Anthony Weiner. . . A Little Exercise in Cultural Discernment. . . .
For the last several days, I’ve been mulling over the most recent chapter in the ongoing saga of New York City Mayoral candidate Anthony Weiner. No doubt, Weiner’s story offers a peek into just how fast our culture is changing.…
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Death By Text. . . .
This morning I was reminded once again of just how much our world has changed thanks to technology. I was heading down the local interstate to meet a friend for breakfast in Lancaster. While I didn’t look at the drivers…
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A Youth Culture Peek Worth Watching Tonight. . . .
We used to call these “VCR alerts” here at CPYU. That was back when the VCR was cutting edge technology. I’m not sure what we are supposed to call it now that technology is changing at breakneck speed. For now,…
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James Gandolfini and the Cultural Autopsy. . . .
I never realized just how beloved James Gandolfini was until he died last week. Actors, musicians, and other pop culture celebrities are passing away all the time. But for some reason, Gandolfini’s death and the response to it caught my…
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Are We Systematically Killing Our Selves? . . .
Don’t you just love those “get smacked up side the head” moments? I had one this morning as a result of the convergence of Bible, book, and newspaper. It was a nexus that has given me such personal pause about…
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The Need For “Smartphone Control” . . . It’s All About Wisdom. . . .
It’s said that “wisdom comes with age.” That’s true. . . I think and hope. . . especially as I get older! I’m convinced that the more accurate statement is that “wisdom comes with endeavor.” I’m thinking here of the…
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Matthew Warren, His Family, And Guidelines For The Rest of Us. . . .
I’m not sure that I’ve ever wrestled with the title and content of a blog post with greater care or for a longer amount of time. Nothing about titling this post or developing its content seems right. I don’t know…
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Rutgers Basketball, Sport, and What Ails Us. . .
Anybody who’s watched the news, read the paper, or accessed any online news outlets this week knows that North Korea is making threats, that film critic Roger Ebert has died, and that Rutgers University has some major problems with their…
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Youth Workers, Digital Discernment, and Those Sneaky Isms. . . .
Last Thursday I blogged about the dangers of not paying attention to what life on the digital frontier is doing to us. . . and how getting sidetracked and losing focus can lead to some dangers. Let me propose that…
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The Bible and the Super Bowl. . . .
Most of us watched, didn’t we? And most of us watched the way we normally watch. . . disengaged. . . thoughtlessly. . . seeking to be entertained by the creativity (yes, some really great creativity!) of the stagers, the…
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Youth Workers, Aloneness, and a Grand Experiment. . . .
Last weekend, a perfect storm converged in my life that was quite telling. It all began with an ending. . . . the ending of my slow and deliberate journey through Sherry Turkle’s fascinating, timely, and thought-provoking book Alone Together:…
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Tragic Distractions. . . .
Every once in awhile a series of thoughts and events simultaneously converge to prompt a sense of urgency. That’s happened once again this morning. I went to breakfast thinking about some conversations I had last night after speaking to a…
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