to absorb. More shocks, I suspect, are to come, as people begin to realise that the new politics Obama promised is actually more than just a marketing device for a campaign....

How a president acts [Bryan] -- Updated

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

President Goofus and President Gallant - Peer Pressers

Barack Obama Interview
John McCain Interview

Sarah Palin Video
Funny Election Video

Recent pictures [Bryan]

I must say, kids look really cute when they are all bundled up.

Andrew's third birthday party

Nora recently lost her first tooth

Goofy Andrew

Nora's first piano recital

Family Kazoo recital

The Incarnation [Bryan]

A interesting after-Christmas reflection, from Catholic Andrew Sullivan:

The reason I call myself a Christian is not because I manage to subscribe, at any given moment, to all the truths that the hierarchy of my church insists I believe in; let alone because I am a good person or a "good Catholic." I call myself a Christian because I believe that, in a way I cannot fully understand, the force behind everything decided to prove itself benign by becoming us, and being with us. And as soon as people grasped what had happened, what was happening, the world changed for ever. The Gospels - all of them, including those that were rejected by the early Church - are mere sketches of a life actually lived, and an experience that can never be reduced to words or texts or doctrines. And the world as it was - as it still is - was unable to tolerate this immense occasion; and so Jesus was executed and the life more in touch with divinity than any other life was ended abruptly, when it was still achingly young. The existence of such a life was both so wondrous that it changed everything; and also so terrifying it had to be snuffed out.

The point of this incarnation was surely not to construct a litany of offenses by which we are to judge our own lives at any moment, to force us to thrash and writhe in a constant ordeal of self-criticism and guilt. The point was merely to be with us; and by being with us, to show us better how to be human, how better to embrace our lives by accepting the divine around us and inside us. By letting go, we become. By giving up, we gain. And we learn how to live - now, which is the only time that matters.

Overheard at the Warnick house [Bryan]

My mother-in-law, after playing "Hungry Hungry Hippos" for the first time remarks:

"It is kind of a primitive game, isn't it."

Frost/Nixon [Bryan]

Being something of a political junkie, I was excited to see Frost/Nixon, a dramatic retelling of the interviews between David Frost and disgraced ex-president Richard Nixon in 1977. The film, however, exceeded even my wildest expectations. At the end of the movie, a collective "wow" seemed to rise up from the movie theater.

Just think of this: The movie is about a political interview. These things happen all time time, and they are among the most boring events on television. Yet, Ron Howard tells the story so that the audience is hanging on every word, every nuance, every expression, every turn of phrase. The interview is depicted as a moment of high personal drama for both Nixon and Frost, and the movie makes it seem as if justice itself hangs in the balance.

The film has a human touch the moved me immensely. Nixon is shown as a tormented figure, haunted by personal and political demons. He is depicted as a figure always trying to fit in with an elite crowd that would never accept him. He strives to find that last shred of dignity in the life of the monster that he had become. Frank Langella's performance as Nixon is breathtaking. I continued to loath Nixon's crimes, and the movie certainly does not exonerate him. But at the same time, I came to see myself in him as a somewhat defensive, insecure, paranoid, and imperfect person. Langella turns Nixon into an everyman, which is quite an achievement. The rest of the cast is also brilliant.

The movie, of course, like most historical films, is not perfectly true to history. It exaggerates Nixon's sympathetic side, the extent of his "confession" in the actual interviews, and the complicity of both Frost and Nixon in manipulating the made-for-TV event. There was a sentiment about the movie, however, which rang true to me from what I know about Nixon. And from what little I understand about human nature.

So, you should go see it. It is, I believe, a remarkable achievement.

Great Holiday Recipe [Bryan]

I'm not usually a recipe blogger, but we made a Christmas ham for our progressive dinner party that was really yummy (or at least I thought so). The key was the cranberry relish we made that goes went with it. Here is the recipe:

1 (12 oz) bag fresh cranberries

1 (6 oz) bag dried apricots (chopped)

2 cups orange juice

1 ¼ cup sugar

½ cup water

Heat all the above to a boil and then simmer 30 minutes stirring occasionally.

Many thanks to my Mom and my aunt Darlene for passing this along.

He's an acquisitive youngster [Bryan]

Scene: Ellie and Andrew (2 years old) and driving along in our car.  

Andrew: Mom, what do you want for Christmas?

Ellie: Um, I would really like chocolate for Christmas.

Andrew: You can't have chocolate for Christmas. You ask for toys for Christmas. 

Ellie: No, you can ask for anything for Christmas.  It is okay to ask for chocolate.

Andrew thinks for a minute.

Andrew (excitedly): I want toys AND chocolate! 

Eliza Bennet on Facebook [Bryan]

Hilarious. So, what would have happened had the characters of Pride and Prejudice had facebook? Now we know: Here is the whole thing.

Andrew's Shopping List [Bryan]

Our little Andrew was watching Ellie make her grocery shopping list today. He said he wanted to make his own list. Here is what he put:

1. Eggnog
2. Marshmallows
3. Orange Juice
4. Fire

The Obama Transition [Bryan]

Many people have asked me what I think about the Obama transition. The answer: So far, I couldn't be any happier. Just like during the campaign, he has been a model of maturity and professionalism. Once again, he has been the grownup in the room, surrounded by children, howling critics, and worry warts (like me). While some of my friends on the Left feel let down (too centrist!), I ask them: What did you expect? Obama promised to reach out to those who disagreed with him, and he has done exactly that. He promised to bring the country together, and already he is taking steps toward that. He promised to be a pragmatist, not driven by ideology, and it seems he intends to do that.

Consider the following examples:

1. Joe Lieberman. While many Democrats were screaming blood after his despicable behavior during the campaign, Obama went out of his way to keep Lieberman as part of the caucus. Any personal vendettas, if there were any, took a back seat to Obama's larger goals (the same thing occurred to a lesser extent with the Hillary Clinton pick).

2. The recent Governor's convention. The governors "were taken with Obama's openness, policy depth and just that he showed up to engage in a real back-and-forth, a move none could recall on the part of a newly elected president." One governor called it "unprecedented."

3. Bob Gates. In order to unify the country behind his foreign policy, Obama decided to keep Gates on at Defense. Whatever his party affiliation, almost everybody agrees that Gates has done a good job in the tough, post-Rumsfeld situation. Obama recognized that achievement, looked beyond party, and kept him.

4. Economic team. With the economy really bad, and Bush not showing any leadership, Obama put together an experienced and (by most accounts) brilliant economic team. It has, in fact, had something of a soothing effect on markets. He seems to be filling the leadership vacuum as best he can.

5. Cabinet Appointments. Obama has put many smart, experienced people on his cabinet. These people will have strong opinions and also big egos. Obama is showing that he does not want yes-men (or yes-women); he wants real dialogue. He has the intellectual confidence to tolerate disagreement -- the contrast with Bush could not be sharper.

6. Policy statements. Obama has continued to vow to vigorously pursue health care reform, end torture, close Guantanamo, and renew American diplomacy. He has shown that he understands basic counter-cyclical economics and the need for deficit spending during recession. He has also continued to emphasize that such spending should be aimed at rebuilding infrastructure -- the best sort of economic stimulus there is. On a policy front, then, he is still making all of the right noises.

We will see if this continues. Right now, though, he is off to a good start.

Links:
Obama's impressive performance at the Governor's convention -- including a glowing assessment by Utah Governor Huntsman.
People on both sides of the aisle are impressed with the transition.
David Brooks -- "He’s off to a start that nearly justifies the hype."
Obama's foreign policy team and renewal of American diplomacy

Report Card Blues, Part 2 [Ellie]

Short Version:
I overreacted.

(Since when is this news?)

Slightly Longer Version:
When I went to Nora's Parent-Teacher Conference (armed, I admit, with evidence of Nora's brilliance from home) I was quickly reassured that none of my documentation was necessary. The grades we had been shocked by were simply "placeholders"--put there if a) that subject hadn't really been studied, or b) the teacher didn't actually know how Nora was doing in that department (our surmise, not actually admitted). When I explained how the grading system made it sound to us like Nora was somehow behind where she should be, the teacher assured me that Nora was above average in most things and "far above" in some others, and that we would see better grades in the following quarters. The report card is designed to show progress, so the highest grades are not given out at all until the end of the year. While I don't agree with this as a grading policy, I am placated. So, either the report card meant nothing or Nora's teacher gets an A+ for telling me what I wanted to hear. :-)

The Farm Mystique [Bryan]

For decades, my grandparents worked a dairy farm in Pleasant Grove, Utah. Uninspired by the toil of milking cows, my father fled farm life for a doctoral degree as quickly as he could. We visited the farm often, though, and those visits now form a kaleidoscope of powerful memories. The farm was a wonderland of poignant experiences. Different sights. Smells. Adventures. Friendships.

Although my cousins who grew up on the farm might laugh at this, it was a magical place for me: climbing the haystack, chasing the chickens, watching the milking, riding the tractors, petting the new calf, playing in the irrigation ditch, and so forth. There was nothing like this in the suburbs.

It was a place brimming with history. It was a history not of far-away lands or famous generals, but of my own family and my own people. This was our soil. Watered for generations with our sweat, blood, and tears. This was my soil. As a boy, I would venture into the old storage shed by the chicken coop and peer at the dusty tools and mysterious machinery. I would enter the "old house" (the house my great grandparents had once lived) and stare in wonder at a household frozen in time. The house, although falling apart, was still filled with the tired and worn-out belongings -- the old clothes, plates, furniture, pictures -- of family members that I had never personally known or loved, but who made me what I am. There was a thoughtful silence in that house. I could picture my dad as a young boy coming in for cookies at the end of milking. Great grandma would be standing at the window. The summer would be hot and dusty. There would be an embrace. A few words. The boy would then run off. Time for ball in the pasture.

When I was a boy, we would visit my grandparents own small house. It was always a bustling place. It would burst at the seams with kids, laughter, and love. I miss that place. I especially miss it during the holidays.

I remember past Thanksgivings at the farm. We would pull up in the driveway. The air would be crisp, with a dusting of freshly fallen snow. The dogs would come out to greet us. We would go inside. "Hi there, Bryan, what is going on with you?" Chatter. The kind of friendly banter you find only among people who know each other well.

Smell: the aroma of turkey and fresh rolls hovering in the air. Listen: the sound of the football game playing in the background (The Lions are losing again). Walk: there isn't a corner of the house that is unfilled with a cousin, aunt, or uncle. Laugh: We cousins sit together -- usually at the kid's table in the kitchen -- and crack jokes. Run: We go outside and play something, anything.

Will my children have such experiences? Do they know what it is to drink milk straight from the cow? To suck the marrow out of life? To run free for hours in a world of magic? Will they ever be haunted with such powerful memories?

Andy Warhol Exhibit [Bryan]

Last Saturday, Ellie and I went to Andy Warhol: Other Voices, Other Rooms , an exhibit at the Wexner Center at Ohio State. This exhibit is a big deal; it is the exclusive U.S. presentation.

Displayed are some of Warhol's famous silkscreens, but it focuses on his video work. I was most intrigued by his "screen tests." What this consists of is a person staring at the camera for minutes (sometimes hours) on end. It is a strange experience to stare at somebody like that -- to watch their facial ticks, eye movements, and lip licking. It feels eerie, almost intrusive. Like some unknown line has been crossed.

Here is the collection of screen shots from an earlier exhibit:



The rest of films were even more odd: some fascinating, some stupid, some vaguely pornographic, and all of them aimed to getting you to look at life (and film) in a different way. Warhol's goal, of course, was to collapse distinctions: high and low art, male and female, fiction and reality, public and private, people and technology, etc. His video work certainly seems to continue with this theme.

The other highlight was experiencing the famous "silver clouds." Apparently in 1966 Warhol held an exhibit in NYC, Silver Clouds, that consisted of a roomful of silver, metalized plastic pillow-shaped balloons inflated with helium and oxygen. These balloons floated around the room. This was replicated for us and looked something like this:

My blog type [Bryan]

This website claims to identify your personality based on your blog. I'm usually skeptical about such things: the claims about personality are so general they are usually meaningless. Still, I put in some random blogs on my reading list to test this site and the results aren't too shabby. My own personality description isn't completely accurate (risk taker?), but the overall results are interesting and not entirely without merit.

My blog:

The independent and problem-solving type. They are especially attuned to the demands of the moment are masters of responding to challenges that arise spontaneously. They generally prefer to think things out for themselves and often avoid inter-personal conflicts.

The Mechanics enjoy working together with other independent and highly skilled people and often like seek fun and action both in their work and personal life. They enjoy adventure and risk such as in driving race cars or working as policemen and firefighters.

My sister-in-law Anna's blog:

The entertaining and friendly type. They are especially attuned to pleasure and beauty and like to fill their surroundings with soft fabrics, bright colors and sweet smells. They live in the present moment and don´t like to plan ahead - they are always in risk of exhausting themselves.

The enjoy work that makes them able to help other people in a concrete and visible way. They tend to avoid conflicts and rarely initiate confrontation - qualities that can make it hard for them in management positions.

My friend Jared's blog:

The gentle and compassionate type. They are especially attuned their inner values and what other people need. They are not friends of many words and tend to take the worries of the world on their shoulders. They tend to follow the path of least resistance and have to look out not to be taken advantage of.

They often prefer working quietly, behind the scene as a part of a team. They tend to value their friends and family above what they do for a living.

Perfect Holiday Gift Idea [Bryan]

Looking for the perfect gift for that special someone in your life? Well, you need look no further. This book changed my life, and I know it will do the same for you.

Available now to pre-order in paperback ($16.95).

Seriously -- I've felt a little sheepish telling people to buy my book since it was $55.00 in hardcover. Now that it is in paperback, no more! Go buy my book. If you don't, I will never, ever, ever, ever, talk to you again.

Report Card Blues [Ellie]

Rats! I swore to Bryan that my next post would be lighthearted--maybe even funny--but now I have something I just have to get out, and I don't know if it's either of those.

A lot of people asked me, during the year before I sent Nora to Kindergarten, if I was nervous. I admitted it, but when I did, my reasons had to do with fear for her safety or innocence. If I would've dug deeper, I would've realized that one of the things I dreaded most about sending Nora out into the world was that the people out there wouldn't find her as delightful and brilliant as we do.

We just got Nora's report card back for her first term of Kindergarten, and it was a shock to our systems. Not at all what we expected. Her teacher doesn't seem to think Nora's anything special at all. Delightful, but not brilliant. I, being pregnant, cried, and Bryan, influenced by my freakout, suggested we could go together to the parent-teacher conference and explain how since he was a PhD in Education and I was a former teacher, our daughter couldn't possibly be merely average. Her grades were at best a mistake and at worst criminal negligence!

Several days of reflection have calmed us a little. We'll probably leave the weapons (or academic degrees) at home, now. But it still hurts. In some ways it feels like me in my role as a mother that the teacher is rating. It plays to all my current insecurities and adds new ones.

So, at what point does a mother separate criticism of her child from criticism of herself? Does it ever happen? Should it?

[Note: This post started as a response to a thoughtful blog post by a good friend. I miss you, Becky!]

Cinematic masterpieces [Bryan]

Awhile back, Professor Travis Anderson, who runs the International Cinema program at BYU, was asked about his favorite films. Below is the list he came up with. I've been trying to slowly work my way through his list, and it has really been a learning experience. There are films there that have left me thinking for months. My favorite so far has been "The Bicycle Thief." After naming his favorite film as "Cinema Paradiso," Anderson continues:

My second favorite would be a close call between Mikhalkov’s subtle and haunting “Slave of Love,” a Russian masterpiece with perhaps the second-best ending of any film (and no words do it justice—you just have to see it), and Tarkovsky’s “Nostalghia” (Which is the better film, but has only the third-best ending of all time). My favorite director is certainly Andrei Tarkovsky, with “Nostalghia” my favorite among his films. It’s a much more cerebral film than “Cinema Paradiso,” of course, but equally beautiful in its own way—with “Solaris” and “Stalker” not far behind. As I’ve noted in lectures here for 15 years, I’d watch “Solaris” just to see the pivotal scene where the lovers float weightlessly while the artistic relics of our culture float around them and initiate their transformation into real human beings.

Let’s see. Some other favorites. The list is a long one: De Sica’s “The Bicycle Thief” (which still moves me tremendously); Majidi’s “Children of Heaven” and “The Color of Paradise” (a breathtakingly profound film with another fantastic ending); Yimou’s “Not One Less” and “To Live”; Kiarostami’s “The Wind Will Carry Us”; Dreyer’s “Ordet” (perhaps the best religious film ever made, with a climax that will completely stun you); Wenders’ “Wings of Desire” (if only this world and the next were so lovingly intertwined); Scott’s “The Duelists” (gorgeous natural-light cinematography) and “Blade Runner” (a perennial guilty pleasure); Leoni’s “Once Upon a Time in the West” (with another Morriconi musical masterwork—the best moment of which is during the crane shot at the station, when both the camera and the music soar heavenwards to reveal a landscape that will always be mythical); Cimino’s “Heaven’s Gate,” which contains one of the most beautiful representations of community ever recorded on film (the roller-skating scene), and yet another fantastic soundtrack; Joffe’s “The Mission” (which is almost as beautiful as Morriconi’s score, and that’s saying something); Woody Allen’s “Crimes and Misdemeanors” (an astonishing, under-appreciated masterpiece); Antonioni’s “The Passenger” (with what, for years, was the longest single take on film—and certainly the most lyrical); Herzog’s “Aguirre: the Wrath of God,” “Nosferatu,” and “Lessons of Darkness” (all of which leave me speechless); Ray’s “Apu Trilogy” and “Devi”; Resnais’ “Hiroshima, mon amour”; “Roeg’s “Walkabout” and Antonioni’s “L’avventura” (both of which are virtual courses in the masterful use of mis-en-scene); Wier’s “Picnic at Hanging Rock,” “Fearless,” and ‘The Truman Show” (has this guy ever made a bad film?); Betancor’s “Valentina” (one of the best films about childhood ever made); Berri’s “Jean de Florette” and “Manon of the Spring”; Coppola’s “The Conversation” (which I personally think is his best film); Erici’s “The Spirit of the Beehive” (if you haven’t seen this film, you’ve missed perhaps the best about film ever made—with the exception of “Cinema Paradiso,” of course); Branagh’s “Henry V,” Olmi’s “The Tree of Wooden Clogs,” Gibson’s “Braveheart,” Ivory’s “Remains of the Day,” Spielberg’s “Empire of the Sun” and “Saving Private Ryan,” Malick’s “Days of Heaven” and “The Thin Red Line,” Zefirelli’s “La Traviata,” Madden’s “Shakespeare in Love,” Radford’s “Il Postino,” and Eastwood’s “The Unforgiven.” I love all these films. And I’m sure I’ve forgotten a few.

Among the best recent films I’ve seen are Samuell’s “Jeux d’enfants” (“Love Me if You Dare” is the English title, I think), which is tragic, but riveting; Juenet’s “Amelie”; De Laubier’s “Veloma,” perhaps the most insightful film about isolation and spiritual longing I’ve ever seen; Cantet’s “Time Out,” which will haunt you forever; and Belvaux’s incredible trilogy, “Cavale,” “Afterlife,” and “An Amazing Couple,” which must be seen together and which redefine what films can contribute to the discussion of ethical judgment. All of these are French, interestingly enough. In fact, in terms of numbers, most the best films I’ve seen in recent years have been French.

A few other recent films which I liked quite a lot—both by female directors—are Jill Sprecher’s “Thirteen Converations about One Thing” (perhaps the most philosophically interesting film I’ve seen in quite a while) and Penny Panayotopoulou’s “Hard Goodbyes: My Father” (this one will reduce you to a weeping wreck—but without a moment of disingenuity).

Kim Ki’duk’s “Spring, Summer, Winter, Fall . . . and Spring” is an absolute stunner. Perhaps the most beautiful cinematography of any film in recent memory. And a morality tale to die for—this is the film that “Why Has Bodhi-dharma Left for the East” ever-so-much wanted to be. And if you’ll let me include two TV mini-series, I’d have to add “Brideshead Revisited,” which is so good it almost surpasses the prose, and, of course, “Lonesome Dove.”

So, if you are looking for some movies to see, there you go.

Ah, Stravinsky [Bryan]

Last Political Post -- My Empty Life [Bryan]

This hits a little too close to home. Hilarious.

Obama Win Causes Obsessive Supporters To Realize How Empty Their Lives Are

A day to remember -- Updated five times [Bryan]

Today, election day, has been a surreal experience. I've been closely following Barack Obama for four years now, and have been pushing his presidential candidacy for almost as long. I've given money and wrote long emails to friends trying to convince them to flip to Obama. In some ways, this election day has been a strange convergence of the personal, the national, and the historic.

I voted early in the morning. After that, I spent most of the afternoon doing get-out-to-vote stuff. At noon, I arrived at a bustling suburban home turned into an Obama field office. After a few seconds of training, they shoved me out the door to go harass other Obama supporters and make sure they voted. I knocked on about 50 doors. Most people weren't home, but some were. One person said he changed his mind and had voted for McCain. But the excitement of most people was palpable. I chatted with one guy, a middle-aged white guy with a thick rural accent, about his experience at the polls. He assured he had voted and, as I left, he said, "And I voted for Obaaaama." I gave him a big thumbs up, and he gave me a thumbs up, and it was a little celebratory moment among strangers of hope and a common purpose.

I don't think I did any good out hitting the pavement today. I doubt anybody got to the polls because of my efforts. But it was important for me to be physically a part of something so historic. I repeat what I've said before, the Obama campaign is only partially about Obama. It is about energizing people, making them feel a part of a movement larger than themselves. That is how it has been for me.

Now, I can start thinking and blogging about something else.

Update 5:

With all the talk about race, this point by Bernard Avishai should not be fogotten:

I confess a certain impatience, on this poignant day, with all the earnest talk about how America achieved something remarkable yesterday by electing our first African-American president, as if the choice has been about race all along. I do not mean to diminish an historic first, like electing a Catholic in 1960; I, too, choked-up when John Lewis spoke. But relief today is not about Americans choosing an obviously black man over a white man, which proves we can come to terms with our past. It is about our choosing an obviously brilliant, reciprocal man over a thick, cynical one--a man who articulates a coherent vision of global commonwealth over someone advancing vague, military patriotism--which proves we can come to terms with our future.

Update 4:

Colin Powell's reaction:


Update 3:
I was incredibly moved by Obama's acceptance speech. Obama:

If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible; who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time; who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer....

I was never the likeliest candidate for this office. We didn't start with much money or many endorsements. Our campaign was not hatched in the halls of Washington – it began in the backyards of Des Moines and the living rooms of Concord and the front porches of Charleston.

It was built by working men and women who dug into what little savings they had to give five dollars and ten dollars and twenty dollars to this cause. It grew strength from the young people who rejected the myth of their generation's apathy; who left their homes and their families for jobs that offered little pay and less sleep; from the not-so-young people who braved the bitter cold and scorching heat to knock on the doors of perfect strangers; from the millions of Americans who volunteered, and organized, and proved that more than two centuries later, a government of the people, by the people and for the people has not perished from this Earth. This is your victory.

I know you didn't do this just to win an election and I know you didn't do it for me. You did it because you understand the enormity of the task that lies ahead. For even as we celebrate tonight, we know the challenges that tomorrow will bring are the greatest of our lifetime – two wars, a planet in peril, the worst financial crisis in a century. Even as we stand here tonight, we know there are brave Americans waking up in the deserts of Iraq and the mountains of Afghanistan to risk their lives for us. There are mothers and fathers who will lie awake after their children fall asleep and wonder how they'll make the mortgage, or pay their doctor's bills, or save enough for college. There is new energy to harness and new jobs to be created; new schools to build and threats to meet and alliances to repair....

Let us resist the temptation to fall back on the same partisanship and pettiness and immaturity that has poisoned our politics for so long. Let us remember that it was a man from this state who first carried the banner of the Republican Party to the White House – a party founded on the values of self-reliance, individual liberty, and national unity. Those are values we all share, and while the Democratic Party has won a great victory tonight, we do so with a measure of humility and determination to heal the divides that have held back our progress. As Lincoln said to a nation far more divided than ours, “We are not enemies, but friends…though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection.” And to those Americans whose support I have yet to earn – I may not have won your vote, but I hear your voices, I need your help, and I will be your President too.

And to all those watching tonight from beyond our shores, from parliaments and palaces to those who are huddled around radios in the forgotten corners of our world – our stories are singular, but our destiny is shared, and a new dawn of American leadership is at hand. To those who would tear this world down – we will defeat you. To those who seek peace and security – we support you. And to all those who have wondered if America’s beacon still burns as bright – tonight we proved once more that the true strength of our nation comes not from our the might of our arms or the scale of our wealth, but from the enduring power of our ideals: democracy, liberty, opportunity, and unyielding hope.

Video:

Update 2:
A roundup of the impromptu celebrations:
CNN:

(CNN) -- At least 1,000 people gathered on Washington's Pennsylvania Avenue in front of the White House late Tuesday night, shouting "Obama! Obama!" and "Yes we can!" Uniformed Secret Service officers were overheard, saying they'd never seen anything like it.

In Boston, Massachusetts, thousands of people -- many of them college students -- hit the streets to celebrate the election of the country's 44th president. The sound of car horns could be heard across the city, CNN affiliate WCVB reported.

In Chicago's Grant Park, where police estimated at least 200,000 had gathered to hear Obama claim victory, the crowd erupted in cheers and screams after news organizations projected him the winner.

AP:

From Harlem, to the avenue in Atlanta where the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was born, to Oakland, Calif., Americans black and white celebrated Barack Obama's election with tears, the honking of horns, screams of joy, arms lifted skyward — and memories of civil rights struggles past.

Seattle Times:

In Seattle, crowds of thousands of people spilled into the streets near the Pike Place Market and on Capitol Hill Wednesday night to celebrate the election of Barack Obama.

Detroit Free Press:

They streamed into the streets of downtown Detroit -- black, white, Asian, Indian and Arab -- all Americans who were proud to celebrate president-elect Barack Obama and the new America he represents.

Lebanon (PA) Daily News:

For the second time in a week, Philadelphia had an impromptu celebration.
Six days after crowding streets to celebrate the Phillies' World Series victory, thousands of Philadelphians marched downtown on Tuesday night to celebrate Barack Obama's victory over John McCain.

A multiracial crowd of all ages came from all directions and converged at City Hall shortly after Obama was declared the winner. Under a light rain, thousands of people jumped up and down, cheered and danced in the streets while car stereos blared music.

Newsday:

Celebration is spilling into the streets of Newark as New Jersey's largest city rejoices in Barack Obama's momentous election to the White House.

People spilled into the streets late Tuesday night, as car horns honked and cheers could be heard for blocks as the Democrat was declared the winner.

Louisville, KY Courier-Journal:

After the presidential race was called for Democrat Barack Obama at 11 p.m., motorists driving on Broadway in downtown Louisville honked their horns and yelled "Obama!" out the windows.

People gathered along the stretch of Broadway between 26th and 27th streets, cheering, dancing and waving campaign signs.

Update 1:

Kudos to McCain for a gracious speech.

Predictions for Tuesday [Bryan]

Here are my predictions for Tuesday. Obama will win 53% to McCain 45%. You can take that to the bank. Overall, I think the excitement and energy around the Obama campaign will carry the day. Plus, I've been reading about the ground organization of Obama and am absolutely astonished. Every account talks of a veritable army of Obama volunteers working phones, canvassing, and so forth. Meanwhile, McCain field offices, by all accounts, are often locked, closed, or nearly empty.

Of the contested states, I predict Obama will win Colorado, Florida, Pennsylvania, Nevada, New Mexico, and Virginia. McCain will (barely) win North Carolina, Montana, Indiana, Arizona, North Dakota, and Missouri. Ohio is actually a great mystery for me. I think...it also will go Obama.

Here is what the final map will look like:
<p><strong>><a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/interactives/campaign08/electoral-college/">Electoral College Prediction Map</a></strong> - Predict the winner of the general election. Use the map to experiment with winning combinations of states. Save your prediction and send it to friends.</p>

Ellie predicts: Obama 51% to McCain 46%.

What do you think?

Oh, and here is a video that was made especially for me. What would it look like if it were all my fault?

Impressions of Savannah [Bryan]

I just got back from Savannah, GA. It is a beautiful city, a place that, without the tourists and modern hotels, would almost be frozen in time. The city is interspersed with dozens of garden blocks. Some of these blocks have fountains, others have monuments, almost all of them surrounded by stately homes or soaring white churches. The city has been left as it was, not resculpted to fit modern convenience. In downtown Savannah there is little parking, no fast-food restaurants, uneven staircases, and streets that are better for walking than driving. Indeed, I have never seen a place with so many historical markers. I saw Flannery O'Connor's childhood home and read about the contributions of the South to the Revolutionary War. The city bears the cracks and tarnish of an old city. Some of it seems in disrepair, but it is loved all the more because of it. The city boasts a charming (if touristy) riverfront, loaded with restaurants and fun shops that now inhabit the old cotton wearhouses. The river front is a gathering place for musicians, dancers, and (on Halloween at least) slightly intoxicated partiers. In short, Savannah has almost everything that Columbus lacks: a lively water front, a physically embodied sense of place and history, and so forth. Where Columbus rips everything down (even its treasures) and starts over, I get the impression that nothing is ever changed in Savannah.

This brings up a sense of vague disquiet that I felt walking the lovely streets of Savannah. It is almost a dream-like place, a place uncomfortable with what the world has become. There was much discussion, for example, of the cotton trade on the historical plaques that explained the role of Savannah as a key port city. But it was also a major unloading place for African slaves, who had been ripped from their homes and packed into grotesque ships. There is almost no mention of this anywhere. There was only one marker I could find in Savannah that dealt with the slave trade -- a fairly lonely bronze statue of a black family surrounded by broken chains, with a Maya Angelou inscription:

We were stolen, sold and bought together from the African continent. We got on the slave ships together. We lay back to belly in the holds of the slave ships together in each other's excrement and urine together, sometimes died together, and our lifeless bodies thrown overboard together....

While recognizing slave suffering, it offered no explanation of the major role of Savannah (or American at large) in that suffering. As a city, it hides from the condemnation of the modern world. Like other places, I suppose, it tries to pretend that its "best face" is its only face. It is a beautiful city, with nightmares in the shadows.

Terrorist fist bump [Bryan]

I put this up, not only because it's really cute. It is further proof that Obama is a Marxist! Notice in his hand is a copy of the Wall Street Journal. This, of course, is standard reading material of all Marxists. What better way to overthrow the bourgeois system than to read its most important publication. Plus, Marxists always wrap their copy of Das Kapital under the WSJ in order to look respectable, you see.

It is obvious from this photo, then, that Obama is an atheistic socialist. Or was it that he was a militant religious Islamist? Or was it that he was a white-hating black nationalist? I get so confused.

Wow, the world IS coming to an end! [Bryan]

I never thought I would see the day. Via the Salt Lake Tribune:

For the first time in memory, Brigham Young University is boasting as many College Democrats as College Republicans. About 1,200 students have signed up for each of the activist groups sponsored by the Political Science Department.

In September, the Democrats had 700 students, but within the first few weeks of classes, membership had nearly doubled at the private school owned by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

"Barack Obama is inspiring a lot of youth, and a lot [of the growth] has to do with the last eight years and people being vastly disappointed," said Randal Serr, a senior in political science and president of the club. Serr, a senior in political science and president of the club, says Barack Obama's candidacy has boosted membership.

The club also has started getting more politically involved this year. Each weekend, a couple dozen BYU students load into cars and caravan to nearby battleground states such as Colorado and Nevada. They also write opinion articles for local newspapers, staff booths in the student union and participate in service projects.

They've come a long way from just 15 years ago, when the club had seven members, Serr said.

A conversation I just overheard [Bryan]

Ellie: A cat burglar is a burglar who is really good at sneaking into places.

Nora: I'm scared of burglars.

Ellie: There is no reason to be scared. Burglars usually break into places with lots of gold or jewels. They want to steal things that are really valuable and we don't have any of that.

Nora: [Pauses for a moment, then says with a worried look] But we have candy!

It's the end of the world as we know it [Bryan]

Now it's time for some pessimism. Things are looking really bad in the global economy today. Really bad. Trading on the S & P 500 futures on the Chicago Board of Trade was halted due to losses. In Asia, Market losses were about 10%. Last I saw, market losses in Europe were about 9%. Alan Greenspan said recently that his faith in the ability of banks and markets to manage risk was misguided -- quite an admission! The NYSE is promising to remain open today, which by itself is an unnerving thing to have to say.

In other news, global warming is proceeding quite nicely. A recent report noted that the "rate of ice melt this August was 33,000 square miles per day, the fastest that anyone has ever recorded for the month." Things are melting faster than anyone predicted or imagined.

Yikes! Time for some REM:

Wow, Just Wow [Bryan]

There is something special in the air.

Barry Obama just raised $150 million in September. That is more than double the biggest month any candidate for president has ever had. Now, it would be one thing if this was all from big money contributors -- it would be certainly less interesting, and perhaps even troubling if it came from only the ranks of the rich and powerful. But, the average donation was just $86 dollars. 3.1 million people have now contributed to the Obama campaign. This really is the people's campaign.

In other news, Colin Powell today endorsed Obama saying:

On the Obama side, I watched Mr. Obama and I watched him during this seven-week period. And he displayed a steadiness, an intellectual curiosity, a depth of knowledge and an approach to looking at problems like this and picking a vice president that, I think, is ready to be president on day one. And also, in not just jumping in and changing every day, but showing intellectual vigor. I think that he has a, a definitive way of doing business that would serve us well.....And I come to the conclusion that because of his ability to inspire, because of the inclusive nature of his campaign, because he is reaching out all across America, because of who he is and his rhetorical abilities--and we have to take that into account--as well as his substance--he has both style and substance--he has met the standard of being a successful president, being an exceptional president. I think he is a transformational figure. He is a new generation coming into the world--onto the world stage, onto the American stage, and for that reason I'll be voting for Senator Barack Obama.

The Chicago Tribune, a paper that has never endorsed a Democrat, just endorsed Obama, saying:

Many Americans say they're uneasy about Obama. He's pretty new to them.

We can provide some assurance. We have known Obama since he entered politics a dozen years ago. We have watched him, worked with him, argued with him as he rose from an effective state senator to an inspiring U.S. senator to the Democratic Party's nominee for president.
We have tremendous confidence in his intellectual rigor, his moral compass and his ability to make sound, thoughtful, careful decisions. He is ready.

The Houston Chronicle, which hasn't supported a Democrat since LBJ, just endorsed Obama saying:

Obama appears to possess the tools to confront our myriad and daunting problems. He's thoughtful and analytical. He has met his opponents' attacks with calm and reasoned responses. Viewers of the debates saw a poised, well-prepared plausible president with well-articulated positions on the bread-and-butter issues that poll after poll indicate are the true concerns of voters. While Arizona Sen. John McCain and his running mate Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin have struck an increasingly personal and negative tone in their speeches, Obama has continued to talk about issues of substance.

Christopher Buckley, son of William F. Buckley, the father of American conservatism endorsed Obama this week:

As for Senator Obama: He has exhibited throughout a “first-class temperament,” pace Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.’s famous comment about FDR....I’ve read Obama’s books, and they are first-rate. He is that rara avis, the politician who writes his own books. Imagine. He is also a lefty. I am not. I am a small-government conservative who clings tenaciously and old-fashionedly to the idea that one ought to have balanced budgets....But having a first-class temperament and a first-class intellect, President Obama will (I pray, secularly) surely understand that traditional left-politics aren’t going to get us out of this pit we’ve dug for ourselves.

Obama has in him—I think, despite his sometimes airy-fairy “We are the people we have been waiting for” silly rhetoric—the potential to be a good, perhaps even great leader. He is, it seems clear enough, what the historical moment seems to be calling for.

Obama had 100,000 people at the rally yesterday in St. Louis, pictured above.

Powell's endorsement:

Blogging the Wasteland II [Bryan]

V. WHAT THE THUNDER SAID

AFTER the torchlight red on sweaty faces
After the frosty silence in the gardens
After the agony in stony places
The shouting and the crying
Prison and place and reverberation
Of thunder of spring over distant mountains
He who was living is now dead
We who were living are now dying
With a little patience

Here is no water but only rock
Rock and no water and the sandy road
The road winding above among the mountains
Which are mountains of rock without water
If there were water we should stop and drink
Amongst the rock one cannot stop or think
Sweat is dry and feet are in the sand
If there were only water amongst the rock
Dead mountain mouth of carious teeth that cannot spit
Here one can neither stand nor lie nor sit
There is not even silence in the mountains
But dry sterile thunder without rain
There is not even solitude in the mountains
But red sullen faces sneer and snarl
From doors of mudcracked houses

Bryan Comments: Thus begins my favorite section of the Wasteland, "Section V: What The Thunder Said." Obviously, we have a reference to the Crucifixion here: "the agony in stony places," "prison and palace and reverberation," "the frosty silence in the gardens," and so forth. After the agony, we are presented with travelers on a path. The poem at this point captures the emptiness of their despair by using the image of dryness. The sweat is dry and the path is sandy. There are rocks that cannot "spit" and dry thunder "without rain." There is, we are told, "not even silence in these mountains" (one of my favorite lines). The land itself seems to thirst for refreshment, for life.

If there were water
And no rock
If there were rock
And also water
And water
A spring
A pool among the rock
If there were the sound of water only
Not the cicada
And dry grass singing
But sound of water over a rock
Where the hermit-thrush sings in the pine trees
Drip drop drip drop drop drop drop
But there is no water

Bryan comments: Here we enter the minds of the travelers, who see the dryness, feels their thirst, and wish for something different. It is as if the travelers start to see a cool pool of water. They can almost hear the water dripping and the birds singing. "But," back to reality they remind themselves that "there is no water."

Who is the third who walks always beside you?
When I count, there are only you and I together
But when I look ahead up the white road
There is always another one walking beside you
Gliding wrapt in a brown mantle, hooded
I do not know whether a man or a woman
- But who is that on the other side of you?

Bryan comments: Suddenly, there is the realization of a mysterious stranger on the road. The stranger does not appear suddenly, but has been "always walking beside you." The identity of the stranger is kept hidden -- he (or she) is hooded, wrapped in the brown mantle. The presence of the stranger is difficult to verify. When we count, we can only seem to count the two of us. Yet there is always a third, walking with us. Is the stranger an illusion, like the water? Or do we have the promise of the stranger, a friend, who helps us walk the Wasteland? The parallels to the famous Road to Emmaus story in the Bible are fairly clear here: Hopeless travelers walking on a road after a tragedy encounter the disguised Jesus who offers salvation.

What is that sound high in the air
Murmur of maternal lamentation
Who are those hooded hordes swarming
Over endless plains, stumbling in cracked earth
Ringed by the flat horizon only
What is the city over the mountains
Cracks and reforms and bursts in the violet air
Falling towers
Jerusalem Athens Alexandria
Vienna London
Unreal

Bryan comments: At this point, Eliot resumes his critique of the "unreal city" that he began in the first section. London, as with all other great cities, will fall to the sound of "maternal lamentation" (again, a reference to the Crucifixion). Instead of one hooded stranger walking always beside us, we now have hooded minions mindlessly swarming over the dry, cracked land. Are these hordes a hopeful promise that such friends are everywhere? Not really: the description of these people as "swarming hordes" makes them seem undesirable, like insects. Are these people distractions, then, from the real hooded companion who walks always beside us? Is it an admission that the true "friend" will be difficult to recognize? Is Eliot offering us hope in a hooded stranger, but then admitting that truth (and true friendship) will be difficult to recognize? Yes, I think so. Section V is a picture of hope permeated by doubt; true companionship, and salvation in such friendship, is available, but it is hard to recognize through the smog of the unreal city.

That one is a comedian [Bryan]

On a much less serious note, here is some very funny stuff:

I hear McCain was also really funny. I'll put that up once I find it.

What I Can't Say [Ellie]

Bryan wonders why I don’t blog more. He thinks if I enjoy writing (and I do) I should want to write all the time. Here’s my dilemma: so many things that I think about a lot I can’t write about. A big part of my church job, Relief Society President, is maintaining confidentiality. I can’t tell my husband, and I certainly can’t publish my observations in a forum where anybody could read them.

So Bryan’s challenge to me was to write about what that feels like. What it’s like to be full of things I can’t say.

It feels. . .heavy. Sometimes I come away from a conversation so filled with the burden of another person’s sadness that I can’t think of anything else. I go through the motions of my life—making dinner, caring for my children, chatting with friends, laying in bed at night—worrying over how to help that person or solve that problem. I become distracted and distant without meaning to. I wish I could conjure a quick fix, for both of us.

It feels. . .daunting. I list all the families I know with troubles in my prayers every night and I’m astonished by the sheer number of them. The idea that I have some stewardship over so many people’s well-being, and that they are not all being well, makes me feel overwhelmed and powerless. The idea that many more are suffering and we’re not helping them because we don’t know to help is painful. I look at my to-do list from my meetings and feel paralyzed by all the musts and ought-to’s I see there. I wish all problems could be solved by a casserole.

It feels. . .lonely. I’m learning so much about human nature—my own and others’—that I find fascinating. There’s so little of it I can share without revealing too much. I feel like I have to edit my words. Other times I feel things are expected of me that are beyond what I have to give. I know that I sometimes disappoint people who expect more of someone in my position. I wish I were more than just me.

It feels. . .frustrating. I think of the many different ways I have seen help offered and
refused. I think of people who choose to sink deeper into their own unhappiness, even when others around them are trying hard to pull them out of it. I think of service rendered, time and time again, with no visible effects. I wish I could say: Happiness is very simple. You just have to stop doing what you’re doing to make yourself unhappy and choose happiness instead!

But it also feels. . .encouraging. Seeing the women around me serving each other, usually without fanfare or recognition, helps me know that the burden isn’t mine alone. So many women are so generous with their time, their love, their resources. I’m amazed by women’s abilities to transcend life’s petty concerns and see into each other’s hearts.

And it is. . .fulfilling. I feel a sense of purpose in serving others. I feel myself having to grow to meet new challenges. I feel myself being drawn out of my own petty concerns and into a bigger, more meaningful life.

If I can’t say what exactly I’m doing, at least I can say that it’s worthwhile. And that’s not nothing.

My sunburn and democratic theory [Bryan]

Went to a big Obama rally in Columbus today. Waited in the sun for about five hours for the thing to start. Got a sunburn.

The rally itself was okay. By far, the best part about it was the people watching. In my professional work, I do quite a bit of reading and teaching about democratic theory -- stuff about how we can overcome our differences and manage to work together on common projects. The rally was the most visible instantiation of this democratic ideal that I have witnessed. Seemingly every type of person was there: white and black; blue-collar workers and professionals; young and old; lesbians and church groups; urbanites and Appalachian Ohioans; pacifists and veterans (and pacifist veterans); Orthodox Jews and not a few Utah-born Mormons! It was a veritable cornucopia of people coming together in common purpose. It was a hopeful scene in the face of a very bad national situation.

Here we are, 10,000 strong Obama fans, waiting in line.

I passed the time taking pictures of cute children...

...and police snipers.

Governor Strickland and Senator Brown.

And there he is (drop the teleprompter Barack!)

Some video

Ohio: Exploring the Old Attic [Bryan]

Living in Ohio is like exploring an old attic. There isn't anything flashy here, but there are all sorts of interesting nooks and crannies. Last month, we headed up to northeast Ohio with my Mom and Dad.

Here we are at Brandywine Falls, Cuyahoga Valley National Park

Hiking with Grandma.

Brandywine Falls

Fairport Harbor, OH. An interesting little lake town. Once upon a time, this place was apparently the Ellis Island of the Great Lakes, where many immigrants disembarked.

Playing with Grandpa at Fairport Harbor Beach.

We stopped in Kirtland, of course.

Just outside of Cleveland there is a little town called Chagrin Falls. It is both hip and traditional somehow, and right in the middle of town roars a big waterfall.