crazy week

This has been a crazy week.  First full draft of the dissertation is due today.  At the start of the week I hadn't had an intro or conclusion yet.  Still don't have a full conclusions.  Sara has been on service.  Oliver got his first stomach bug, complete with puking, and was home from daycare for a day and a half.  But here is a pic for the week...

Also, here is a funny video of Oliver standing up on his own (with some help balancing). I love his little grunts.

Not who, but what are you?

By popular request (as in 1 person...) here is a post about some of the work I have been doing lately.

Life is often busy.  Because of that I, like probably all of us, resort to quick, impersonal interactions with people.  When waiting in line at the grocery store I look at magazine covers and stuff like that, rarely acknowledging and even more rarely interacting with others in line.  When I get to the front of the line, I engage the clerk in a friendly, and largely meaningless conversation.

I struggle with this, however, because if you think about it none of these interactions mean anything.  None of them actually need another person.  For this reason for some time now I make the attempt to force their humanity upon those I interact with.  By that I mean that when I resort to depersonalized interactions with other people, they are doing the same thing.  In other words, both of us treat the other as an object of necessity and not a person, thereby also reducing our self to an object and not a human being.  So, when I interact with others, I try to avoid allowing them to reduce their self and force more than a mindless, automatic exchange with them.  When I say hello back to them and ask how their day is I always try to mean it.  I try to use their name.  I try to do something to pull them out of their automatic interaction, thereby also trying to pull them out of their automatic self objectification.

This same process happens in medicine.  It is not uncommon for a physician to interact with a patient and focus only on the symptoms of an illness that they have with a complete disregard for the patient's understanding of or experiences of those symptoms.  The patient is often reduced to a biological machine that is broken and needs to be tweaked in some way.  Patients also tend to learn this and so they will supply the information they think the Dr wants and act how they think the Dr wants them to - which often means they at that point see their self as a laundry list of broken biological processes and veil their self, their humanity.

Religious beliefs are very common in the United States, and as such, religious beliefs often undergird people's understanding of the world.  Those beliefs provide the meaning and color for their reality.  If a physician were to try and connect with a patient on a more personal level, beliefs and values may be one such personal dimension.  I have been finding, however, that how religious the patient population is actually has nothing to do with how often the physician talks about religion with patients or prays with them.  We could be talking about a physician who is in the middle of the Bible Belt and a majority of their patients are strongly religious or a physician on the west coast with a patient population who is largely non-religious.  It won't matter - neither impacts how often the Dr talks about religion and in some cases the more often a physician reports that their patient population speaks to them about religion the less often they reciprocate.  In other words, some dimensions of the patient's personal identity may not matter at all in clinical interactions and in some cases may be actively avoided by the Dr.  It is hard to avoid habitual, automatic, time saving interactions with others, but this may be costly on a personal level for both the patient and the physician in the long term.

full cup press

A little peaberry coffee for the afternoon homestretch...

pic

perfect word count

Check out the word count on this paper I am working on.  I feel like that is a sign that it is done and I should stop editing it.  That has to be good luck or something...

grading

When I was an undergrad, I remember thinking that papers were very helpful.  They force you to sit down and think through a topic in more depth than you would if you only took an exam or something like that.  So now that I am teaching, I think that papers are important for a number of reasons.  I now wish I had different opinions about assigning papers to students.  I really, really don't like reading massive stacks of papers.

Below is me happily holding all of the papers I graded this past semester.  Except for the small stack I found on a different desk (totally thought I lost like 40 or 50 final papers... that would have been unfortunate).  This is also minus the graded papers that students actually came to pick up.  I felt I needed to document this.

Erroneous and Skewed

We like categories.  Boxes.  Organization.  I get that and it is clearly necessary for social interactions to work because it lays a bedrock of working assumptions upon which a non-dysfunctional society is based. But it is also very hard to avoid dismissing things you do not like by automatically (miss)categorizing.  I have always tried to avoid labeling people/thoughts/ideas quickly without really thinking about the content.  Doesn't always work, but I try.

This is even more true now, I would like to think.  Since people have read about some research I have done, many avoid really thinking about the content of the research or the content of their own assumptions of how things work by quickly putting a 'yes' or 'no' label on both me and the work.  Me and the research have been put in every camp possible it seems.  An article I wrote for Christianity Today came out recently and I really started to think more about this after those comments.  There are probably a few things going on.  Many quickly react to the title and don't even read the article it seems.  Other read it but what they already think literally drives what they read, and read some of what is written in literally opposite of what is written.  This could be a clarity issue on my part, but still.  There are some really good comments, too, but they are less fun to post.  Here are a few comment-morsels for you:

• [this is a partial - the person goes on and on, but I have no idea why this is talked about - maybe they think I am a universalist?]  Jesus' parable of the wheat and the tares entirely contradicts the universalism of the liberals. So does his injunction not to throw pearls before swine, and his description of the Pharisees as 'offspring of vipers', in other words genetically cursed, and his parable of the 'wicked tenants' or 'wicked husbandmen', describing those who were attempting to usurp the kingdom.- the Edomites, descendants of Esau, described as a people God hates (Malachi 1:2,3), who had been converted to become 'Jews' in about 120BC.
• [I like this one, ha]  Wait wait wait... So you're upset that the author uses statistics to form conclusions? What else would you suggest? And nothing is "proven" in science. What the author is doing is using the facts to support her argument, explaining what they INDICATE. Your discernment is clearly hindered. Might I suggest some Bible reading to boost it? :)
• What an erroneous conclusion from what sounds like a skewed poll.
• [maybe my favorit one]  What a load of baloney. Liberalism is simply encouraging the Government to wrongly assume the role of the church. Keep Jesus out of your socialism.
• [again a partial, but even I am not sure what political viewpoint would be 'evident' and I wrote the thing]  Besides the likely problems inherent in the poll and thus the interpretation that others have pointed out, the political orientation of the author is evident. His criticism of Beck is misplaced, for instance....

complimentarian

The other day I went for a short run.  It has been a while, and I died.  I got to thinking about the fact that I have a fairly low tolerance for pain as I walked part of the run.   This relates also to normal work.  I have a low tolerance for pain in the form of studying, too.  This is why I will often take frequent breaks - especially when I am bored or tired of what I am doing.  But luckily I also seem to have a fairly high tolerance for stress.  This helps to balance out my low tolerance for pain when deadlines are only a few hours away (yep, today is one of those days!). 

But then last night, as 1:30 AM rolled around and my eyes were tired and burning, I asked myself whether or not it was a bad idea to be trying to finish the edits on the MA thesis and if I should stop until morning...

I decided no.

Because I am hardcore like that.

Dr. Franzen

So today was Sara's first day of actually Dr'ing. We had to take the obligatory first day pic, and just to show off the cool white coat she has. She is going to do awesome. Even more awesome is the fact that she has to work 17 days straight before she gets any days off, and even then it is only a weekend. On the bright side, she gets the whole weekend... both days right in a row (which is wonderful and enough of a treat that they call it a 'golden weekend')!



They embroidered her name on the coat all nice like for her even. That is one hot Dr!

the new job

So this week started a new job for me.  I now work at the Cedars at the JCA.  It is a place for fashionable old-folks - everything from assisted living to 24hr needs (there is a pretty good Alzheimer's population there).  

I do the staffing of all of their care staff (nurses and what not).  there is about 200 people that i am responsible for scheduling, and it is absolutely crazy.  I think it is crazy in part because i am very used to having a very, very good grasp on everything in my job and what all of 'my people' are doing.  not so here.  there is a massive mess of paper, sticky notes, and whatever else.  i think the crazy part will get better when i am there more, but also it just needs to be fixed.  i am really hoping to be able to set some policies and other things in place so that it can all run much more smoothly and especially be less confusing.  

one other nice thing about it is that i have to be there at 6:30am and, if all goes well, could get out of there at like 3:30.  that could be cool, but i don't really see that happening at all, ha.  

sorry this post is super boring.  i had a lot of trouble falling asleep last night, and so am kinda not not functioning on all cylinders today.

Lessons of Life

One thing that was special about working at Catering is that you had the pleasure of hearing a higher-up go on temper tantrums and tirades on a regular basis.  I think it was a mix of a lack of self control and a self-expression problem, really.  Anyways, we just got a new phone system not too long ago there, and one day they were having a meeting trying to figure out how to organize the automated directory for when people call in.  He got himself all worked up into a tizzy trying to make sure that we don't miss any calls at all because that is essentially like throwing money away, and money is the sole life-blood of Catering (really).  It is such an important call that he started to just say, "God is calling, what do we do to make sure we talk to Him?"  (reducing the person on the phone to money, and equating that to God.)  

The thing is, i am not so sure that he was speaking in hyperbole at all.  

Last night i was reading a book for fun (which was lovely, even if my choice of 'fun' books are, ahhh, not what most people would think of).  It is about the sociology of religion and forming a new, viable theory for future research purposes that has strong economic theoretical roots.  BUT, one of the propositions got me to thinking: "The greater the number of gods worshiped by a group, the lower the price of exchanging with each."

I think this is very true.  the greater number of 'gods' in our daily lives, the lower the price paid to each will be.  this is also not a new idea.  in martin luther's discussion of the first commandment he said, "Idolatry does not consist merely of erecting an image and praying to it, but it is primarily a matter of the heart, which fixes its gaze upon other things and seeks help and consolation from creatures, saints, or devils."  anything that takes a part of us, whether it be money, shoes, other people, the computer... anything, would then fall into this idolatry category and i think it is for just the reason that the proposition above states: the price people are 'willing' to pay that is left over for the God of all is that much less.  Paul also makes a very similar (same?) point in Col. 3:5.  

the other night i went out to dinner with sara with a group of interviewees for SLU's residency program.  one of the other kids interviewing there made me stop and think.  at first they were saying that he is a 'partial' vegetarian, which meant that he did not eat pork.  then when we were ordering drinks, we all got some kind of wine or cocktail and he got a sprite.  his identity as a muslim was something that was very public even though he didn't need to say anything about it.  it made me stop and wonder whether i live my life in a public way that makes it noticeable that i am a christian, or whether there are too many other things in my life that are thrown into the mix with God, thereby reducing the price i am willing to pay to him in a public way.  

Ode to Catering

Ode to Catering, originally uploaded by a b franzen.

Ok, so this really isn't going to be an ode, but it is almost as exciting as if i were able to write an ode.

yesterday i had an interview with an assisted living/nursing home type of a place that was looking for a staffing coordinator to run all of their stuff. a few hours after the interview they called me to say i got the job. i am super excited to leave Catering, finally.

it should prove interesting though, because it will mean the management of around 200 employees, and sometimes more. this isn't really too different from catering though, but they (there were three that interviewed me) did seem like they were a little bit stressed in in a hurry to get someone who knows how to do things in there (the other person has been there less than 90 days and is about to get canned). so, i think there will be a little bit of damage control and reorganization that needs to happen, which may be kind of fun because i guess i will have a lot of control over that stuff too.

so, it should be fun and interesting and i am excited to work in an organization who's goal it is to maximize people's enjoyment of life at a time that is hard to do so. also, i just need to clear up the work-clutter, because now i technically have three jobs right now (although Catering should be done for quite quickly).

two quick thoughts

So tonight i was reading a little more from The Irresistible Revolution and I came across a great quote from and old Dutch pastor, Kaj Munk: "And remember the signs of the Christian Church have been the Lion, the Lamb, the Dove, and the Fish... but never the chameleon." Far too often the church is full of people like me that accept their daily life, then go home to their own home, insulated from everything in the world. Of course there are always the problems that come up in one's life, but what are the on-going problems in my life when set next to those of one who doesn't have a dinner on a regular basis?

Shane says that he is more afraid of the suburbs than he is of living in the city because the death of the comforted soul is much more of a danger there. I hear that, but at the same time, to stay in the city is to, in a weird way, seek comfort. To avoid the painful numb of comfort by staying out of the 'burbs is almost no different. To be fair, i don't think that is really what he meant, but that is what it made me think about. It is for that reason that, to the dismay of my wife, i almost feel like we should go to a suburban, 'comfortable' church. I think someone with strong thoughts should be there to jar them back out of the chameleon's skin. Now I would just need to find someone less 'chameleoned' than myself to do it. (sara...? ;)

The other thing I was thinking about is something that i really struggle with and think a lot about. i never know whether it falls into the complaining category or not, and so i very often don't say anything about it. I have a strong dislike for my current job. yes, the one that just cut me down to 20 hours a week and expect all the same work. Anyways, this one made me think of my not-really-that-bad-even-though-work-sucks situation:
"The world of efficiency and anonymity dehumanizes us. We see people as machines, as tractors, or as issues to protest. We live in an age when machines act like people, and people act like machines. But machines cannot love."

there really isn't too much different this year as compared to other years at work. but there are dollar bills floating in the air and hours are being cut like crazy. they dont care about the people who do whatever they can in order to keep some kind of a job, taking home a never-increasing slice of the big-time increasing profits. When they cut my hours, my manager says to me, 'you were able to do your job in less hours while you were in school, you should be able to do it now as well.' that's right, why allow people to work at just a speeding pace when we can have them work at break-neck pace? why think about the health and happiness of the workforce when there are more pennies to be gained? I have seen too many people there get fired and not told about it, waiting weeks at times for another schedule that will never come. how is that responsible? how does that help the company? that person? their family? society in general? all for another penny. yes, these are the same people that i weekly have to decide who gets a shift to pay for the electric bill. they will find out soon enough on their own, won't they? the lucky ones that do get told, and are let go for a specific reason are not told why, typically. Yep, why try and fulfill our duty to help them become a better person and employee? after all, it may take 5 more minutes. 1 more penny.

if you can't tell i am deeply cynical about them right now. I just hope that there are still companies out there that actually care about the people and not just the pennies. I hope it isn't, as they say at work, 'all about the bottom line.' (sure isn't my bottom line it is all about) ok - i will stop now....