The Tao of iPod, part one

(Our UU church is currently lay led, and Sunday was my turn to present a sermon. What follows is the first part of my presentation. If you'd like to read the full piece, let me know and I'll email you a copy. Or we'll see... maybe I'll add the rest of it here, later.)

The Tao of iPod
Annie Welsbacher, First Unitarian Universalist Church, Wichita, January 25, 2009

Gadgets: The downfall of a free society, electric litter paving an inexorable path to our culture’s moral, intellectual, spiritual, and inevitable destruction.

If you are an American living in the 21st century, you likely have fretted over this topic, or some variation on it. You might even have done more than just fret: read stories online, e-mailed, pod-casted, text messaged, twittered, Googled, or pontificated on your cell phone about it—possibly while driving somewhere that you found with the help of Mapquest.

Oh, you worry: Your kids can’t do their homework without at least two electronic doodads playing simultaneously, friends who used to talk to you in person now mass-e-mail you slightly off-color jokes, God knows what sorts of cancerous rays are toasting your brain cells every day.

This isn’t at the top of the list of any sensibly paranoid 21st-century American—far too many other horrific dangers beckon to us daily, from human warfare to the poisonings of our planet’s great life-giving gifts, to the snuffing out of our collective thinking skills that the modern cults passing themselves off as “media” inflict upon us.

But it’s there, lurking below the surface, this vague worry that all these toys can’t possibly be good for us. They’re diluting Art, reducing it to snappy tunes and pyrotechnic tricks; they’re stealing away our reading time, replacing it with the popcorn of TV commercials; they’re sucking us into the capitalist evils of American excess and damning us to live out golden days that will be consumed with the work of disposing of all the junk we accumulated, and that now corrodes in our basements.

But wait. It occurred to me—while jogging along the wildflower-strewn bed of what once supported railroad tracks laid down for a form of transport nobody uses anymore—that I have heard all this before.

I grew up in an academic 1970s household, and remember parties at which people stood around imbibing white wine and martinis, rueing the ruination of our society’s culture. A popular refrain of the day was: “Theatre is Life; Film is Art; Television is Furniture.”

I distinctly remember my father—who, if you press him on it, will acknowledge that he has a PhD, but who in general has little tolerance for anything even mildly effluent of pretention—saying to me that when somebody furrowed an eyebrow at him and uttered that “television is furniture” bit, he liked to smile sweetly and reply, “oh, I’ll watch any old crap”—except he didn’t use the word “crap.” He said this usually shut them up so he could go back to watching Bullwinkle or Hee Haw or the WSU football game with a clear head.

(end part one)

The Color of the Future, by Marj Kyriopoulos

The inauguration of President elect Barack Obama has a personal meaning for me.

I am a single mother (now grandmother) who raised two children in the midst of a recession that followed another unnecessary war—the war in Vietnam. I have been an Obama supporter from the moment he announced his candidacy in Springfield, IL and each day, I see a piece of the change Obama has inspired.

As a child, I grew up in a ‘big, fat, Greek family’ in the middle of Salt Lake City, Utah. The discrimination I experienced growing up Greek gave me a glimpse of what it must be like to grow up in this country as an African American. For me, it was the color of my hair that made me different—not the color of my skin.

In 1997, my son joined the Peace Corps. He was sent to Banikoara, West Africa, where he worked on a reforestation project that continues to this day. He also fell in love with a beautiful young woman, Azarath, who was born in a nearby village. Eventually, they were married. My grandson, James, who is now five years old, was born in West Africa. During long-distance conversations with my son, he remarked that James is “the color of the future.”

That phrase stuck with me. I googled the phrase and discovered a book written by Farai Chideya in 2000, who refers to the "Millennium Generation" of blacks, whites, Latinos, Asian-Americans, Native Americans, mixed-race persons and others, both native- and foreign-born, who are “…more likely to interact with people of other races and backgrounds than other generations."

The inauguration is not just personal for me. It is personal for my family. James and his mother jumped for joy while watching TV in Minnesota on election night while my son was in Washington DC interviewing for a job. Change is in the air. People see my son and his African wife differently now, my grandson is very aware that he is “brown,” like Barack Obama, and my daughter-in-law is energized and proud to become an American citizen. Her citizenship interview is scheduled for next month.

The inauguration is so personal for my son’s family that they decided to travel to Washington DC by train, just to be near this historical event. James tells all his friends at school that he is going to President Obama’s inauguration. If I could give my grandson a gift he would remember for the rest of his life, it would be a ticket to the inauguration of the 44th president of the United States, a man who is also the “color of the future.”

Cruel Critics

I've written several modest books for children, high-school kids, and "reluctant learners," which is the nomenclature for teenage boys (they are usually boys, apparently) who read at about a fourth-grade level (among topics for that market were monster trucks and predators such as sharks and other fierce animals presumably of special interest to these lads). People get excited when I tell them this, but in truth there's not a lot of art involved in these little projects. My editor contacts me every few years, assigns a topic for a nonfiction book that will be marketed to school libraries, tells me how many chapters and pages and that it has to include a final chapter about what kids can do and other stuff, I research it and go nuts trying to figure out how to cram information - often newsworthy information, meaning it gets old rather fast, much faster than the production time for writing and printing a book - into the formulaic outline I've been given ("no sentences over 13 words, no words of more than 3 syllables," that sort of thing), I write the damn thing and swear never to do this again, and then, a few years later... rinse and repeat. I'm not proud of some of my past efforts, but others, well, I'm glad to have them on a few library shelves.

Every now and then my publisher sends along a review. Most are quite cursory and rarely even mention the writing. So it is with mixed feelings that I share this one, which actually does, albeit mercifully briefly. Ah, well, there's always next time. P.S. Somebody is paying 30 bucks for this book?!

Booklist – December 1, 2008
Earth-Friendly Design.
Welsbacher, Anne (Author)
Oct 2008. 72 p. Lerner, library edition, $30.60. (9780822575641). 745.2.

"This slim title in the Saving Our Living Earth series examines “how we make things, move them, use them, reuse them, and dispose of them affects us all.” Each brief chapter introduces green innovations in categories such as vehicles and community planning. The dry language and short sentences often feel stilted, but the fascinating examples of technology, illustrated with numerous color photos, will draw readers into the facts. Additional text boxes and diagrams on subjects such as “the life cycle of a product” add to the lively layouts. — Gillian Engberg"

... and another, just in

And here's another review, from VOYA (Voice of Youth Advocates), "the library magazine serving those who serve young adults." Hmmm. "Too much information"? What was that line to Mozart about his sonata having "too many notes"?

VOYA – December 2008
Saving Our Living Earth. Twenty-First Century/Lerner, 2008. 72p. PLB $30.60. Glossary. Index. Illus. Photos. Biblio. Source Notes. Further Reading.
3Q· 3p· M
Welsbacher, Anne. Earth Friendly Design. 978-0-8225-7564-1.

"This series focuses on green lifestyles and preventing global warming. Presented in glossy full color, the books' short chap¬ters include large photographs and sidebars on every page. They also include glossaries, "going green" tips, how to write to legisla¬tors, and annotated webliographies. Design starts by describing in dire terms the envi¬ronmental reasons why such designs are imperative. Chapters then cover green vehi¬cles, earth-friendly products, green buildings and homes, communities making a differ¬ence, and possible future green designs. Pros and cons are included. The clear and simple writing is packed-sometimes overly so¬with information and concrete examples of companies and organizations implementing green designs. Although the information is useful for illustrative purposes, unfortunately it tends to sound like product placement. Nevertheless the book will make readers think about the life cycle and resource con¬tent of their products, and it will be useful for middle school reports as well as browsing. Other series titles cover energy, waste man¬agement, air quality, and rain forests among other topics.-Rebecca C. Moore."

By the way, "3Q," for quality, means "readable, without serious defects" and "3P," for popularity, means "will appeal with pushing." Ah, well, at least it wasn't a 1P ("No teen will read unless forced to for assignments") or a 1Q ("Hard to understand how it got published, except in relation to its P rating, and not even then sometimes"). Onward and upward with the arts!