Lisa Miller writes about all the names that Christians have adopted over the years. One that people are using now is “follower of Jesus” as opposed to “Christian” or “Evangelical.” On Facebook, there are more than 900 groups that use some variation of “follower of Jesus” in the title. This phrase has two main advantages over other names to describe Christianity.
“It doesn’t carry baggage. You can wear it abroad, in Islamic countries, or at home with your Jewish or Buddhist friends without causing offense,” Miller writes. The second reason is that it distances the person from the wars of American politics that have divided the nation. If certain political parties are considered Christian, people may shy away from it. However, if the leader only claims to be a follower of Jesus, people aren’t quite as concerned. The question that this idea of Christianity raises comes from within the church. Where does the church fit in this idea? Do the followers of Jesus regularly attend a church, and if so what kind? However, the people who call themselves “followers of Jesus” quote Jesus to give themselves more credibility; Jesus said, “Follow me.”

This article bothered me a bit. I don’t think that there should be such a thing as an in-between Christian. Being a Christian is something that you are 24 hours a day, seven days a week. I feel like they’re trying to find a way to have all the benefits of being a Christian, without having to take any heat from people who disagree with them. It’s a loop-hole; a way around Christianity, the church, and God. Religion shouldn’t be something you have part-time. It should be taken seriously, and it should be something that you feel and that you know is right. It’s not for appearances or convenience.

In “About Myself,” E.B. White writes about all the things in his life that are numbered. He starts by mentioning his height and his social security number. He writes about the balance of his taxes, his wife’s social security number, calling her US Woman Number 067-01-9807 throughout the entire essay. He mentions the district number he was born in, and his operator’s license number. He even gives details about the pills he and his wife take, listing numbers printed on the bottles. He lists the percentages of ingredients in the food he gives to his dog, and then goes on to explain a Purchase Order that he must take up at 5:30 in the afternoon.  White ends the essay by writing about the war he was in, and that he was soldier number 4,345,061. His final statement is that he was in world war number one.
I found this essay rather strange because there seemed to be more numbers written on the page than actual words. I think the point he is trying to make comes across very subtly, and he makes it in an extremely clever way.  By listing all the numbers that make up his life, he’s pointing out that numbers are what the people of the world have become. We are not people, but simply a long string of numbers sitting in a file somewhere. I’ve never really given much thought to this idea, but now that it has been presented in this way, I find it extremely true. Every person is born with a social security number, and we accumulate more and more numbers throughout life until they define us.

Young students at a few elementary schools in the area, including Forest Hills, are now learning in Chinese for half of the school day. With the Chinese program, students get to learn both the language and the cultural differences. It is important for kids to learn in different languages so that they can understand the a new way of being taught.
“The approach of the English classes is more nurturing and the emphasis more on individual achievement.  For the Chinese portion, I teach with techniques more typical in China, such as putting the children in groups and setting high expectations for respect and discipline,” says Fen Xing, the Chinese teacher hired by Forest Hills from Michigan State University.  She says that the students’ pronunciation is much better than others, who have tried to learn the language at an older age.
The students experience a number of things during their Chinese portion of the day, including color-matching games, discussions of the weather, math lessons, and songs. The students are learning a lot from the program and hopefully it will continue for many more years.
I always wished that my elementary school had a language class. Spanish was only offered from kindergarten until third grade, and much of what I learned I have now forgotten. It’s so much easier for kids to learn than adults, so it makes a lot of sense to teach children when they’re young. I think the Chinese program is a very interesting idea, especially because it is a language so different from English.

                From the time Michael was three, his bad behavior, random tantrums, and outbursts were an unanswered medical question. He missed 130 days of school one year because he had separation anxiety and couldn’t leave his mother. After years of medications and psychiatrists, doctors finally figured out that Michael had a case of juvenile bipolar disorder. Michael’s mother asked the doctor why no one figured this out before. Dr. Papolos used an analogy of a blind man feeling an elephant. “Obsessive behaviors, depression, and anxiety are only parts of the illness. If you look at them individually, you miss the fact that they are all part of the same disorder.” A few years after his diagnosis, Michael’s behavior dramatically improved. He began sleeping better and his meltdowns, which used to occur ten to twelve times a day, have decreased in number and duration. Michael’s mother is optimistic about the future. “I’m sure that medications will change over his life time. I expect a shot or a patch, or even some kind of brain fix, to provide him extended relief,” she says. Today, more and more kids like Michael are being diagnosed with juvenile bipolar disorder.
                I liked this article because it explained the hardships of raising a child with a disorder. I think many people take for granted that their children are “normal,” and I think I take for granted that I am “normal.” Luckily we live in a world where medicine can provide relief for those in different situations and, in cases like Michael’s, where doctors can figure out what is wrong. The article talked about Michael’s love for baseball and how when he was on the field, he was like a regular happy kid. This shows how although he was struggling at school and at home, there was still happiness in his life, and he continued to love and play baseball after his diagnosis.

                In this article, Lori Miller Kase writes about the five magic powers of a good night’s sleep. The first one is that it helps us live longer and healthier. The hours of sleep a person gets a night has decreased from an average of eight hours to seven hours in recent years. At the same time, there has been a rise in health problems, such as high blood pressure, which are now being linked to lack of sleep. The second magic power is that sleeping makes you look and feel better. When people are limited to only four or five hours of sleep for more than a few nights, they often get headaches and their metabolism slows down. We need growth hormones to appear and feel healthy, and the best way to keep a high level of growth hormones is a good night of sleep. The third power is that it makes people happier and less stressed. People who experience insomnia often have problems with depression and stress, and the best way to fix that is to get better sleep. Unfortunately for insomniacs, this doesn’t come easily, so it becomes a vicious cycle of depression and poor sleeping habits. Magic power number four is that sleep increases brain power. It improves memory, concentration, problem-solving skills, and mood. The fifth and final magic power of sleep is that it can help a person shed a few extra pounds. Sleeping well decreases an appetite for high calorie, sugary foods, and it keeps metabolism high.
                I find the benefits of sleep a very interesting topic, and I like the way this article was set up. It listed all the high points of sleeping well in bold headlines, so that even if someone was just skimming the article, they could still get the information. My favorite quote from the article is from a Harvard sleep expert names Lawrence Epstein. He says, “Getting more good-quality sleep is probably the easiest way to improve your health.” Having suffered from insomnia myself, I know this to be very true.  It’s incredible what good sleep can do for a person’s mood and ultimately improve their life-style.

                In a section of his book entitled “Glamorousness” Harris writes about the fashion and advertising industries and their effects on women.  He begins by implying that Botox injections are a result of the advances in advertising and make women want to look like the models in the photographs. He states that advertising has changed drastically in the last few decades and now portrays women as submissive, sexual creatures. He also writes about the fashion industry and how it has changed over time. If you were to attend a fashion show, the clothes you would see the models wearing would very rarely be worn by “normal” women. Harris writes, “The outfits of models pouting in chain-mail mini-skirts or strutting bare-chested down the catwalk in conservative business suits unbuttoned to the waist bear little resemblance to the wrinkled khakis, Lacoste shirts, down parkas, and baggy Polo sweaters found in most women’s closets.” He also mentions that fashion changes so quickly that women are constantly fighting with their wardrobes, trying to find something to wear that is currently in style. We find ourselves running out to the clothing stores to buy something new that in 4 months we will no longer want to wear. The fashion and advertising industries are trying to pull the wool over everyone’s eyes, making us think we want something when maybe we really don’t.

                I really enjoyed reading this book, but at the same time it made me realize how stupid I am for giving into everything that the fashion and advertising industries tell me to. I find it especially true when I look through my closet and see the clothes I had to have at the time, but now never wear.  It seems like the industries have this big plot to make women want to achieve something that’s almost impossible, and get us all wrapped up in ourselves just so they can earn more money. As people flock to their plastic surgeons to get the newest thing done to themselves for an insane amount of money, it is easy to see that both the fashion and advertising industries are accomplishing their goals.

James Thurber observes a couple fighting in their apartment and begins to wonder what started it all. Thinking about what he had seen, Thurber came up with his own set of rules to follow in order to have a good and happy marriage. His first rule instructs husbands and wives to avoid saying negative things about eachothers’ previous relationships. In Thurber’s second rule, he says that husbands should try to remember the names of his wife’s friends. He also says husbands should not publicly humiliate their wives. In his third rule, Thurber says that the husband should wait until they are home to humiliate her. According to rule four, making generalizations about genders, such as saying, “Isn’t that just like a man?” or, “Oh well you know how women are,” can make the man or woman feel inferior and possibly offended. Thurber’s fifth rule says that a wife should always listen to her husband when he is reading out loud to her. No matter how boring the article or story may be; wives should at least appear to be interested. In return, husbands should try to know where things are around the house, according to the sixth rule. That way, if they’re looking for something, they wouldn’t have to wait to ask their wives to come home in order to ask them. Thurber even suggests making a map of where things are kept for the husband. The seventh rule states that husbands should pay attention to what their wives are saying, and not just grunt responses. Rule eight says that wives shouldn’t be concerned if their husbands stop using pet-names for them. As long as they remember their wives names, there is no reason to worry. The ninth rule tells wives to support husbands in whatever they do, no matter how miserably they fail. The final rule gives advice to husbands, telling them to stay away from their wives dressing table or vanity. Thurber sums up his points by saying that some of them really won’t work, such as making a map for a husband to find something; he will just lose the map as well.
I think these rules are quite amusing. They aren’t the normal rules you hear in order to have a successful marriage. Although some of them are a little outdated, they can still be applied to marriage today. I’m not sure if women still have dressing tables, but if their husbands make a mess anywhere, wives today might be upset. In some of these rules, he makes things a little one-sided. Thurber says that men shouldn’t humiliate their wives in front of others, but women shouldn’t humiliate their husbands either. He also says that husbands should support their wives, and the same rule should be applied the other way around. Overall, I really like the rules he’s come up with. I think he makes some really good points, and over half a century later, they still make good sense.

This article from the Grand Rapids Press presents the facts about the damages that have been done by CO2 emissions, and how long it will take before the damages are reversed. Scientists recently said that it will take at least 1000 years to revert the carbon dioxide levels back to the way they were before the year 1900. Even so, after 1000 years have passed, it would be a miracle if the levels were back to normal. Looking ahead, the changes in our climate will persist, producing severe droughts in many areas of the world.
I think this article will be a wake-up call for a lot of people. It’s very frightening to think that the things we’ve done will be affecting people for the next millenium, and maybe even longer. We can try to change how we live, and recycle, or take the bus. But it wont have any imediate affects. The current CO2 levels have already promised us a thousand years of trouble, and our changes now wont do anything to alter that amount of time. This article really strikes me, and it puts the damage in perspective.

Murphy wrote this article about the elections being help in Iraq. It’s been a while since Iraq has had an election, and officials weren’t expecting things to go smoothly. It was thought that violence and protests would break out at the voting booths, but were pleasantly surprised when things went relatively well. There was some confusion when some peoples’ names didn’t show up on the registration list, though, and the voters were upset. Officials aren’t sure if the mix-up occurred at only a few locations, or if it was widespread and if the election could be altered because of fewer voters. Officials are worried about getting people to accept the election results as credible. They were hoping to convey a sense of organization and confidence, and came very close to achieving this. Said Arikat, a U.N. election observer stated, “By and large, the rules were followed. We weren’t aware of any confusion in the stations we visited, but I am sure there will be complaints.” However, when the Iraqis were asked about the election, they were very excited and happy that everything, for the most part, went well.
I believe that the problems with the registration lists could happen in any country. This election is a huge step towards Iraq’s stability as a nation, and the fact that the day went without violent outbreaks shows that they can take responsibility for themselves. They’re working towards a future where the United States doesn’t have to be involved. This shows that perhaps we don’t need to be over there forever.