Confessions of an Errant Mind

I grew up going to Willow Creek Community Church outside of Chicago, one of the first "megachurches." While my perspective on Willow has changed over the years, I was interested to see this piece today on a rather large change in direction by the church leadership. In essence, they've found that the programs they set up (trainings, retreats, evangelism events, etc.) don't correspond with "spiritual growth" (loving God and people more). That is, just doing church stuff doesn't help you be more like Jesus. Instead, it's relatively low budget items such as Bible study, strong relationships, and prayer that lead to those things--things people need to be trained in, but are primarily not programmatic in nature. It will be interesting to see where Willow goes from here. Personally, I often feel agnostic about the institutionalization of church, since God himself seems to be wary of it in the Bible (resisting monarchy or the temple or even Jesus' ministry outside of religious structures). I'd wonder some about how we describe "spiritual maturity," since that will vary based on the tradition of the church defining it (where's acting for social justice, for example?). But it still seems like a good word.

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As an aspiring Geographer and someone with a technology hobby, one might expect me to be interested in tools like Google Maps. It differs from cousin Mapquest in its openness to be used for mashups--overlays of information that can range from social networking (reviews of area bars) to one current use, fire safety. I've been following the San Diego fires closely, since my mom and most of her family live in Escondido, at the northern edge of one of the fires. But it's been hard finding exact information on where the fires are actually burning. Enter Google Maps. One click and I can see updates on evacuations and representations of danger areas. Right now, it looks like everyone's in the clear. Let's hope things settle down...

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This story in today's Star-Tribune highlights what, to me, is one of the (if not the most) major problems in urban development today--residential segregation. At issue is the development of affordable housing options in suburban communities. The Met Council, an institution somewhat unique to the Twin Cities, has laid out guidelines for those cities to follow. As this article describes it, there's resistance from those communities, primarily due to residents' concerns about the impact of low income people on social services, property values, and community identity. Here's a classic conservative quote on the subject:

"It's hard for us to continue absorbing lower valued units and have it impact our tax base," said Jason Aarsvold, the city's [Brooklyn Park] economic and redevelopment director.

"Our city is more than housing. It's quality of life and providing jobs and building tax base."

Now I understand the issue here--especially for a city like Brooklyn Park that's really struggling to keep middle class residents from leaving. It's been documented that poverty is increasingly moving to the suburbs whether they like it or not. But at the same time, arguments like these--especially those cloaked in the guise of maintaining economic competetion--are too often just a cover for the exclusion of poor people who are also usually not white. It's really a NIMBY (not in my backyard) issue. It's fine for the urban cores to have lots of poor people and crime. It's fine for those schools to come close to collapse due to the strain this causes. We just don't want any of that here. In the end, I just don't feel it's a morally justifiable position--it's about looking out for your own interests and shoving problems off on someone else. There's no hospitality in that, no self-sacrifice, and only a narrow kind of love.

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OK, it's easy to dislike someone who is both outspoken and also opposes many of your core values. For me, that group includes Katherine Kersten, columnist for the Star Tribune. Kersten may very well be a gracious and kind person, but there's something in almost every column of hers that makes my stomach turn. (Question: so why does Jerry still read her? Maybe I like that feeling...) Here's today's quote, from a column about the U of M's refusal to play North Dakota State due to their Native American nickname ("the Fighting Sioux"). She ridicules a professor from the U's sociology department and says the following:

Hartmann is the author of that upcoming spellbinder, "Race, Class and Gender: An Emerging Perspective." You may also soon catch his "Putting Whiteness Theory to the Test: An Empirical Analysis of Core Propositions."

I'm not sure exactly what she's getting at here. That his work is boring? Earth to Kersten: this is a research university. You could pick almost any professor here, conservative or liberal, look at their CV, and find such titles. Is it that he deals with race and is himself probably quite liberal? That seems the more likely candidate to me--I think "whiteness theory" is an obviously intentional choice, and many of us fair-complected ones don't like to consider ourselves as having a culture at all, let alone worth studying. And there's the obvious appeal to the anti-intellectualism common in American life, which I would assume she herself would disapprove of.

In fact, one of Kersten's common rants is on the state of our educational system, that it's being "dumbed down." But her rhetoric is often highly calculate to provoke an emotional, not a intellectual, response, and passages like the one above don't lead me to take her seriously as a thoughtful, rigorous writer. What's education for if not a empirical consideration of the world? She's no Anne Coulter (thanksfully!) but she's definitely not for me.

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Some interesting stuff today in the Times related to food issues:

• A new film, "King Corn," blends Supersize Me with The Omnivore's Dilemma in examining the role corn plays in our diet and economy. This was probably the most interesting part of Pollan's book, so I'll be interested to check it out at some point.


• A new study says that picky eating is mostly genetic and developmental. Parents everywhere breath a sigh of relief. My own son (see the pic) could easily subsist on pizza, spaghetti, pickles, and croutons and salad dressing.


• A follow up article gives some tips on kids' eating habits. The biggest one is simply to be patient. It's a stage that all kids will get through. As long as you're slowly presenting them with healthy options, things will get better. Of course, that means that we have to be eating those healthy options, which with a busy life-style isn't always practical...

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For my service learning course this semester, my students' first assignment was to create an interview program with a local figure making a positive difference in the community. It's based on the Peace Jam project, which is being used by the program at North High School that we're partnering with. Those interviews are done, and should be available soon on iTunes. You can also access them directly on our blog. We probably won't be rivaling Radiohead for download traffic anytime soon, but they're worth a listen.

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Natural foods buffs around the Twin Cities can't help but be familiar with the Wedge co-op in Uptown. It's probably the biggest one around town, and it the Twin Cities, that's saying something. Headlines yesterday reported that the Wedge is buying up one of the largest local produce suppliers in the area--Gardens of Eagan.

We've been talking some about alternative economies in my Geography class (exciting subtitle: "Spaces of Neoliberalization"). This seems like an interesting case to me. The Wedge to me is much like Minnesota Public Radio--a large non-profit that in many ways resembles its for profit cousins (in this case, Lund's or Byerly's). Sure, there's a bit more granola involved, but it's ambitious and not exactly geared at the hoi polloi. At least from a consumer perspective that's the case. However, using the kind of analysis posed by J.K. Gibson-Graham (whose text A Postcapitalist Politics has intrigued me), one might spot some clear differences in the economic and cultural skeleton of the place.

The question is this: what happens when these locally focused, not for profit organizations get big? To a certain extent they have to play by the rules of the marketplace. Yet in this case, the acquisition of this farm prevented it from being subsumed by even more capitalist residential development. And who really wants to see cookie-cutter townhomes on a former organic farm?

And so I have mixed feelings. Call me a cynic, but part of me feels that any large organization, no matter its mission, ends up in the same games of power and inequality. But to borrow a phrase from the best of the recent Series of Unfortunate Events books, even if it's not good, this move may be "good enough."

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Apparently, my cousins once removed (my cousin's twins--I think that's the right category) are on CBS tonight--they play the child version of a protagonist in the new CBS drama Moonlight. They were only in a couple of shows, but given their years of tryouts, it's worth applauding.

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Salon has an interesting piece today on the role of cereal in the American diet, of interest to me particularly due to my dad's long career as a food scientist at Quaker. Their basic claim is that it's our national grain, kind of like rice in Chinese cooking. Not sure if I'm ready to cede that yet--white bread seems like a good runner up. But the main problem is that it's not actually all that healthy. Some of the nutritional information here seems a little suspect--is a slice of pizza really a healthier option? What about cereals relatively low in sugar and high in fiber? But it's an interesting argument.

Bonus: There's a link to another article on Annie's Mac and Cheese, which has found a place in our home as of late. Basically, it's the same as Kraft, and homemade is a better alternative if you're trying to avoid the processed food universe. Still, the Velveeta creaminess of Kraft is hard to get at home, in my experience. The background on Annie's is interesting, however.

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Saw this on SNL last week and thought it was quite clever (and catchy!). There's an interesting mashup of cultural issues here--a parody of hip-hop conventions and political commentary, and how both relate to the acceptance of homosexuality. Enjoy....

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