Elsewhere: Stuff I've come across

Speedsters in stiletto high heels ... whoa, look at the determination in their faces!

Oprah.com's 20 questions to ask before you get married ... amazing how many questions are really practical ones!

I occasionally catch Krista Tippett's Speaking of Faith radio show on the radio. More often, I'll hear it via podcast if the topic sounds interesting.

Really was moved by their recent program on L'Arche which are communities of faith where mentally disabled individuals team up with assistants who help them. As a "high functioning" scientist type of person, it is so easy for me to define my life by what I do. Listening to the show reminded me that humans have an intrinsic dignity and worth regardless of what one is able to do.

I also heard on podcast, Krista's discussion about Marriage, Family and Divorce from Jewish and Christian traditions. Not surprisingly, a lot of the thoughts were highly pragmatic compared to the idealized vision our Western media-soaked culture has.

One interesting section was a discussion on the familiar notions of love as eros, phileo and agape. If I heard him correctly, the guest put it this way, eros is the love of a man and woman looking into each other's eyes. Phileo is of two people side-by-side looking at the same thing. In marriage, eros will wax and wane but if phileo is gone, the marriage is dead. And he also, of course, talked of agape love and illustrated by describing what should he do when he is working in the study and his daughter interrupts him. He said, if I always respond to my daughter, she becomes a tyrant! If I never respond, she stops wanting to interact with me. Agape love is never easy; it is finding the right response for the situation so that the receiver of agape is bettered.

Came across this sweet story about a 42 year old football mom from Florida who spearheaded a fund-raising effort to build a football field for Barrow High School. Barrow as in the town at the Arctic circle of Alaska!

Diane has some strong feelings about the whole "emergent" church movement. Here are some of her bottom lines.

In this item, Dan Kimbal tackles the question of what is "core" and "not core" in the emerging church conversation.

Enjoy!