One of my favorite blogs to read is guhster’s “On Race, Privilege, and Medicine“, and not merely because she’s a great friend of mine. Jess has a way of noticing all the little prejudiced insensitivities that permeate our society and our lives. Most of us brush such things off as “not a big deal”, but Jess tends to grab the reader by the collar and force them to admit that they are. She manages to avoid the peril of hypocrisy by being unflinchingly honest, especially with herself.
Her self-honesty is perhaps most evident in her writings on identity. A deep plunge into the core of one’s being is always scary prospect. Who knows what ugliness (or grace) might be found? Who knows what hurts have been buried out of sight and what joys have gone underappreciated? (Luckily,) she shows a good bit more courage than I do, and invites us to take a look with her.
Strangely enough, even though her blog rarely touches on religion (and she is, in fact, areligious herself), whenever I read it, I can’t help but reflect on my own beliefs. Perhaps trudging through the failings of (im)polite society reminds me that I am to be salty. That I am to bring light. And picking through the pieces of my life makes me ever more thankful that my identity ultimately lies in the fact that I am Christ’s.
Her insights and writings are well worth the read. (Even if they don’t inspire you to religion.)
The comments thread
Sunday, February 21st, 2010One of the reasons I migrated to wordpress was because I thought it’d be neat to actually have a functional comments system, as opposed to the xanga-crosspost-hack from before. But, what’s the point of leaving comments if they merely echo in the internet-void? So in horribly belated fashion, here are responses to all 13(!) of my comments. All future comments will be responded to in their original post. You should also take a gander at the new “latest comments” widgit in the sidebar, which will…have the latest comments. Thanks to everyone who has said Hi so far!
So, without further delay (in reverse chronological order):
Mac: Nice links, as always. How do you manage to read so much? (crossposted from facebook)
>>Thanks! I’m glad you enjoy them. I actually don’t “manage” my reading too well, since it tends to come at the expense of the rest of my life…but that’s a topic for another post.
Livia @ Livia Blackburne: Thanks for the plug. Proud to be the best (err, only) writing blog you know
>>No problem! You occupy a very special place in my blogroll. (That is, until one of my other grad-student-by-day/writer-by-night friends gets a blog as well)
Livia: I like these roundups. Can you release them more often? It’s alot of links to get through in one sitting.
>>I tried this time. I really did. Sometimes it’s hard to find time to post, so the links just start piling up…
Jen @ Tiny Urban Kitchen: This looks great! And your post was fun to read. Glad you and wyu had a good time. As for your photos, all you need is a little bit of post-processing (increase exposure & correct white balance) and they might actually look pretty good.
>>Wow, thanks! Coming from you, that means _a_lot_. Maybe next time I’ll try a recipe food post.
mmh: why are you not looking forward to anything in 2010? c’mon….
>>I was looking forward to things in 2010. It was just a lot easier to come up with 0 things than 10 things =b.
mmh: HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!! I hope you’re celebrating today & not reading a million articles. (btw, there’s a ‘read more’ thing in wordpress that looks like this: )
>>Thanks. Uh…gosh…I don’t remember what I did on my birthday. (And no, my lack of memory is not alcohol related.)
Lillerz: Well on the bright side, at least you’re graduating.
>>eh…not yet. one. more. year. Speaking of which, do I get to call you Doctor yet?
becks: Brilliant links – your blog’s a treasure trove of good stuffs.
>>ty. We aim to please.
mmh: thanks bro! you forgot to mention that the band is awesome & the video is the best mariah carey cover you have ever heard! ever! ^_^
>>np. Everyone, Last Year’s Model is awesome, and this is the best Mariah Carey cover EVAR. rawr. And in case you didn’t watch the video, shame on you. Here it is again.
flav: Sounds good to me!
>>Glad it sounds good. Does it sound accurate?
Jess @ On Race, Privilege, and Medicine: I sooo appreciate this post. And I so appreciate you. I, too, often ponder this idea of “neighbor” though I suppose without christianity to guide me I use the word “community” instead. The repercussions of our individual actions on neighbors that we have never met. How to live with that. How to make other people recognize how connected we all really are…
sometimes i wonder if we’ve all just gotten too far ahead of ourselves. There’s this economist, Schumacher, who believes that humans weren’t wired or built to really comprehend things larger than our own physical neighborhoods. The effects of globalization have been/are so devastating in some ways because it doesn’t come naturally to humans to think on such a big scale. In a nutshell, it’s hard for humans to care about people they’ve never met, so maybe we shouldn’t have the power to effect people we haven’t met.
i guess that’s a more pessimistic take on your optimistic spin.
whoops
>>I see your pessimism and raise you a bitter dose of reality. It’s not just “hard for humans to care about people they’ve never met”, we’re terrible at caring for the person down the street. Also that “power to effect people we haven’t met” is pretty pernicious. Removing it might come at the expense of bringing down modern society.
mmh: yay! wordpress is so much better, really… & if you’re uploading lots of photos, there’s a picasa plugin & the flickr slideshow looks pretty nice too.
>>Yeah…photos…oh wait, here’s one!
Museum of Modern Art, NYC, 12.28.09
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