At the Islamic Center

A friend of mine invited me to the Islamic Center in Charleston, WV last weekend.  I had never been to a mosque or been involved with Islamic practices so I was happy to share the time with my friend.  When we arrived, we had a few moments to participate in the evening prayer.  Of course, I did not participate, but I was invited to remove my shoes and sit on the side as the men prayed.  It could have been an uncomfortable thing for a stranger to be in their midst during worship, but the men, once finished praying, almost universally greeted me and shook my hand.  And why not?  In a way, I was surprised at first.  My Muslim friend and I are good pals, but I still had this odd thought in my head that these men would be somehow different than other “regular” men.  I suppose most of that feeling is related to the ongoing battle between our country and extremist terrorists.  These folks at the Islamic Center couldn’t be any more different than the terrorists who claim to be fighting in the name of Islam.  That is an important distinction that I strengthened quite a bit as the evening progressed.

The Imam, Mohammad Jamal Daoudi, invited two Muslim speakers, Dr. Jerald Dirks and his wife Debra,  to open a dialog between Christians, Jews and Muslims regarding their shared history.  Dr. Dirks’ talk was entitled “Common Ground Among the Abrahamic Faiths:  The Judeo-Christian and Islamic Traditions”.  There were people of all sorts of religious backgrounds at the meeting including Muslims, Christians, Jews and Ba’hais.

Dr. Dirks described the shared Old Testament history that is common to Jews, Christians and Muslims including Isaac and Ishmael, Abraham and Sarah and many others.  His goal was not to equate the religions or to say they were really all the same, but to educate folks that all three religions, in their true forms, have many similar teachings, morals and goals (such things as do not commit adultery, do not murder, worship one God, build strong families, etc).  Dr Dirks suggested that there are many areas where the three religions agree and, if people chose to, could work together to make better communities.  All three religions, in their pure forms, can agree that strong families and communities are good.  All three can agree that people should treat one another with respect.  All three can agree that extremist violence has no place in the world.

Dr. Dirks suggested that where the three religions see eye to eye, they should work together to reach common goals.  Of course, the three religions do not see eye to eye on many things, and in those areas, adherents of the three religions should agree to respectfully “do their own thing”.  He never suggested that anyone in any religion should be lukewarm or wishy-washy in regard to their beliefs, but just respectful of other folks.

I still do not know a lot about Islam, but I think I learned that there are plenty of good Muslims out there and many of them want to understand other people and live peacefully, just as I do.   It was inspiring and wonderful to sit in one room with my friend, among Christians, Jews and Muslims and to listen to each other.  I think the world could use a lot more of that…

4 Comments

warren, March 19th 2010 | Tags: , , , ,
Posted in Thoughts

Sleeping is weird

Sleeping is biological and necessary and all that but it sort of cracks me up how weird we are when we sleep…by “we” I really mean my family.  I sleep entirely normally.  Anyhow, last night I went up to check on the kids and noticed Abigail in one of her crazy sleep poses.  She was a terrible sleeper as a kid but she seems to have turned a corner…most nights she sleeps all night.  Now she just seems to go into “bunker” mode at night.  She still talks in her sleep but it’s usually pretty interesting so I see nothing weird there.  Anyhow, in bunker mode, I think she surely must be protecting herself from Madeline.

Madeline, you see, is a needy cat.  She also sleeps weirdly.  When we first got her, she was very young and sucked her tail every night.   We took her to numerous cat psychics and analysts and, after spending our kids’ college funds on it, they concluded that she was taken from her momma at too young an age so was consoling herself with her tail…sort of like a kitty pacifier.  So, imagine your restless cat who sucks her tail at night waking up in a fit and smacking you in your sleeping  face with a tail full of cat slobber…it’s not pleasant.

Now Isaac is consistent in his sleep weirdness…he sleeps on his stomach under double the blankets that the rest of us use.  I am certain that I would suffocate under the enormous weight of the blankets but he seems to thrive.  It must be 110 degrees under there but he sleeps like that year round.  Actually , I figure that the heat from the blankets works like a kid-greenhouse.  The kid grows like mad and I am convinced that it’s blanket related.  He already wears the same size shoes I wear and he hasn’t even hit puberty yet!

I won’t give details on Emily but let me assure you friends, she is a weird sleeper too.  Now, I can almost guarantee that she is going to get on here and leave a comment saying some untruths about me.  Something like that I snore at night.  It’s simply not true .  That’s Mo (the cat) who snores.  I am a perfect sleeper!

5 Comments

warren, March 4th 2010 | Tags: ,
Posted in Fun, Thoughts

Clipping my toenails

I was messing around the other night on facebook (definitely an evil place) and I was pretty bored…so I updated my status to “gonna clip my toenails”.  A friend suggested that I blog about it and it occurred to me that I have strong opinions about toes…and feet…and actually, ankles too.  You see, I really, really hate feet.  Baby feet are ok but once a person starts to support their own weight on their feet, all bets are off.  Feet turn instantly gross and get worse as time goes on.

I know some people have a “thing” for feet but I truly don’t understand.  Most people have funky, crooked, hairy toes with nasty toenails and crusty heels and stuff growing between said toes (well, maybe most people don’t have all of those, but any one of them disqualifies feet for me).  I did a (very) little bit of looking for pictures of feet that I could use as examples but could not continue.  Please, I beg you, do not search google images for “feet” or “toes”…honestly, it isn’t really safe to search google images for much of anything, but what I found was particularly disturbing.

Anyhow, since I have to clip my own toenails regularly, I have grown accustomed to my own feet and can go on with my day after a trim (and after a good hand washing).  The kids and wife are on their own though.  I can handle belly button lint and ear wax and those little white crunchy things you sometimes cough up from the back of your throat…but toe jam?  The horror!  No chance!  I figure that there must be some traumatic event in my history that made me like this because my brother shares a similar aversion…

Ok, that’s probably a whole lotta too much information, but in the interest of transparency, I thought you should know.

Anybody else share my madness?

12 Comments

warren, February 26th 2010 | Tags:
Posted in Thoughts

Everyday Math

The kids bring home papers from school and, like most parents, we look over them to make sure they are doing well. Most of the stuff is pretty typical fare, but I can’t get over the math papers that Isaac brings home. You see, he is being taught Everyday Math…it’s a curriculum that is mandated by the state (or maybe county? I think state) and it is crazy. The whole idea is to do math problems that one might encounter in their day to day life.

I am not exactly sure how I feel about it. I know the teachers are mandated to teach math using the curriculum so I do not blame his teachers one bit. I honestly doubt they like teaching it either. Anyhow, let me give you an example:

Directions: Estimate the answer. Write a number model to show how you estimated.

Problem A: A prairie vole (a mouselike rodent) has an average of 9 babies per litter. If it has 17 liters in a season, how many babies are produced.

Isaac’s number model: 10X17 = 170
This answer was marked wrong
The “correct” answer: 10X20 = 200
The real answer: = 9X17 = 153 (Isaac’s answer was closer)

I understand that the idea is to round numbers so you can get an easier problem that is doable in one’s head…but let’s give a little credit here…most 4th graders can handle 10X17!

Problem B:  In the next hour, French people will save 12,000 trees by recycling paper.  About how many trees will they save in two days?

Isaac’s number model: 50X12,000 = 600,000
This answer was marked wrong
The “correct” answer:  50X10,000 = 500,000
The real answer: = 48X12,000 = 576,000 (Isaac’s answer was closer)

There were 5 problems and Isaac “missed” 3 of them.  Now, I love learning to estimate.  It’s super helpful when I am at the grocery store, but this stuff is absolutely ridiculous!

I learned to estimate very well after I learned how to actually get the right answer!  Isaac and most of the other kids do know how to get the right answer, but they are definitely not as fluent with it as they should be.  So, as long as the kids need to estimate their grocery bill, they will be well equipped (although Isaac may be too accurate).  However, if we need to build a bridge or send a woman to Mars, she is out of luck…though I figure we can get her close…

I don’t often rant on here but why on Earth are the powers-that-be messing with math programs that taught engineers and scientists to build great dams, and discover new medicines and send men to the Moon?  Surely the times have changed since then, but those “old” techniques worked.  Update the problems…kids don’t need to know how to calculate how many bales of hay can fit on a hay cart, but they do need to know how to calculate!  I truly don’t blame teachers.  Most of them are disgusted by it as well.

Okay, I am going to stop at that…there are other similar examples of how the new curriculum is making math less useful and more difficult, but I’ll save that for another day…

12 Comments

warren, February 25th 2010 | Tags: ,
Posted in Thoughts, WV

Poop = Spring

Sunday was absolutely beautiful in WV. The high temperature was in the 50s and the snow started to give way to small signs of spring. Daffodils are breaking  through the ground and my bees were able to get out of the hive to poop. Bees, you see, won’t poop in the hive. They also cannot fly outside in cold temperatures. Bees are cold-blooded so if they break the cluster (bees cluster together very closely in the hive in cold temperatures and rub together using friction to stay warm all winter), they very quickly slow down and die. What’s a bee to do then? Well, they hold it of course…sometimes for months!

See it? Yellow spots...both sides in the snow...relief!

Why am I fascinated with this?

So, it always brightens my day in the early spring when I see yellow…I love the yellow of daffodils, the yellow of forsythia, and the yellow of fresh bee poop!  When temperatures rise such that any of my three yellows are possible, I get out and frolic a bit (not like the rabbits frolic of course).

Fifteen minutes after I washed my car!

I washed Steve Sunday morning and parked it in the driveway so I could watch it shine in the sun.  Much like birds are able to find a clean car, so too can bees.  Of course, remember that there can be as many as a quarter of a million bees in the hives at my house…and all of those bees have had their legs crossed for a long time.  My formerly green car now has a yellow tint…but you know what…I love yellow…it means spring!

Smart pills!

Emily says I am preoccupied with poop and animal anatomy so you can imagine my fascination with this pile of deer poop in my yard.  My Dad used to call those pellets smart pills.  I don’t think they really worked very well, but that’s another story.  Anyhow, Momma deer are now with fawns so my finding smart pills gives me hope that I will get to see newborn fawns again this year.

Oh yeah, check out this bird’s song!  Beautiful…and very springy!  Charleston is starting to break through I hope (though we have snow forecast for the rest of the week…but I choose to ignore that).

By no means do I want my yard overrun with natural fertilizer, but I have to tell you, a little poop means spring and in my book, that’s a great thing!

5 Comments

warren, February 23rd 2010 | Tags: , ,
Posted in Audio, Bees, Nature, Thoughts

Lovin’ the hog

I love Groundhog Day. It’s the most important of all the holidays for me. Family times and grand meals are nice and all, but I really just love that noble hog of the Earth, Punxsutawney Phil. I grew up in Yankee-land and was used to snow (take note…I was used to it). It seems like we had snow from Halloween until Memorial day. When I was a kid, I sort of liked it…I guess. We played outside in the snow until we couldn’t feel our fingers and toes…and for some reason, we called that fun.

Now that I am an adult, I have a little sense…not too much, but a little. Sensible people know that snow is not a good thing. Polar bears have awesome fur coats for living in snow. I, on the other hand, have a naked head…definitely not built for snow.

Every year I sort of dread the coming of winter. In fact, like the snow schedule of my childhood, I start to dread winter for most of the month of October until…Groundhog Day. I sort of like Phil, partly because I am a former Pennsylvanian, and a dadgum Yankee (reformed), but I especially like Phil and Groundhog Day because I feel like the “ugh” of winter has a chance of lifting. You see, I fully believe that the proceedings in Punxsutawney are binding and true. Phil’s prediction is real and accurate and I get hopeful that he may, in fact, lift the gloom of winter…so Phil, from Southern WVA, we’re counting on you!

Update: Phil…why do you hate me so?

9 Comments

warren, February 2nd 2010 | Tags: , ,
Posted in Thoughts

On dental floss

I am Joe Q. Public.  I put my pants on one leg at a time.  I like hamburgers on the grill.  I cry when I watch Old Yeller.  And, like most people, I didn’t used to floss my teeth.  It’s a pain in the hind-end and it’s a bit gross.  I am stubborn though so when my new dental hygienist got on the old, “you have to floss or your head will rot and fall off” train, I decided to prove her wrong.

Clearly, this stuff was invented during the Inquisition

It’s not like I never flossed.  I flossed regularly for the week before I go to get my teeth cleaned and likewise the week afterwards.  With my Invisalign teeth aligners, I am supposed to brush and floss every time I hiccup anyhow, so I had additional motivation to floss like responsible teeth owners are supposed to do.

Dental floss technology...it amazes me!

I quickly found that the old-school floss was not gonna work long-term for me so I went in search of new flossing technology.  I found “the floss stick” as I like to call it.  It takes the guess-work out of flossing (did you know there is guess work in flossing?)  No more trying to figure the best way to get your big hairy hands in your mouth just right so you can get your back teeth.  No more accidentally cutting off all circulation to your index finger when you wrap it just a little bit too tight.  No, no, those days are over!  With my new floss stick, I can floss (and floss well) all the teeth in my head…faster than green grass through a goose!

The heads swap out so it isn't gross!

I haven’t yet been back to the hygienist, but I am sticking to my flossing challenge thanks to the flossing stick.  I am sort of torn…in one way I want to prove her wrong about flossing, but in another, I am pretty excited to have good teeth and to get accolades from a near-stranger as she dances around in my mouth.  Only time will tell, but I am sold on flossing now that’s it’s easy (and I don’t have to taste my hairy hands!)

11 Comments

warren, January 28th 2010 | Tags: , ,
Posted in Awesome, Fun, Thoughts

It’s weird

It’s weird…last year I had tons of stuff to talk about.  I had projects and ramblings and thoughts (yes, I even had thoughts…but that was last year).  This year, I feel busier than ever but I have nothing to show for it…or nothing interesting anyhow.  My days are consumed by that pesky work thing and my evenings are taken up with kids’ practices of various sorts and the remodeling of our house.

I dig remodeling the house…mainly because of all the money I save and because I can do it right, but it’s so uninteresting.  I suppose I could post pictures of the new board I just installed or pictures of the paint drying, but I think that might not be much fun.  Don’t get me wrong, I love to watch paint dry (or is it that I like the fumes?), but it’s hard to capture that delight on film.

Although things seem less interesting blogaliciously speaking, I think I am more pleased with the large scale tinkering rather than the small scale tinkering this year.  I sort of feel like an exhibitionist (no comments) sharing all sorts of stuff on here…and enjoying it.  But since I feel like I have less to say, I wonder if I have gotten more boring or if I just ran out of crap to brag about.  Anyone ever feel like that?  I mean, when I go to the Y to exercise, the old men there lead me to think that they are more into “openness” rather than being closed off (for the love of pete…close your towel…or even more importantly, wear one when you sit on the chairs in the locker room reading the newspaper for half an hour), so I don’t think I am all of a sudden getting shy…maybe just boring.

Well, enough of my rambling…do you folks like to watch paint dry…or have you seen yourself change as time goes by?

7 Comments

warren, January 23rd 2010 | Tags: ,
Posted in Thoughts

I swore…

When we were first married, we declared, as self-righteous, young, newlywed folks often do, that we would live our lives differently than folks who are so busy they don’t have time to sit down and enjoy the good stuff of life.  We swore we would not do what other people do.  When the kids were younger, we had little trouble in keeping their time free for things they wanted to do.  Most of what we did was about what they wanted to do for fun, which happened to line up with the whole “live simply” thing I had in mind.  They played outside on the swings and rode bikes.  It was so simple and perfect.

Of course, they are getting older and are influenced by all sorts of things around them.  They still like to play outside and ride bikes, but now they also want to take lessons…taekwondo and aikido and ice skating and violin and archery and soccer.  We are becoming scheduled.  At first, I was sort of irritated about it and thought that we surely must be ruining our kids by running them all over creation to do this and that.  But now that we’ve been at it for a little while, I look at it differently.  Just as it was about what the kids wanted to do for fun, so it is now.  Fun is just different.

To be sure, I definitely think that kids and parents can become over-scheduled and over-stressed, but I think if the cards are played right (as I hope we are doing), being involved is an opportunity for kids to explore.  It’s not exploring like they did in the back yard, but it is exploring the world in a way.  Taekwondo is taught by a Korean master.  Soccer is coached by a former professional player from the African continent.  They are finding what they like and don’t like but they are also seeing a larger world while they are at it.

When I think about it, I enjoy seeing the kids explore and learn and grow.  We still play together, albeit differently.  We can laugh and talk and enjoy things…just different things than just the back yard.  So, in a way, I sort of long for “just the back yard” but it is thrilling to also be a part of all of us going “out there” too.

So what about it…do you enjoy kids’ activities or is it too much?  What sorts of things do your people do?

14 Comments

warren, January 13th 2010 | Tags: ,
Posted in Adventure, Thoughts

Soles 4 Souls

We braved the cold and snow this weekend to go to church as we do most weeks.  We were pretty proud of ourselves for being among the hearty few who risked life and limb to get to the church a few minutes early so I could hit the pile of donuts before all of the kids ran their somewhat less than germ-free fingers all over the pile.  It felt like pretty much every other church service at River Ridge.  I don’t mean to say that church is boring exactly…but it is usually pretty comfortable and predictable.  We do contemporary music exclusively and it is well done.  As KISS says, if it’s too loud, you’re too old…that definitely applies to River Ridge.  But church is comfortable and easy most weeks.

Anyhow, after the singing and such, I settled in to listen to the preacher talk.  I had a belly full of donuts so I felt pretty content.  He gave his sermon which centered around the idea of doing something radical to make a difference.  Now everyone says that in church.  And in most typical churches, if anything at all comes from it, radical means something like clapping to the beat during a song or maybe someone swaying a bit or even giving an “Amen”.

But at the end, the preacher did something a little different (which is typical at our church).  He told everyone about an organization called Soles4Souls which collects new and gently used shoes for people living in impoverished areas who may not have shoes.  And then, he asked us, if we felt so moved, to leave our shoes in the barrels at the outer doors.  No one knew in advance so folks had their normal shoes on (not old clunkers).  His point was that giving your shoes, whatever shoes you had on, was radical at first blush, but in the grand scheme of things, a small gesture for most people.  But the impact it could have in the lives of other people could be enormous.

I had my very nearly brand new tennis shoes on and Abigail had on her favorite cowboy boots.  I have to tell you, at first, I really wished I had worn a different pair of shoes, but as I thought about it, I am pretty glad I wore my new ones.  I don’t care who you are or what you believe or don’t believe, if you take a moment to think about it, giving your shoes away changed a life for the better somewhere in the world and that makes it worth doing.

So, we left our shoes and walked across the parking lot barefoot in 16 degree cold…and we got a lesson, albeit a brief one, in what it might be like for someone if we hadn’t given our shoes.  What seemed so radical at first, really was such a simple thing…

edit:  Some more details

10 Comments

warren, January 12th 2010 | Tags: ,
Posted in Thoughts
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