“You can’t teach an old dog new tricks” is a proverb I learned in primary school along with other common English idioms. It never occurred to me at the time that the saying contradicted the also-common “You’re never too old to learn.” It turns out that even if the battle between “fixed mindsets” and “growth […]
An unrecognized voice
As Walter Brueggemann argues in Sabbath as Resistance, contemporary US culture is based on excessive production. “Our motors are set to run at brick-making speed,” he writes, alluding to the ancient Hebrews in the Exodus stories who made bricks with and without straw, at and beyond quota, so they could meet their enslavers “insatiable” demands […]
All souls, all ages
Living with my grandparents for six years was one of the most valuable experiences of my life. Life with them was quite structured, but full of what I needed and all the kindness they had to give. In the years since, I’ve thought a lot about multigenerational communities and what it takes to do them well. I […]
Repenting to create
“Creativity,” Robert Greene once wrote, “is a combination of discipline and a childlike spirit.” It’s also about the ability to let go and start again, and again, and again. I re-read Anne Lamott’s thoughts on repentance, writing, and graceless perfectionism recently. As I’ve reminded myself, learning requires room for error, but the drive toward perfectionism makes […]
The mechanics of an oppressive society
Walter Brueggemann explains in The Prophetic Imagination some of the ways that King Solomon’s reign returned the Israelites to the oppressive culture they’d once experienced under the Egyptians. The top three tools are the “economics of affluence,” the “politics of oppression,” and the “establishment of a controlled, static religion.” According to Brueggemann, Solomon’s regime used these three cultural elements together to […]
A new song
The first time I ever wrote a letter someone who was incarcerated, I was in Jamaica and in my late teens. My correspondent, the son of a friend of my mother, still had a few more years to go before he was eligible for parole. I’m not sure of our mothers’ motivations for asking us […]