This time last year, I didn’t know we were moving cities, changing jobs, or starting new schools for all our children. Even as I write it, it feels strange that we didn’t know our present reality would exist…
While our lives are being turned upside by advances in technology, changing political climate, and more powerful natural disasters, may these changes remind us to love more deeply and work more compassionately for what is good and just.
So proud of Sam Jr. for achieving all A’s for the year, the highest academic average, and a top iReady score in his 3rd-grade year (and a PE award!).
I was a teacher in Middle and High Schools for almost 20 years, and I’ve never been exactly fond of “awards days” for several pedagogical reasons (at least how they were carried out in the schools where I taught), though I don’t think we should diminish the hard work of young people. One of my favorite memories as a classroom teacher is getting a “talking to” by admin for having in-class awards that evidently overshadowed the main Middle School awards program later that day. But I digress (I think it’s ok to let your students see you cry in happiness over their accomplishments and accomplishments don’t always equal arbitrary or objective letter grades). Over the years, I’ve won many awards in my academic and life journey, but now I understand in my old age why some artists don’t show up for the Grammys.
Unfortunately, we still live in a “don’t smile until December” atmosphere in many schools, and our teachers are sorely underpaid and underappreciated for their tireless work, especially in our current society.
However, being a parent on the other side of the equation, and seeing the amount of hard work that Ben put into his studies and all he’s worked towards this year, gives me hope for our future.
The kids are alright. We just need to work on us adults. Be kind. Smile more. Let the Little Ones know that they are loved and cared for and are valued.
You fathers and you mothers Be good to one another Please try to raise your children right Don’t let the darkness take ’em Don’t make ’em feel forsaken Just lead them safely to the light When this old world has blown us under And all the stars from fall this sky Remember someone really loves you We’ll live forever you and I
Got to see the Pine Warbler that’s been hanging out around our home this morning. It’s currently my favorite bird (and the Pine Grosbeak on the cover of my current Field Notes notebook is a close representation). I’m an old man 👴.
Merianna and I were able to visit Asheville this past Friday and see Wilco play at Asheville Yards Amphitheater (previously Rabbit Rabbit on Coxe Ave). It was a hot and muggy afternoon and start to the show, but a cool breeze arrived as the sun departed, and it turned out to be an amazing evening of music and fun (despite us getting stuck in the parking garage for about an hour after the show). Wilco has long been my favorite band and I’ve seen them more times than I can count over the years (going back to 2001), but this was a really special experience since it was Merianna’s first Wilco show (and it being in Asheville).
So many early gems and newer songs I’ve not heard live (Quiet Amplifier especially)!
And here’s the setlist:
Company in My Back Evicted Handshake Drugs I Am Trying to Break Your Heart If I Ever Was a Child Meant to Be War on War Quiet Amplifier Hummingbird Bird Without a Tail / Base of My Skull Via Chicago Love Is Everywhere (Beware) You Are My Face Whole Love Either Way Impossible Germany Jesus, Etc. Box Full of Letters Annihilation Heavy Metal Drummer I’m the Man Who Loves You Encore: California Stars (with Waxahatchee) Falling Apart (Right Now) I Got You (At the End of the Century)
This paper proposes a Process Ecology of the Cross, a theological and philosophical reframing of the Christian symbol of the cross through the lens of process-relational metaphysics, ecological kenosis, and more-than-human cosmopolitics. Drawing from the work of Alfred North Whitehead, Catherine Keller, Mihnea Tǎnǎsescu, Donna Haraway, and Indigenous fire stewardship practices, the paper explores how the cross can be reclaimed not as a juridical transaction or redemptive violence, but as a cosmopolitical threshold: a site of shared vulnerability, transformation, and planetary communion. The argument unfolds across seven sections, examining communion as an ontological principle, kenosis as an ethical-political descent, fire as a sacrament of regeneration, and ecological intentionality as a mode of participatory perception. Through phenomenology, posthuman theology, and lived ecological practices, this paper articulates a vision of salvation not as escape from the Earth but as a deepening within it. The cross becomes an altar of becoming-with, a liturgical site of composted grief, regenerative peace, and hope beyond the human.
Fascinating point here from Stephenson and echoes my own sentiments that AI itself is not necessarily a horrid creation that needs to be locked away, but a “new” modern cultural concept that we’d do well to realize points us back towards the importance of our own integral ecologies…
The mites, for their part, don’t know that humans exist. They just “know” that food, in the form of dead skin, just magically shows up in their environment all the time. All they have to do is eat it and continue living their best lives as eyelash mites. Presumably all of this came about as the end result of millions of years’ natural selection. The ancestors of these eyelash mites must have been independent organisms at some point in the distant past. Now the mites and the humans have found a modus vivendi that works so well for both of them that neither is even aware of the other’s existence. If AIs are all they’re cracked up to be by their most fervent believers, this seems like a possible model for where humans might end up: not just subsisting, but thriving, on byproducts produced and discarded in microscopic quantities as part of the routine operations of infinitely smarter and more powerful AIs.
The coming (very soon) torrent of artificial intelligence bots on the web and throughout our lives is going to be revolutionary for humanity in so many ways.
This paper develops the framework of an integral ecology of the cross by weaving together principles from integral ecology, Christian theology, and phenomenology. Building upon the five principles outlined in The Variety of Integral Ecologies (particularly communion, subjectivity, and agency), I argue that the theological concept of kenosis (self-emptying) and the practice of ecological intentionality offer essential deepening for ecological ethics and spiritual engagement. Drawing from thinkers such as Thomas Berry, Leonardo Boff, Catherine Keller, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, and Edith Stein, the paper proposes a vision of ecological participation grounded in humility, interdependence, and sacramental presence. A case study of fire, examined through Indigenous stewardship practices and Christian sacramental symbolism, serves as a focal point for integrating liturgical, ecological, and metaphysical dimensions. Reimagining the cross not as a symbol of abstract salvation but as a paradigm of relational descent, the paper invites faith communities and scholars alike to consider new modes of ecological formation rooted in attention, vulnerability, and shared becoming. In an age of planetary crisis, an integral ecology of the cross offers a constructive theological and ethical response: one that honors suffering, performs peace beyond the human, and nurtures communion in the face of collapse.
I’m uploading a few papers I’ve written lately on the subjects of spiritual ecologies and metaphysics. Here’s the first of those papers which focuses on the work of Catherine Pickstock and William Desmond to derive a notion of ecological liturgy for our modern period. I also delve into understandings of ancient and pre-historical uses of language and intention, which I find a fascinating topic.
