I read an interesting op-ed entitled Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior. It really made me think, as I reflected on my life as a son, parent, student, and pastor of a multi-ethnic church. The writer, Amy Chua, admits to making sweeping categories of Chinese parents versus Western parents in terms of parenting style, and pulls a bit away from ethnic stereotypes when she states:
I’m using the term “Chinese mother” loosely. I know some Korean, Indian, Jamaican, Irish and Ghanaian parents who qualify too. Conversely, I know some mothers of Chinese heritage, almost always born in the West, who are not Chinese mothers, by choice or otherwise. I’m also using the term “Western parents” loosely. Western parents come in all varieties.
I took the last of my family, that was visiting for the holidays, to the airport at 5 am this morning. The house is fairly quiet, except for the washing machine and dryer, which will be cleaning and drying sheets and towels all day. My wife and I have our offices and bedroom back, and over the next week, or so, I will be taking down and packing up all the Christmas decorations. I am back to work, but fortunately my seminary semester has not yet begun, as I am fighting off the shared cold of my sisters-in-law, I think it will be at least a week before we are fully back to “normal” around the house.
We added three more stockings before Christmas arrived.
Recently, I have been asked numerous times, “So, do you feel like a father?” I heard similar questions after I graduated from college, after I was married, and after I was ordained. How I feel, was an awkward question to answer, because I did not have any baseline experience or feelings to compare. Each of those situations were new life experiences. Continue reading Call to Worship: I Feel Like . . . Me→
One of the most highly rated episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation is titled “Darmok.” Captian Picard must learn to communicate with the Tamarian Captain Dathon who’s language is based upon references to Tamarian epic stories, of which Picard knows nothing. Through a struggle, Picard learns the symbolic language, and in the final scene, is found in his “ready room” reading Homer, sharpening his own narrative skills for his next encounter with the Tamarians.
