chris and becka warner

Since it might be two years before our next visit home this short trip to Kentucky was really special for me. It gave us a chance to hang out with good friends and see our niece and nephew. My nine-month-old niece, Anastasia, is really getting big! She’s wearing a solid 2 T in everything now, and is nearly 25 pounds. She loves to eat table food (especially bananas) but still enjoys her “ba ba” (”ba ba” is what she calls her mom when she wants some milk!). Here are a few pictures from our trip.

So I bought some organic, natural, aluminum-free deodorant. I’ve been a user of antiperspirant for years, but these days our family is trying to think a little more carefully about what chemicals we are exposing ourselves to. There’s been some research out for a while now about the link between antiperspirant and cancer. Five years ago my mentality was, “yeah right, I don’t care.” Maybe I’ve matured, or maybe it’s because there are so many medical types in our family, or maybe it’s because of Aidan. But it seems like a lot of Americans (thanks to the Chinese manufactured lead toy debacle) are wondering about all the chemicals we are exposing ourselves too and waking up to the fact that there is whole lot we don’t know. This whole discussion would have flown right over my head, being the ignorant chemical consumer that I am, but the cliche is true: having a baby definitely changes the way you look at the world. Some of this stuff is downright scary, when you consider that we know so little about it.

I actually stopped wearing deodorant when we were living in Africa because it seemed to be an exercise in futility. Once we got back in the states, however, I picked up the old antiperspirant, the social pressures being what they are. Maybe it was just my imagination, but after going “natural” for so long, wearing antiperspirant felt like the equivalent of rubbing petrol on my underarm. I thought switching to a natural deodorant would be an easy, painless step in the right direction. I headed to our local natural/organic health store. (We have only one that I know of in our town, and it is ridiculously overpriced and understocked. For those of us who have been exposed to Trader Joe’s, it’s a total letdown.) Immediately I knew I had entered into an alternate universe. All the deodorants had scents like “extreme pine”, “basil and lavender”, and “tea tree oil.” I went with a natural “tea tree and blue cypress” underarm medley. It was the only thing that I remotely could imagine smelling all day (well, there was unscented, but that’s no fun.) It was three times the cost of my antiperspirant, but hey, you can’t put a value on health, right?

So that’s it. Mostly painless, and easy enough. Except for one thing. IT DOESN’T WORK. After just two hours, let me tell you, I do not smell like tea tree and blue cypress. I smell like expensive, organic, totally natural BO. Maybe I should have gone with “extreme pine.”

“The most difficult subjects can be explained to the most slow-witted man if he has not formed any idea of them already; but the simplest thing cannot be made clear to the most intelligent man if he is firmly persuaded that he knows already, without a shadow of doubt, what is laid before him.”

Leo Tolstoy from The Kingdom of God is Within You

Chris and I were listening to a sermon the other day. It was actually about prayer, but the speaker spoke briefly on narrow-mindedness, and mentioned that a number of studies have shown that our brains are hard-wired to be narrow-minded when it comes to what we believe. His comments got me thinking about my own experiences; and how little reason had to do with the formation of my opinions and beliefs on certain issues. So I decided to do a little research on the subject.

What I found shocked me. When we are faced with evidence that conflicts with a belief that we hold dear, instead of rationally thinking it through, we tend to respond emotionally. Many scientific studies (which I cannot pretend to completely understand or explain intelligently, so if that bothers you, feel free to do your own research!) suggest that the brain responds with strong emotion, like anger, avoidance, or denial. In essence our brains, if left unchecked, will reject evidence that contradicts our beliefs while accepting faulty evidence to support them. This tendency has many names: the confirmation bias, myside bias, the Tolstoy syndrome, to name just a few. For a much better explanation, you can read up on this here.

After reading just a little of what is out there on this subject, I’¢ve gone back to some of the most important moments of my life and realized that there was a confrontation of what I believed to be true and what is actually true. It’s scary to think that I was so convinced of something that I know now is not true.

I can remember the first time I discovered that God the Father looks just like Jesus (you know, the same Jesus who forgave the woman caught in adultery, hung out with prostitutes, killed his own reputation with religious and political leaders to stay true to God’s will, touched lepers and preached good news to the poor and the outcasts of society; that’s the Jesus I’m talking about). I knew that Jesus was good, but I still had some doubts about God the Father. I had developed some beliefs that left me open to a lot of fear. I was afraid that I wasn’t quite accepted by God and that I needed Jesus to protect me from God’s anger over my sins (it never occurred to me that this made God into a schizophrenic!) But Jesus, if we believe what He said about Himself, actually looks just like the Father. He said, “He who has seen Me, has seen the Father” (John 14:9) When someone began talking to me about the radical, loving nature of Jesus,

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The frog from hell: Beezlebufo

This book just came out and the reviews are saying it’s a good introduction to/summary of the emerging church movement. You can read a chapter here.

Freedom fighter or hacker thief?

This optical illusion is a great example of how culture influences perspective.

The tiny kingdom of Bhutan “…tries to join the modern world without losing its soul.”

A conservation success story.

Zimbabwe’s inflation hits 100,000%. (But the picture with this article is an interesting choice. I’m not sure I would look that happy if I was in similar circumstances.)

The Zimbabwes of the world aside, is life on earth generally getting better, or worse? BETTER, at least according to this article. (but maybe your eschatology tells you otherwise!)

Is violence increasing or decreasing? In light of history, is society today more or less violent? LESS, according to this guy.

Barna on Americans embracing alternatives to conventional churches.

Jesus and politics: I want to read these books.

I don’t think this picture was photoshopped. I bet this guy posed for it:

 We’re on a short road trip this week, and Aidan is definitely enjoying himself. He loves to ride in the car and listen to music (though so far he’s slept through most of the driving). He also seems to enjoy being in new places and being around new people. He’s been especially interested in looking at all the new lights and colors. Today he met his cousin’s on Becka’s side for the first time, and I think both he and little Anastasia got their moms confused! Becka’s sister has a swing just like ours, so Aidan was also reunited with his favorite little fish mobile (he spends hours at home watching the fish go around). Hopefully he will do this well on an airplane!