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Apparently, everything is Louisiana is going so well that the Senate and House can waste time, money and...you know...their children's intellectual future on yet another "let's teach creationism as if it were a scientific theory" bill. The republican governor (interestingly, a Hindu turned Catholic), is expected to sign the bill into law. The ACLU and an untold number of other rational organizations will then attempt to save LA from its own stupidity.

I know I have ranted about ID before (see, e.g., here, here or here) and will do my best to avoid doing so again. But. Errr. Ahhh. SERIOUSLY! What the hell is going through these people's collective heads? This is a state whose students score 44th and 46th nationally in Reading and Math, 50th in Advance Placement exams, and is second highest in the nation for the number of children living below the poverty line. Yet rather than spend time/money/effort trying to dig its schools...and students...out of the mire, they spend their time trying to further muddying their already murky educational waters. Twits.

England, rather recently, issued new guidelines to teachers on creationism and ID. They included a wonderful passage on what makes and does not make a "scientific theory":

The use of the word 'theory' can mislead those not familiar with science as a subject discipline because it is different from the everyday meaning of being little more than a 'hunch'. In science the meaning is much less tentative and indicates that there is a substantial amount of supporting evidence, underpinned by principles and explanations accepted by the international scientific community...Creationism and intelligent design are sometimes claimed to be scientific theories. This is not the case as they have no underpinning scientific principles, or explanations, and are not accepted by the science community as a whole.

Seasonal religious displays

Lots of bookstores have a Christian fiction section. However, in some areas it may be a good idea to have a section devoted to another religion rather than lumping it into the “other” section. Often you’ll see sections devoted to Judaism, Buddhism, Islam, or general “eastern religions”.

If you don’t have enough books to make it a standard section, so you may just want to do a display around the appropriate holiday when interest peaks. Here you can see a seasonal display aimed as unusual group, the Pastafarians:

This display pretty well hits the key points of a seasonal display.

• Food for the celebration - pasta & beer in this case

• History and biographies of notable members of the religion- pirates being the best choice for Pastafarians

• Items related to the religious tenants- thus the books on evolution, the US Constitution, satire, skepticism, and global warming

• A festive decoration- candy and pirates go together

You can use that basic list to set up a similar display to appeal to your local religious community. Make sure to set your display up at least two weeks before the holiday. For Pastafarians, you’ll want thins set up for April 1^st and September 19^th.

If you really want to go the extra mile, consider setting up a special holiday page featuring your selections. You can see an example of a holiday page. 

For more info on Pastafarians, be sure to visit The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster.

I just came back from my 2nd class of Creative Nonfiction writing. I had a long talk with the teacher after class about writing. She had said in class that in writing you have to risk ABSOLUTE VULNERABILITY. Now, this has been a theme for me lately. I have my sensitivity and I sometimes do put it out there. Do I have to develop walls to protect myself? And she said, no, I need to learn how to just detach from the work. Her goal as a writing teacher is to push students to be more vulnerable! Finally, my sensitivity works for me and always have. I think that works in art also, but many times with art, you can hide behind a cute picture. :)

We also talked about Authenticity. Another theme for me lately. She said to always write your truth or a piece won't reach the audience. Remember what I wrote about the key to selling your work? I found this quote in a good art book FINDING YOUR VOICE FOR PAINTERS, "Brian Davis tells his students, if you are not passionate about your work, it will come across. You put yourself in a big hole if you do things you don't love." Here the message from the writing teacher was a writing piece will have no juice, will basically suck, if you abandon your voice. I can say with all honesty that I have in the last year done many, many things because I thought others wanted it, but I didn't enjoy the work anymore. Or created some work because I thought it would sell. I think between this class and reading that book, I will find my authentic voice again in all areas. (Another book I'm enjoying on this topic is "The Not so big house". Stay tuned, and thanks for witnessing my journey.