Category: Right living

Ten non-resolutions for 2017

So, it’s 2017 now. I’m in that group of people who wants to make New Year’s resolutions, but doesn’t keep them well. I’ve made ill-fated resolutions about losing weight so many times that I’ve given up on them. I’ll try these ten non-resolutions instead: Try to keep my sodium intake down. That should help with… Continue reading Ten non-resolutions for 2017

Working to help the hungry: thoughts public and private

I live in Washington, D.C., and I care deeply about my city. In particular, I hate when it becomes an eponym for political misdeeds or a focus of scorn. Remember: the 600,000-plus people of the District of Columbia don’t even get voting representation in Congress. And the Congress reserves for itself the power of our… Continue reading Working to help the hungry: thoughts public and private

Free your mind from commercial occupation

My “Occupy mind” is moving from plowing (attracting attention through encampment) to planting, even if the seasons belie the metaphor. It’s time to develop concrete actions to match the feelings stirred up in the last two months. A political response is natural, and I expect you to keep pressure on your congregational delegations with respect… Continue reading Free your mind from commercial occupation

Chinese prisons keep slavery alive

It’s hard to see the “reeducation through labor” prisons in the People’s Republic of China and not see slavery. These laogai prisons not only detain people — including prisoners of conscience, including in Falun Gong and Christian believers — but then sell their products overseas. So some of those cheap Chinese goods come not simply… Continue reading Chinese prisons keep slavery alive

Occupy: D.C., New York, Davis or where-have-you

I’d hate for my readers to think that my few comments about the Occupy movement suggests I’m uninterested. Far from it. Indeed, I’m very mad and deeply concerned about yesterday’s pepper-spraying of student demonstrators at University of California Davis. Google for it, if you’ve not seen this now-iconic photograph. But I comment mostly by Twitter,… Continue reading Occupy: D.C., New York, Davis or where-have-you

Linux, Microsoft users: protect yourself against repetitive stress

I had a harrowing day today at the emergency room. All is well — better safe that sorry — but at the very least, let it be said that I should mitigate against eye and neck strain. Coming home, I re-installed a piece of software I once used: Workrave. It forces you to take short… Continue reading Linux, Microsoft users: protect yourself against repetitive stress

History needs to repeat: a ministry for affordable housing

I was reading the Universalist Register for 1912 to plan ahead for blog posts for next year. (What I don’t do for my readers.) I noted a ministry affiliated with the old Massachusetts Convention: The Bethany Union for Young Women. Its object is to maintain a home for respectable young women who are forced by… Continue reading History needs to repeat: a ministry for affordable housing

Good, best campaigns for women with obstetric fistula?

I can think of few medical conditions as debilitating — but treatable — as obstetric fistula, and I’d like to do a part to help. In the Wealthy West, it doesn’t ordinarily come up in discussions of reproductive health or choice, but that’s what it seems like to me. An obstetric fistula is a hole between the… Continue reading Good, best campaigns for women with obstetric fistula?

My Lenten practice

Still getting my feet about putting longer-format, more-theological works at my RevScottWells.con blog. That’s where I put “At Lent: less meat, less Google“