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[A potpourri of cultural observations, thoughts & trends] DON'T ASK, DON'T TELL
"In the social world I inhabit--a secular, careerist world of people who pride themselves on their cynicism--no subject of conversation (addictions, affairs, neuroses) is forbidden. Nothing that is, except religious faith.
WHAT EMPLOYERS ARE LOOKING FOR
A survey at Michigan State U. found that employers want new recruits to have an ability to write project proposals and to understand the business environment. They also value effective time management skills, initiative, teamwork, problem solving skills and critical thinking skills.
[Adapted from National On-Campus Report, July 1, 1997.] |
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[But] sometimes, when I am in the midst of yet another conversation about jobs or day care or what's in the paper, I imagine that all of us--not just me--may be secretly longing to ask one another, "How did you cope with this or that life crisis--not just professionally or psychologically, but spiritually? What does your faith consist of? What doubts are you struggling with? What answers have you found so far?" And yet, we are, spiritually speaking, in the closet; we can't ask, so we don't."
[Naomi Wolf in Mademoiselle, September 1997, quoted in Discipleship Journal, issue 202.]
A LETTER IS BETTER
One of the saddest casualties of the dehumanizing modern world has been [the] loss of the hand-written letter. . . . The average American receives only 4 percent personal mail, of which 3.8 percent arrives at Christmas time. . . .
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HIT THE STREETS!
"The streets are where the gospel story can most powerfully be heard and where God can most clearly be seen. In our comfortable homes and towering offices, the gospel may not make much sense, if we can hear it at all."
[Stan Saunders in The Other Side, Jan/Feb 1997, quoted in Current Thoughts & Trends, February 1998.] |
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Most of us ride off each morning to joust with the windmills of modern life: traffic jams, muzak, voice mail, fluorescent lights, faxes, word processors, etc.
We sit imprisoned in our climate-controlled offices with a styrofoam cup of coffee in one hand and a plastic mouse in the other, and throw open computer windows in our windowless cubicles. What a blessed relief when at last we limp home to our hearth and find a hand-written letter waiting for us: a real piece of paper, once wrapped inside a living tree, actually touched by human hands--not computer-generated or enhanced--but with the blood of a pen spilled out on the page in someone's inimitable scrawl. . . .
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Students at Stanford can now satisfy their one-year foreign language requirement by studying American Sign Language. |
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In the modern world, writing a letter is a corporal work of mercy."
[Thomas Ellefson in Caelum et Terra]
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