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Thin Places

Bible Study and the Secretary of Education

I recently joined a team of writers who are making connections between the Bible and the news. I will be posting on a regular basis at www.theparkforum.wordpress.com, and I will add a link to this blog whenever a post appears. My first: http://theparkforum.wordpress.com/2009/09/13/armstrong-intuition-or-revelation/

I’ve felt like a failure recently. Well, at least a few weeks ago I was feeling like a failure. I had spent a year working on a proposal for a new book. My agent sent it out to dozens of editors. Lots of them responded well. I was sure a contract would follow. But in…

Every so often, people ask me spiritual questions. One that comes up again and again is, “Who do you think is going to heaven, and who is going to hell?” My short answer is, “I’m an agnostic.” I know that “agnostic” is usually a word used to describe whether or not people believe in God.…

William is now thirteen months old. We’re out of the newborn stage, thank the Lord. If there’s one thing I now know for sure about myself, it is that I am not a “baby person.” The cuddling is nice, I suppose, but a) William rarely cuddled and b) I like talking with my children more…

NPR ran a story tonight: “Rethinking ‘Retarded’: Should It Leave The Lexicon?” (http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=112479383). I wrote a response: “You’re such a retard” implies, “you’re acting the way I imagine someone with an intellectual disability would act.” “That’s so retarded,” a more passive usage, implies, “That’s messed up in a way that reminds me of people with…

There’s an email that floats around, especially among those of us who have children or siblings or other loved ones with mental disabilities. It is sweet and endearing and describes an adult woman’s love for her brother. Early on, she says his mental age is 8. She goes on to explain what he does every…

I drive to the Emergency Room with William. I know the route now, due to Penny’s ER visit and subsequent hospital stay last spring, so I no longer have to worry about the unmarked roads and whether I’ll make a wrong turn in the “bad” part of Trenton. I drive past housing projects. I don’t…

She meant well when she asked. “How high-functioning is your daughter?” I didn’t think much of it as I replied, “Oh, she’s very high-functioning. Her intelligence is at an age-appropriate level. The developmental delays she experiences are related to motor skills. She can’t jump or run very well. She can’t whistle. That kind of thing.”…

(I’ve written about this before, but I think it is worth mentioning again.) It happens all the time. Someone refers to my “Down syndrome child” or says, “They have a child who is Down syndrome,” or “She’s having a Down’s baby.” Or I read it in Time magazine or a newspaper article. Before Penny was…
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