the generalisto

beingblog: Is Our Political Identity Overtaking Our Religious...

Sun, 12 Feb 2012 23:31:25 -0600

Is Our Political Identity Overtaking Our Religious Identity When Choosing a Mate?

by Trent Gilliss, senior editor

Stephanie Coontz’s provocative opinion piece in today’s New York Times touches on some interesting dilemmas facing men and women in modern America. It’s well worth reading and is a fun conversation starter with your spouse and parents. But, it was the above infographic accompanying Coontz’s commentary that caught this editor’s eye.

For the most part, the top five traits that men look for in potential wives have changed very little in 70 years. In 1939, the five most important qualities were:

Dependable character

Emotional stability, maturity

Pleasing disposition

Mutual attraction, love

Good health

And, in 2008:

Mutual attraction, love

Dependable character

Emotional stability, maturity

Education, intelligence

Pleasing disposition

The big mover: education and intelligence. It climbed from #11 to #4. Good health dropped two positions, and I suspect will plummet further down the list in the coming decades. The romantic in me is heartened to see that love and attraction are sitting atop the field.

For the purposes of this blog, though, the precipitous drop in having a similar religious background and the slight rise in men seeking a woman whose political background is similar to his own is intriguing. It seems men’s personal identities are mirroring our larger cultural identity. As U.S. society has become increasingly divided and hyper-partisan in political terms, men are assigning more value to having a like-minded partner in the political persuasion department. Will this trait continue to rise in importance? I hope not.

Source: “Measuring Mate Preferences: A Replication and Extension” by Christine B. Whelan, University of Pittsburgh, and Christie F. Boxer and Mary Noonan, University of Iowa

Oldenburg’s cherry is never ignored on a winter afternoon....

Sun, 12 Feb 2012 15:24:14 -0600

Oldenburg’s cherry is never ignored on a winter afternoon. (Taken with instagram)

I’m surprised at how the top five traits men look for in...

Sun, 12 Feb 2012 08:44:12 -0600

I’m surprised at how the top five traits men look for in women has changed very little in 70 years. The big mover though: education and intelligence. Good health dropped two positions.

My baby takin cards seriously (Taken with instagram)

Sat, 11 Feb 2012 21:22:20 -0600

My baby takin cards seriously (Taken with instagram)

On the way (Taken with instagram)

Sat, 11 Feb 2012 21:19:44 -0600

On the way (Taken with instagram)

Saturday morning haircuts by Bella. Four heads, four colors....

Sat, 04 Feb 2012 09:27:21 -0600

Saturday morning haircuts by Bella. Four heads, four colors. (Taken with instagram)

A foggy St. Paul morn. (Taken with instagram)

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 07:40:43 -0600

A foggy St. Paul morn. (Taken with instagram)

Sunken freeways cheat our vistas. (Taken with instagram)

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 16:39:29 -0600

Sunken freeways cheat our vistas. (Taken with instagram)

Ice Rink Photo Poesy. Today, Rilke: “I live my life in...

Sat, 28 Jan 2012 11:05:37 -0600

Ice Rink Photo Poesy. Today, Rilke: “I live my life in widening circles / that reach out across the world. / I may not complete this last one but I give myself to it.” (Taken with instagram)

My goodness. This is a tragic political figure.

Sat, 28 Jan 2012 05:49:20 -0600

My goodness. This is a tragic political figure.

azmatzahra: A ravishing trailer for “Buzkashi Boys,” a...

Sat, 28 Jan 2012 05:16:56 -0600

azmatzahra:

A ravishing trailer for “Buzkashi Boys,” a narrative short film shot entirely on location in Afghanistan.

The film was produced by the Afghan Film Project, a “non-profit foundation formed to tell uniquely Afghan stories while building the capacity of Afghanistan’s fledgling film industry.” You can learn more and support them with their KickStarter campaign here.

Lucian + I went for a walk by the RR tracks in the woods. Found...

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 05:56:22 -0600

Lucian + I went for a walk by the RR tracks in the woods. Found a bike, metal sculpture, granite pavers, + a bat. (Taken with instagram)

Pass the Basilica each day on my way to work. Religion never...

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 23:20:02 -0600

Pass the Basilica each day on my way to work. Religion never felt so far away. (Taken with instagram)

beingblog: Unearthing a Cherokee-Slave Narrative at a...

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 12:40:07 -0600

beingblog:

Unearthing a Cherokee-Slave Narrative at a Plantation Home

by David McGuire, guest contributor

An exhibit detailing the construction of the historic house mentioned. (Photo courtesy of Chief Vann House Museum)

Some stories in our families, and in our culture, get passed down. Some lay hidden, or are actively forgotten. Public historian Tiya Miles has worked on the latter — unearthing the painful histories of African slave ownership by Cherokees in the 19th century.

In this short excerpt from our upcoming show, “Toward Living Memory,” Miles explains how one fragment of an archival document led to a meaningful change at the plantation home of Cherokee Chief Vann.

The boys set up a series of look-and-touch kiosks with paper...

Sun, 22 Jan 2012 11:28:35 -0600

The boys set up a series of look-and-touch kiosks with paper airplanes + sports drawings. (Taken with instagram)

The lights are on at the rink. (Taken with Instagram at Bryn...

Sat, 21 Jan 2012 06:30:02 -0600

The lights are on at the rink. (Taken with Instagram at Bryn Mawr Meadows)

Broom ball is back on in Bryn Mawr! (Taken with Instagram at...

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 17:51:29 -0600

Broom ball is back on in Bryn Mawr! (Taken with Instagram at Bryn Mawr Meadows)

The Rice Bowl 2012 calendar is hung with pride thanks to...

Tue, 17 Jan 2012 07:12:26 -0600

The Rice Bowl 2012 calendar is hung with pride thanks to @madisonleighk. (Taken with instagram)

Bill Kling of American Public Media, on Valuing Creativity

Tue, 17 Jan 2012 00:44:36 -0600

Bill Kling of American Public Media, on Valuing Creativity:

Wouldn’t you know it. Minnesota Public Radio’s grand daddy sat in The New York Times corner office this past weekend.

beingblog: The Day Martin Luther King Spoke to Me as a Failed...

Mon, 16 Jan 2012 19:07:00 -0600

beingblog:

The Day Martin Luther King Spoke to Me as a Failed Man

by Trent Gilliss, senior editor

Rarely are larger-than-life historical figures relatable as human beings. For me, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was a character of history books and film strips. A man to be admired for his empowering speeches and his inspirational marches. Although I knew he was a towering preacher, a man of God, I never thought of him as a person wrestling with his own weaknesses, grappling with his own frailties and contradictions.

That is, until I heard this part of his “Unfulfilled Dreams” sermon (audio above) given in the final months of his life:

“The question I want to raise this morning with you: Is your heart right? If your heart isn’t right, fix it up today. Get God to fix it up. Get somebody to be able to say about you, “He may not have reached the highest height, he may not have realized all of his dreams, but he tried.” Isn’t that a wonderful thing for somebody to say about you? “He tried to be a good man. He tried to be a just man. He tried to be an honest man. His heart was in the right place.” And I can hear a voice saying, crying out through the eternities, “I accept you. You are the recipient of my grace because it was in your heart! And it is so well that it was within thine heart.”

I don’t know this morning about you, but I can make a testimony. You don’t need to go out this morning saying that Martin Luther King is a saint. Oh, no. I want you to know this morning that I’m a sinner like all of God’s children! But I want to be a good man! And I want to hear a voice saying to me one day, “I take you in and I bless you, because you try. It is well that it was within thine heart.” What’s in your heart this morning? If you get your heart right.”

For a man without religious convictions or a spiritual mooring, I heard a sermon in that moment that spoke to my own vulnerabilities as a husband and a father, as a son and a friend. And he does it in the most honest way: by asking, at least in my hearing, for understanding and forgiveness from his congregation at Ebenezer Baptist Church — the church his father founded — in Atlanta, Georgia.

You see, I’ve never been all that comfortable with the language of sin. It’s often wielded as weapon in one’s quest for a supernatural resting place. So often this language strips a man of his dignity, makes him feel small, inconsequential, a cog in a nasty machine.

But Dr. King in this sermon elevates the human spirit by making himself vulnerable. The language of sin is human frailty united with goodness and desire. We long to be more than we are, and stumble many times along the way. Dr. King expresses that goodness and frailty inside all of us. He points the finger at himself. He holds my hand and says come walk beside me and take stock of your life. He tells me not to shrink but to acknowledge, repent, and stride forward. He lets me know that being one of the fallen is to be a divine creature. He lets me know that striving to be a good man, a good father, a good husband, is part of the journey — that one’s quest to be more than his basest self is redeeming, and flawed.

Dr. King’s context was the 60s and civil rights. You hear a gentle leader at his most prescient; he would be killed a month later in Memphis, Tennessee. The tension and anxiety in this sermon are palpable, thick with a foreboding awareness that his life’s work would be coming to an end.

His legacy today endures in so many ways. But, for me, it’s the preacher in the pulpit who called me back to my own humanity, rescuing me from abject despair. In that moment one spring night several years ago, he reminded me, “It’s alright. Keep on trying.” I want to be a good man.

Our colleagues next door at American RadioWorks just released a riveting documentary about the last year of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s life.