Studying Christian denominations. I have quite definitely departed the House of Evangelicalism (not that Pentacostals ever really are comfortable there, individually or institutionally).

The irritating bit is that Pentacostal denoms are really quite conservative in most of the unpleasant ways: hardcore inerrant on Scripture, anti-intellectualism, anti-gay/trans, and many lean towards the Mango Menace. I'm actually very much at home in the AG from a base theological perspective, but from a broader culture & introspective perspective... no. Just, no.

Given that I am, bone in my bone, a Pentacostal (and if you're not quite sure what that means, it translates, technically, to - Protestant Christian mystic with a lived ecstatic experience usually including glossolia), I feel somewhat adrift. I think - but am not sure - the UCC denomination is probably the one I would feel most at home in; possibly a UMC. I made a semi-conscious decision about... 3? 6? years ago to avoid non-denom churches. My observation is non-denominational churches, in practice, translates to "unaccountable leadership" - the Board (elders, members of congregation) won't go against the local "anointed man of God". So pure congregationalist organization or non-denoms are out the door - too corruptible.

The other thing I've noticed is that when there's the actual ability of the pastor to be fired by a regional board, their ego trip seems to be shrunk. Which is one of my major beefs with the whole clergy in general - they are, theologically, servants and assistants, not superiors. A whole kyriarchy of religion, if you will...

I noticed that there's a Charismatic UCC up in Seattle - I'll have to visit it one of these weeks.

Congratulations, Ireland. Well done.

etc

starting working out more. found kettlebells. they are a lot of fun and a better strength training than other things I've encountered and had fun with. 8/10 would recommend. I'm ogling the 48kg and 92kg sizes. I think I am setting my hoped-for goal to be able to do the "turkish get up" with the 48kg. that is, holding it with one hand laying down, stand up, maintaining it above my head.

being able to play 1 handed with a few pounds over 100lb would be a good clear line of "ok this is sufficiently strong, go do other things with life while maintaining this".

My definite goal is to be able to do that with the 32kg (70lb) weight. That's very feasible and not outre.

been farting with woebot a little - it's a CBT oriented chatbot for therapy.

very interesting system, but I think I'm going to try to clone it locally. Therapy stuff doesn't need to be rolling out to a VC-backed free system via facebook messenger....

I need to sit down and reread my histories of life under Nazi rule, along with a few new ones I bought on the matter.

And then I should take copious notes and share them out. I don't particularly like doing that kind of thing, because I read very fast and stopping to take notes is slow. But I think it's highly relevant, since Trumpism is genuinely a neo-fascism.

It's not the same, of course - it's American (all fascisms differ by nationality) - and the ideology hasn't been adequately worked out - and the glorification and exercise of violence simply has not
tipped over yet into reality (although it's been looming for a long time).

The distinguishing factor here I want to draw is that Trumpism is a neo-fascism. Possibly it's a protofascism, but the concept of a man embodying the American people(das Fueherprinzip, to be precise) isn't in my sense of what's going on. Further, historical fascisms arose in a quasi organized street violence mileau. I want to be very careful here: the historical violence occurred by people considered sane, by relatively respectable people. Similar to the KKK, as a matter of fact. That is not occurring, although one-offs by wingnuts do happen. It's incorrect to think it couldn't happen. As a matter of fact, the Charlottesville situation should be considered as a fork in the road - if it had been more acceptable to march in parade, my opinion is that we would have had the nice white boys in khakis out on the streets across the US. Nor, to be clear, are the nice white boys conceptually against violence. Shane Bauer has reported enough on the milita movement in the past 2 years that it's clear they're ready to play street thug.

But America resists.

And that, I think, is part of the distinguishing factor here. In disarray, the Democrats and those committed to classic liberal democracy do resist, and this resistance limits Trumpism in many, many ways. And it is important to realize that the conditions are not fertile enough for a true conversion. What is extremely clear from reading the books written about the "common folk" during the Third Reich is that they supported Hitler. In Italy, the Fascists were more limited, because many Italians didn't support Mussolini, or just sort of went along for the ride. And the Italian Fascism did not become the total state sought. Call it "national character" if you like, although that's biologically bogus.

It is when the State is supported by most that the terror begins for the resistance, because your neighbor is probabalistically your enemy.

So I will write up my notes, so that others can parse through and understand from a non-military, non-Holocaust, perspective on what living in Fascism was like, so that we can roll it back in the USA, stake it, cut its head off, and bury it at a crossroads at noon.

I miss Seattle. Better transit.

transit makes my life indescribably better.

I have relocated to Tacoma, Washington.

I have a moderately nice house. It is well insulated and keeps us warm.

The cats love it. The baby loves it. The wife loves it.

So now the hunt is afoot to find social activities.

I'm happy to host DW meetups. :)

still alive. still in the usa.

as the kid gets towards his first birthday, life is getting towards a new normal.

Painting is an ecstasy in control, chaos, and color, where every squirt of paint is its own story, but the tubes are old friends, your brush a trusted tool, lovingly cared for over the years, and the canvas a grizzled old opponent to wrestle with.

Oil spark off of the same flint and tinder programming does, that magic and mystery of a solitary challenge, with its own smell, tactile senations, and the fierce joy of solitary creation. 

I love it, fiercely, in a liquid and manycolored passion.

I have a son now.

This is mostly good. Except for the poop, puke, and pee. And the lack of language. And the lack of sleep. So maybe... it's good in a few years... And mostly potential today? Yes. That feels right.

But that's not what I'm posting about. I'm trying to find books to read to my boy - name of M - that weren't written in the 1920-1960 era. It can be picture books or chapter books; we read news to him, or textbooks, or essays, or the Wind in the Willows. He's quite young, so we've not gotten too fiddly about Age Appropriate Books.
 

I don't want my boy growing up to be locked into early 20th century norms
 Things like mom staying home. Things like boys and girls needing to fight. Things like everyone everywhere being white. Things like idolizing That Real Country Life. I grew up with that, and by and large I've had to break out of that. It's got its place, but it needs to be locates in the past where it belongs. Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn aren't good to read anymore when too young, because black people were treated real bad. M doesn't need to absorb those prejudices before he can question the text.

M should be reading - or have read to - books where brown people are heros. Where girls are fierce fighters.  Where Mom works. Where urban life is fun and enjoyable.  We will hit the racist ruralist ideolgies soon enough, and that's something I hope we can work through in literature before we do in real life.


I don't want to build a baby activist - that's on M to choose - but I want his early books to reflect the world we live in - Seattle 2017. Or NYC. Or Boston. Or Portland, OR. Or San Francisco.

Book recommendations requested!