Finally:):):)...a new post:):):)...

Hey everyone:):):)...

I've been taking a break from blogging for awhile:)...I've been working on a theater project and I've needed a break from my academic writing, which I've played around with in this blog, a lot:)...

This has been a good time for me, lately...doing theater with friends...and friends with talent:):):)...it's a good show, I think:):):)...and I'm excited to be a part of it and doing new things with it:):):)...doing sound on it and finally getting to point where I felt pretty good about it also confirmed for me that picking up new skills generally involves just practicing them:)...

I've also been learning about the wisdom that was shared with me about a million times from a good friend of mine about a million times about learning about not trying to change people:)...learning to accept them:)...

Education and policy, both, can be really self-righteous fields, just up front:)...they are often crusading fields where people are trying to change the world and can often get pretty full of themselves in the process:):):)...I know I was when I was in grad school, more...which is why my outlook on life is so much more liberal and broad and open and accepting...however you want to say it...because I've got a chance to see just how differently people interpret life...and how the worst of those interpretations are not the ones that seem strange or irregular or even, often, cause for fear to the political crusader...the most dangerous interpretations are self-righteous and often just catty interpretations by folks too careless with power...I think the power of liberalism and a liberal society is creating more space to avoid as much of this kind of power-mongering and cattiness and ugliness as possible:)...the limits to that ability, I'm learning, lie in the limits of our imaginations to be more decent to one another...

I had a talk, recently, with someone who described smoking in public as "criminal behavior"...she wasn't talking in jest...but I do think this person has gotten in the habit of having opinions and just wanting to get her way rather than deal with inconveniences that she doesn't like...I listened to one man, recently, talk about all the ways that they could punish a person, legally, who he felt had done him wrong...he wasn't making a joke...he was just full of himself, in the moment, looking to hurt someone....

I'm not quite sure why so many people see hurting others or killing people or limiting peoples' freedom -- when it can be avoided -- as laudable or courageous or whatever other kinds of bullshit reasons people give for being such pricks...

I just know that an awful lot of people -- myself included in the past -- have really awful tendency to hurt people or limit their freedoms to live their lives as they please...and a liberal society offers us the opportunity to limit, mitigate, or let go of that tendency altogether, depending on what we ultimately choose to do...

There is no ultimate definition of "being good"...but we can all do good while still giving people room to be themselves and be human if we try, I think...

OK...that's enough of that, for now:)...

My writing and teaching and living and whatever I end up doing are centered around being more decent and less self-righteous:)...and appreciating life better as it comes:):):)...

I'm hungry:)...I've got to go:):):)...

For anyone in Lawrence...

EMU Theater is performing Talk Radio for the next two weeks:)...I'm playing Spike, the soung guy and doing sound work:)...Andy, our fearless hero, is doing a marvelous job of playing Barry Champlaign, I think:):):)...I think's it's worth coming out:):):)...

The info is:

Talk Radio
ECM (Ecumenical Christian Ministries)
12th and Oread
December 3, 4, and 5 and Dec 10, 11, and 12
8PM

Hope everyone is doing well:):):)...

Talk with everyone soon:):):)...

Love,
Ben