Tag Archive - hope

Sudden Loss

June 2, 2011 in General with 0 Comments

Bonnie Ponce

Bonnie Ponce urges Relief readers to pray for the people who have been hit hard by the recent tornadoes. There seems to be a lot of natural disasters happening lately.  Joplin, Missouri was hit hard by tornados last week and the Springfield Massachusetts was also hit hard.  In times of natural disasters we see so many tough pictures of destruction and chaos.  Families left homeless or a loved one gone, they are stunned by how quickly their lives changed for the worse in a matter of minutes.  But also there are pictures of hope, people gathering, hugging, praying, and handing out food and water to survivors.  It is in the times of greatest loss that people often turn to God.  In loss we realized that we are not self sufficient and able to hold everything together and we search for answers.  The deepest longing of our hearts wants to know that God cares about us, our hurts, pains, loss, and needs.  So I challenge you to pray for the people of Joplin and Springfield that they would be comforted while they rebuild their lives.

Bonnie Ponce is the Director of Support Raising for Relief and lives in Huntsville, Texas with her husband and betta fish.  She has a BA in English from Sam Houston State University.  After work she enjoys relaxing with a good book or working on her novel.

Hope Springs Eternal (from the Superficial)

January 19, 2011 in General with 0 Comments

Stephen Swanson

Stephen Swanson relishes this time of year: a time of awards, good intentions, and hope.  He believes that shows, like the Golden Globes, the Miss America Pageant, and the Bachelor not only fill our time but also our lives.

Amid controversy about Ricky Gervais’ hosting of The Golden Globes, the possibly worst set of “talents” ever displayed on the Miss America Pageant, resulting in the crowning of the youngest Miss America ever, and perhaps the dumbest Bachelor ever (or are they the dumbest Bachelorettes?), it would be easy to give up on things.

If I add to this the new book out showing that I might be devoting my life to a complete waste of time, as students learn mostly nothing at college, then it might be even easier to just say…pooh!

But I can’t.  I just can’t.  I know that this season of American Idol will be a complete debacle without anyone Simon-ish to reign in the Hollywood dream factory, but I want to watch the train steadily ignoring the “Bridge Out Ahead” signage.

What’s my secret?  Well, there are a couple of things.  First, there is a hope built into this sort of cycle.  There is a realization that sometimes things can surprise you.  Steven Tyler might come out tonight and tell contestants to stop dreaming and grow up.  I doubt it, but it’d be cool if he did.

The hope comes from two main sources.  First, hope comes from the succession of exciting things coming up.  We’ve got the playoffs in the NFL, Valentines, the Oscars, March Madness, Easter, opening day of baseball, mid-terms, and a new dedication to trying to at least work out twice a week.

There is not time to give up.  One can shift from hope to hope like when video gamers desperately lean to try to get Mario over the gap that he jumped just a pixel or two too early.  We can lean a long way before we collapse around July.  We can keep moving forward in an effort to maintain momentum.  And, sometimes it works!

Secondly, and perhaps more powerfully in the long-term, there is the comraderie of watching the oncoming, impending doom.  You can turn to the person beside you and give a look that says, “This is REALLY happening!”  The look also says, “Thank goodness we’re not on that train.”  And, for a second before the horror hits, we find comfort together.

I do not, obviously, mean to imply that Miss America or The Bachelor is like a train going off a cliff.  It’s nothing like that at all, but it takes so much more time to explain to students and people around you about what’s going on in Haiti or Tunisia than why Brad does not deserve to “win” anyone, even these women who’ve asked for it.  It’s so much easier to give the context of Hollywood wheeling and dealing around the yearly awards than to discuss the federal budget, healthcare, or education.

Therefore, I take momentary hope and relief from the grind towards the lowest common denominators of disorganization, incivility, and violence to just complain about the sparkly, red rose on Natalie Portman’s dress and gossip about how it could be that we didn’t know she was pregnant. It’s just easier to keep with the flow and to hit only the most recent and superficial of information, to go with the “gut”.  The brain and logic only get in the way of fun and living.

Stephen Swanson teaches as an assistant professor of English at McLennan Community College. Aside from guiding students through the pitfalls of college writing and literature, he spends most of his time trying to remain  aware of popular culture, cooking, and enjoying time with his wife and son. He holds degrees in Communications (Calvin College), Film Studies (Central Michigan University), and Media and American Culture Studies (Bowling Green State University. In addition to editing a collection, Battleground States: Scholarship in Contemporary America, he has forthcoming projects on Johnny Cash and approaches to analyzing detective narratives in terms of ethical responsibility.


Lent: The Ultimate Sacrifice

February 25, 2010 in General with 0 Comments

Stephen Swanson, despite his public expressions of dislike of columns governed by the calendar, writes about a personal struggle with “snark”.

“Snark”, a Definition and Use

In addition to the definitions from urbandictionary that I link to above, I think it important to give a personal definition in order to further what might be perceived as an overly general terminology.  “Snark”, the combination of “snide” and “remark”, fills a large quantity of time in on-line communication and chiefly serves as a tone for self-righteous indignation and belittling of others.  For that reason, my omission of snark for the coming weeks might appear as a wholly beneficial enterprise, and to some degree, they have significant points.

At the same time, my snarkiness also serves as an outlet of frustration and a mask for more overtly offensive reactions to others.  Rather than calling someone an idiot or just staring at them aghast and their comment question, I can compose a snarky reply in my mind which I will post later.  It allows for some degree of fantasy play where I star in an amazingly hilarious sit-com filled with cutting commentary and insightful absurdity.

The Cost of Snark

However, as with all fantasies, there remains a significant price to be paid.  Just like hours-upon-hours of GTA can breed a desire to not stop for a stoplight or an urge to pull in front of a better car and pull the driver out to claim their wheels as your own, snark can explode or, in my case, leak.

I find myself leaking snark in a variety of ways.  First, I make noises.  A not-so-subtle “humph” or a snicker that is not quite masked by a cough can emerge at the most inopportune times, faculty meetings for example.  Second, my eyes tell my story.  It is not just the huge eye-roll of adolescence.  Even a looking away or a squint can be noticed and queried by a friend, student, family member, or coworker.  It’s unavoidable.  We are conditioned to pick up non-verbal cues, and when they are left unexpressed, the audience can interpret them as they will, often to my own detriment.  After all, people will often assume the worst when left to their own devices.

What to Do?  What to Do?

Well, I’m hoping to employ a two-pronged approach.  First, I’m going to work on composing the snark into specific communications, things I CAN actually say or write to people.  This will not only still allow me to think and create an outlet for my feelings but also force me to channel that into something public and more productive.

For example, this week in a college meeting, I was growing increasingly frustrated at the lack of direction in the meeting.  We’d been there two hours and not really made any progress.  A member of the campus communications and marketing area was having a devil of a time of pinning faculty down on who they were supposed to reach out to and what the message needed to be.  Generally, I would spend that time creating snark.  It’s fun.  It makes for good bar/party stories and generally makes me feel better.

However, it does not really solve the underlying problem, and that’s the problem that I’m really seeing with snark, especially when compared to effective satire or critique.  It papers over the issue and ignores the underlying causes, and I’ve determined that these sorts of communication represent central concerns in any hope in overcoming significant issues to our culture today.  It’s much easier to snarkily point out others and label them as such.

As I tell my students, it’s easier to construct a fallacious argument or a general opinion than it is to construct something thoughtful and useful.  I need to give it a try.  I need to cage the snark.

***

Stephen Swanson teaches as an assistant professor of English at McLennan Community College. Aside from guiding students through the pitfalls of college writing and literature, he spends most of his time trying to remain  aware of popular culture, cooking, and enjoying time with his wife and son. He holds degrees in Communications (Calvin College), Film Studies (Central Michigan University), and Media and American Culture Studies (Bowling Green State University. In addition to editing a collection, Battleground States: Scholarship in Contemporary America, he has forthcoming projects on Johnny Cash and depiction of ethics in detective narratives.

Relief News Tuesday 1.12.2010

January 12, 2010 in Author News, Relief News, Staff Posts with 5 Comments

Congratulations to Allison Smythe!

Congratulations to author Allison Smythe, whose essay “The Significance of Place” (Relief 2.1) has been listed as “Notable” in Best American Spiritual Writing 2010 (now published by Viking Penguin).

Best American Spiritual Writing is an annual anthology edited by Philip Zaleski. Out of hundreds of essays, thirty were selected for publication in this year’s edition, and another twenty-five (including Allison’s!) are given honorable mention as “Other Notable Spiritual Writing of the Year.”

Another notable item

As you may have noticed, we haven’t featured a photo haiku on the blog in two months.  We are doing our best to bring this feature back, but we did notice something that we thought you might like:

Michelle Pendergrass, Editor of The Midnight Diner, has started her first in a year-long series of themed photo postings on her website.  This week’s theme is Hope, and Michelle’s picture of it is beautiful.  (The story behind it makes it even better!)  Check out her picture here.

As of right now, there are two people who I’ve found that took up the challenge.  One is this post from Karina, and the other is this post from Heather A. Goodman (whose poetry you can find in Relief 3.1!).