Grab the Lapels

Sunday Lowdown #267

WHAT I ENJOYED THIS WEEK . . .

  • Even when I faced hard things or tough emotions, I was able to pull myself back using tools I learned in therapy and come out on the other side.
  • I signed up for summer classes (Old Testament and New Testament) and fall classes (Interpreting 3, Interactive Interpreting, and Deaf-Made Inventions).
  • Nick took off Friday and we went around to different Goodwill stores. I got some interpreting clothes, two books, and a copy of The Exorcist DVD.
  • A classmate asked me how I feel when someone at my school says they will pray for me.
  • Meeting with my interpreting mentor.
  • Calling Biscuit while she and Dad are on vacation.
  • Doing interpreting workshops to learn more about virtual relay interpreting.
  • Planning out what I want to do for Deaf History Month here on the blog.
  • Eating popcorn on Friday.
  • Going out for a lunch date on St. Patrick’s Day and getting Irish egg rolls and corned beef.
  • Texting with friends.
  • Bill’s letter.

WHAT I LEARNED THIS WEEK

  • The core classes of the college dropped not only gym and health, but I learned they dropped speech and the senior capstone. Had speech not been dropped, I could not take Deaf-Made Inventions.
  • Disabled people collaborating leads to a strong supportive system. For example, Anne Sullivan, who taught Helen Keller, was Deaf and Blind. Anne Sullivan was taught by Laura Bridgman, a Deaf and Blind woman. Laura Bridgeman learned signs from a man with cognitive and communication disabilities, who learned from a Native American tribe.
  • The whole point of a contemporary Christian song is an emotional experience.
  • During my horror book club on Friday, our discussion led me to describe a theory that novels published in the 1700s are easier to understand than those from the 1800s, but someone noted that my examples from the 1700s were American, and the 1800s were British.
  • The ASL sign for “thirsty” and “desperate” are the same. The ASL sign for “hungry” and “wish” are the same.

WHAT I WATCHED THIS WEEK

  • The Birds (1963) — still love it.
  • Ghostbusters: Afterlife (2021) — lovely tribute to Harold Ramis, enjoyable film
  • Trolls: Band Together (2023) — loved it, great story and characters
  • The Hunt (2020) — loved it. Sort of Atomic Blond meets Dale and Tucker VS Evil

REACTIONS TO MY REVIEW

In general, folks seem baffled by the content in Mice 1961 by Stacey Levine, but that’s the beauty of her writing. If you enjoyed Everything Everywhere All At Once, Levine’s work might be your jam.

FORTHCOMING REVIEW

SHOPPING AT THE LIBRARY PHOTO

WHY I GRABBED THESE NEW BOOKS FROM THE SHELF:

  • I added a bunch of earth science books. If I were better at math, I would be an earth scientist, probably a geologist with a focus on plate tectonics and seismology.

BOOKS RETURNED:

  • A small stack that I didn’t read came due and I didn’t read.

Published by Grab the Lapels

I'm a graduate of the MFA fiction writing program at the University of Notre Dame, which inspired me to follow along with trends in teaching, publishing, and reviewing. I also have an MA and BS from Central Michigan University. I used to teach composition, creative writing, and literature in higher education, then did a brief stint at a civic theater, followed by two years at a references desk at a public library. I'm now working toward my ASL Interpreter license.

32 comments

  1. I watched The Birds for the first time recently! My brother gave me a DVD of it for Christmas as I’m trying to work my way through all of Hitchcock’s films. I really enjoyed it (though my brother, the one who had chosen it, ended up hating it) and I still think about it when I walk past big groups of pigeons.

    Hmm, I’m not sure I agree with the idea that the point of contemporary Christian music is to have an emotional experience. In fact, I’d say almost the opposite – when Christians write explicitly Christian music, the focus should be on worshipping God, not on how it makes the person listening or singing feel. Obviously, taking time to think about God’s nature and character might well be an emotional experience! But if someone is going for that as their *aim* and not incidental, I think there’s something missing. It’s a bit like when you say “I love you” to a loved one – sometimes you say it because you really strongly feel it in the moment, but if you tell someone you love them often, it’s likely that the intensity of the emotion attached will vary day-to-day. It’s not more or less true depending on how you feel as you say it. That is how I would describe sung worship.

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    • Don’t you just love the sound effects for the birds themselves? It had to be a variety of sounds mixed together, because it is definitely more horrible than any real bird out there.

      If I remember correctly, you aren’t a fan of contemporary Christian music because it often contradicts the Bible. When I watch the music videos for these songs, it’s a huge band, everyone in some sort of ripped jeans-type outfit and flannels, singing to a huge arene in which everyone has their hands in their air and possibly crying.

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      • There is some contemporary Christian music that I like! At my church we sing a mix of contemporary music and hymns. I think there’s also a lot of dross, as with any genre really, and I do have an issue with Christian music that seems disconnected from the Bible – or where it seems to be more about the band than about God. There’s probably always been a proportion music that’s been like that – it’s just that the hymns that we still sing now are the ones that have survived decades or centuries because people keep returning to them, so they’re more likely to be of a good quality.

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  2. I don’t know whether “The whole point of a contemporary Christian song is an emotional experience” but it makes sense to me because, dare I say this, long after I stopped believing, gospel songs reached me emotionally, and still do.

    I love that you enjoyed so many things this week, most of them the little daily things of life. Makes me feel happy.

    Sorry I didn’t comment on your review until just now – have been road tripping with my American friend. Showing her koalas, colourful birds and big Aussie beaches. I think she’s been enjoying herself. These have made me happy this week.

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    • Lou also left a similar comment about Christian music, and she IS Christian. However, I’m pretty sure she’s said in the past that she is not a fan of contemporary Christian music, which often looks like grunge musicians on stage with upbeat songs. However, I think the point of pretty much any song is to feel emotion, and even if I’m wrong about the Christian music, that maxim has helped me think about how to interpret the songs better. Tomorrow, I’m interpreting three songs during chapel. It’s some kind of special worship week with the same guest presenter all week. Today, I was thinking about which albums I used to listen to between, oh, ages 14 and 20, just for the sake of emotionally destroying myself so I would emotionally match what my mind was thinking. That is something I do not need to do as an adult. In fact, if I listen to those old albums, my first thought it, “What am I doing?? Now I’m going to be emotionally overwrought all day!”

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  3. Thanks for the mention, I thought I’d better rush off a letter before you forgot I was still around; though I’d rather appear here for a book, if only I was writing reviews. This week I listened to Mysterious Island: Here be Dragons (by Greig Beck) which was classified as Horror but was really SF Fantasy and yet another way for the world to end (everyone eaten by dragons). Bloodthirsty, but aren’t they all; and behind too many other books which I should have reviewed weeks ago.

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    • Well, now that dragon book just sounds like crocodiles with wings, and I think crocodiles are plenty scary enough. I wrote back to you (and I added a short second email, a P.S.). I noticed you have lots of trucking posts coming in, so I knew you were busy.

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  4. That was a fun Goodwill run. I bought a sewing machine, a belt sander, and a practice pad for drumming. Why pick one hobby when you can have them all?

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  5. Yay for summer classes! And cool that you get to take Deaf-Made Inventions because you don’t need to take speech, which if you did have to take speech would be really weird since you are already doing a lot of speaking!

    Super interesting about the sign for thirsty and desperate being the same as well as the sign for hungry and wish. Is there a Deaf linguistics class where you can study the evolution of ASL?

    I enjoyed popcorn on Friday too while watching an episode of Mrs. Davis 🙂

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    • In general, ASL has been affected by segregated Deaf schools (during Jim Crowe), forbidding students from using ASL and teaching them to speak, hearing people learning ASL and teaching Deaf kids their version of it (which is often incorrect), etc. It seems like a lot of politics affected ASL and how it has changed. However, one signing having multiple meanings seems normal to me, much like English words.

      The speech class might have been good for students who are afraid of public speaking, because we WILL be doing it a lot, you’re right. However, I stood in front of students and professed for 11 years and didn’t die, so I think I’m okay.

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  7. I could see you as a geologist! The first career I can ever remember wanting was to be a paleontologist. 🙂
    I need a Goodwill Hunting day! 😉 Seriously though, so fun. I’m going to have to bring this up to Rob. We had a blast last time we went. The last time I went was with you, Nick and Dani. ❤
    The other day at work, I kept having customers tell me to have a blessed day. I said, "Why is everyone insisting on blessing me today?" To which the pharmacist said, "Cuz you need Jesus" and started cracking up. He knows my stance on the whole thing and likes to get a jab in every now and then. Which is only fair because I hit him with the "That's what she said" at the best possible times. 😉

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    • I always wonder how a person feels the need to praise God when Earth processes are so astounding anyway. Then I remember that a person who believes in God would credit those Earth processes to God. I try to imagine God creating the world in seven days and wonder at which point he decided on gravity, or make Earth’s core so pressurized that it’s solid. The funny thing about the word “blessed” is that I rarely can think of a version that is not tied to belief. Even “lucky” speaks to your fortunes, which are a form of belief, not fact. If “fortune smiles down upon you,” we’re talking about some entity. Maybe I’ll just start saying, “Have a healthful day!” I dunno. Instead of “I feel blessed,” I’ll say, “I’ve got it good.”

      Ooh, that time the four of us went to Goodwill, I got some pants for interpreting!

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  8. Do people say “I’ll pray for you” quite a bit? I don’t think anyone has ever said that to me in my life, not that I can remember anyway. Which perhaps says more about me (do people not want to pray for me?) rather than who I keep company with LOLOLOL

    “Thirsty” and “desperate” with the same signs? This seems strange becuase those can mean very different things, but also, I guess they can be switched out? Like when people say thirsty now it’s like they are thirsty for attention, or always wanting something, so I guess that’s similar to desperate. Hmm this is really interesting, it’s making me think!

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    • Well, yes, at a Bible college people want to pray for you frequently. Most classes start with a prayer, which includes prayer requests from students. Every chapel has prayer. Etc. Anne, are you implying you’re beyond help?? 😂 Perhaps the people you hang out with know you better.

      It’s interesting how often English words mean so many different things but it’s one word. The most popular example we discuss in school is “run.” I’m going for a run, I’m running a campaign, my car is running, my nose is running, you likely run after your kids, the river runs due east, put the chickens out in the chicken run, to run through someone (stab), stockings have a run, the basketball team ran a play, run an app, my vacation runs from Thursday to Sunday, runs in the family, running a fever, the squirrel was run over, run the traffic light, run the department . . . ETC ETC ETC *whew!*

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  9. How wonderful that your therapy tools have helped you in real life situations. I’m sure your therapist would be so glad about that.

    Re: eating popcorn. I love popcorn, but my son hates the smell. Like HATES hates the smell. So I don’t eat it as much as I would like to.

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    • That’s….okay, what’s wrong with your son. Doesn’t he know popcorn is wonderful? So what do you do, make and then run into your bedroom and close the door?

      I’m always surprised when people keep going to the same therapist and DON’T get tools. I think some folks just want to be heard, but then I wonder when a therapist becomes a professional friend.

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  10. I am very late but still wanted to catch up on your posts!

    How DO you feel when someone says they are praying for you? I have on occasion asked people if they mind/ would like me to pray for them. But these are generally situations where I think they will appreciate that.

    I think there is a lot of great contemporary Christian music that isn’t about creating an emotional experience but unfortunately the “big” names in that field generally seem to be. Part of my own Christian walk in recent years has been moving away from that style of music and seeking out worship music that’s more liturgical. I don’t like feeling emotionally manipulated in any of my media intake!

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    • When I say I have a problem or concern or I’m hurting, and someone says they will pray for me, I honestly feel like they’ve absconded themselves of all responsibility to our relationship and passed the ball to their imaginary friend. I know that sounds harsh, and I don’t mean to seem rude or flippant, but I imagine some Christians might feel the same way if someone said they would pray to Apollo to help you find motivation. To you, that likely means nothing. I have the same feeling about Christian prayer. On the other hand, if I have a friend who helps me AND prays for me — a Christian in action — I feel closer in our friendship. This person includes a deity in their process, but they’re also meeting me where I am.

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      • That makes a lot of sense. Kind of like when people offer “thoughts and prayers” in a tragedy. It’s meaningless without action and, frankly, not what Jesus himself would have done. His prayers always involved action and usually a solution for the problem presented.

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  11. I love knowing that thirsty/desperate and hungry/wish are the same signs. Connections within/between languages are so fascinating to me and help me think more deeply about what might otherwise seem like everyday things. Thirst *does* feel like a desperation, and a wish *is* often a hunger, but when we use separate words for them I think we lose some of the beauty of those connections!

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