Professor J's Place

An hour or so ago, a man I do not know went on a short Facebook rant about how #MeToo destroys creativity and victimizes men. Here’s my take on that: Guurl, it’s come to Jesus time. Let’s look at Al Franken, shall we? Many liberals think he was done wrong by the #MeToo movement.   He defends himself by first ignoring or dismissing some of the complaints and then arguing that the most detailed and original complaint was by a conservative plant. Okay, but why did you do it? What made you think it was okay to use your power to cross boundaries and treat someone in a way that made her feel uncomfortable? And do I want a senator who willingly abuses his power? It’s the same for Joe Biden. I don’t care if you’ve always been a toucher and a hugger. You should get consent first. I hear people say, “should he ask permission to hug people?” YES. When my pastor first came to my church, he asked me if I was a hugger. It’s what normal people do! What makes Joe Biden exempt from...

Today is Jan. 22, 2018. I have been sober for eight years today, and here’s my story. I first got sober on June 14, 1988. Flag day, for what it’s worth. At that time I lived in Omaha Nebraska. I went to my first meeting on a Friday night—at the gay and lesbian meeting in the cafeteria of a hospital— “Live and Let Live.”  I just looked them up, and they’re still meeting at 8:15 on Friday nights—sending love to you guys! Thank you! I became a daily AAer—sometimes more than one a day, but Live and Let Live was my home group, and there I met a group of other young lesbians who became my tribe. Men were welcome to our almost nightly coffee house meetings after the meeting, but the core group was about six women. I was “in the middle of the program” when I was younger. Daily meetings, daily phone calls, hiking together, going out to eat together. . . It was a good time.  During that time, I ended a long-term relationship and had a brief (six month) relationship. All ...

I wrote this to share with the deacons, and of course, that means you. I began with my favorite psalm, Psalm 42 I have always longed for some kind of relationship with the source, with God.  But I am inconsistent.   I believe. I don’t believe. I search for something else. I walk away. Paul Simon writes about my experience when he says “We are born and born again like waves of the sea.”   As a child, I attended Catholic church. I am old enough to remember attending Latin mass and covering my head with a veil in worship. I loved the music, I loved the scripture readings, and I loved the homilies. I’d come home and explain them to my mom (not that she needed my exegesis, but I guess that was a precursor to my later career as a teacher). I left the church in my teens. Literature, nature, and music became how I connected with God.  Some odd combination of CS Lewis and Godspell got me through my teens. I read and talked about God a lot, but I ha...