Indigenous Type
Aug. 29th, 2025 06:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
https://www.typotheque.com/blog/cherokee-osage-and-the-indigenous-north-american-type-collection
Little smiley chap wanted to take a photo with me this morning.
Original
is here on Pixelfed.scot.
August 29, 2025
READ: 2 Samuel 6:1-2, 6-15
David went to bring up the ark of God from the house of Obed-Edom to the City of David with rejoicing. 2 Samuel 6:12
During his church’s fall retreat at a nearby camp, Pastor Jeff took a walk with my son, who led him through a wooded trail to the outdoor chapel. Suddenly they came upon the ark of the covenant! Of course, it wasn’t the real ark but a life-sized, gold-colored replica begun by my husband years ago, with Jeff’s encouragement, and recently completed by my son as a surprise.
Jeff was so thrilled he hurried to enlist others to help him bring the ark to the camp dining hall. What a sight to see the men carrying the ark down the road as two of the pastor’s little grandsons trailed behind hand in hand!
Scripture tells of the joyous occasion when the real ark of the covenant, which symbolized God’s presence with His people, was brought from the house where it had been kept into its proper place in Jerusalem, “the City of David” (2 Samuel 6:12). King David was so overjoyed he danced “before the
Years later, the Israelites were taken captive to Babylon, and Jerusalem was destroyed (2 Kings 25). We don’t know what happened to the ark. Legends abound, but we no longer need it to enjoy God’s presence (John 14:16-17). Through Jesus’ death, resurrection, and sending of the Spirit, God is with all who believe in Christ. That’s an excellent reason to rejoice!
— Alyson Kieda
How does it impact you to know God is with you? When have you felt His presence?
Dear God, thank You for sending Your Holy Spirit. For further study, read A Story of a Life Led by the Spirit.
Today I am thankful for...
Mostly these days I'm reading fun romances because, you know, everything. But here's two exceptions:
I am not a good reader for non-fiction American history doorstoppers, but I picked up from the library Charles Sumner : conscience of a nation by Zaakir Tameez entirely on the strength of Jamelle Bouie's interview with the author, which intrigued me. And the book was really great, hard recommend. Also very apropos for the moment, in both inspiring and disturbing ways.
About 10 pages in I was thinking, was Sumner autistic? and then shortly afterward Tameez mentions the same speculation. And it's very much written as Sumner's neuroatypicality basically being one of the reasons we had Reconstruction at all -- while all the other Republicans (laudatory) in Washington were thinking about what was achievable, about the next election, not being rude to their more conservative friends, doing whatever centrist compromise David Shor and James Carville told them to do, Sumner was just blowing it all up to do what was right. The man was nearly beaten to death, and he knew the beatdown was coming. He just kept yelling about human rights and civil rights on the senate floor (using those very words), alienating all his closest friends, pissing off President Lincoln, and giving no quarter. And sometimes he was an asshole, clearly; and sometimes he was very much in the wrong. But still. We could use a morally uncompromising neuroatypical asshole senator right now.
Anyway, great book.
I also ILL'd The Mismeasure of Man by Stephen Jay Gould, which I never read in high school. And wow, so glad I read it. I picked it up because it was referenced in an article about GenAI, but what I kept thinking as I read is how much all this oldey-timey historical eugenics has come roaring back. The confluence shouldn't have surprised me, because the GenAI weirdos and the eugenicists all travel in the same circles at the very least, and are often the exact same people.
Anyway, very well written, except it took me a while because so much racism. Also the fun thing about living near Harvard is that in any book about American historical upper-crust shittiness, you're going to keep reading about utterly loathsome people while thinking "and that one's a street! and that one's an elementary school!" (Also, "Carl Sagan named a book after this asshole? Really?")
To be fair the elementary school got renamed 20 years ago. I'm apparently now my dad. You know, "turn off where route 99 used to be" and "I'll meet you at Scollay Under".
(CW: Gould is both writing in 1981, and his method of argument is to say, basically, okay even if I take these racist assholes at face value, let me show that their science is shit and their data are nonsense. Which means he restates a lot of the racist and eugenicist arguments—and prints a few of their illustrations—so their racism is present in the book. It's not a style of presenting racism that a history of science book would use today, I believe. Gould is clearly repeating the racist arguments in order to refute them, it's just that he's slow and methodical in the refutations.)
I had something I wanted to write here earlier today but I foolishly didn't make a note of it and now I can't remember. It was along the lines of "is that worth it?" but I can't remember what.
I might take Tuesday off of work. That's the speed I'm at. I don't know what I'd do with it though.
Hope is:
a gift to humanity to compensate for the world's evils
10 (71.4%)
the last of the evils, creeping tardily out of the box
5 (35.7%)
August 28, 2025
READ: Jeremiah 31:10-14
The
In his book From the Pit to the Pulpit, John Stroup shares about powerful, unfriendly forces of life that battered and bruised him physically, sexually, and emotionally. He notes, “I started using drugs before I could drive a car. . . . I quit school and began to get farther and farther into the criminal lifestyle.” Eventually John’s crimes landed him behind bars. While serving a five-year sentence, the Bible became real to him, and he was humbled before God. By God’s grace, he was liberated from habits that were previously stronger than he was.
Ancient Israel’s experience often included oppression and sometimes captivity “from the hand of those stronger than they” (Jeremiah 31:11). Even when their predicaments were because of their own folly, God Himself exercised His mercy and might on behalf of His wayward people. Renewal—including joyful singing, abundant harvests, and celebration (vv. 12-14)—was to be expected when God exercised His superior strength for their good.
John Stroup’s life is a testimony to God’s might on behalf of those who place their faith in God’s Son, Jesus. The Gospels witness to Christ’s power to counter the ugly forces of evil in human life. And the strength and power of Jesus can be accessed today through sincere, faith-filled prayer, and heartfelt surrender for “everyone who calls” on Him (Acts 2:21).
— Arthur Jackson
What life forces are you facing that are too strong for you? What’s keeping you from calling on Jesus for help?
Heavenly Father, please exercise Your superior strength in my life today.
Source: Our Daily Bread
Owing to necessary building infra work, there was no power at home from 9 to about 4:30. The only prep work I did was to wake up early enough to be leaving for the office when the cut happened; I just left the fridge closed, and a qualitative examination of things suggests that kept everything in both the fridge and freezer cold enough.
My ice cream, for example, has not refrozen into solid blocks.
One thing that I meant to do but didn't was to dump out the ice maker bin into a bowl or bag that I could have shoved into the top of the freezer to increase the thermal mass. I don't use a lot of ice normally so it's good hygienic practice to dump the whole thing a couple of times a year anyway so the bin can be wiped down. Instead, I dumped it after, to confirm that it hadn't melted and refrozen into a single block.
Of course, now the ice maker will be going "clunk" all night as it slowly labours to regenerate what must be a full cubic foot of lunate "cubes" loosely piled.