We made it
We made it
On Friday, November 20, Wheaton College held its last day of in-person classes for the semester. It was also warm enough to read on the porch at sunset. Some celebration was in order.
Links
- On the role of urban design and architecture in Syria’s civil war.
- On the role of urban landscape design in promoting climate-resilient cities.
- On the role of cities in global affairs, by my Chicago Council on Global Affairs colleague, Ian Klaus
Liberating arts
I learned a lot from my recent conversation with Nathan Grawe, author of Demographics and the Demand for Higher Education. Look out for his next book, The Agile College.
And look out for my upcoming interview with Lydia Dugdale (author of The Art of Dying)and Todd Billings (author of The End of the Christian Life) about why and how liberal arts education should teach us how to die and, in so doing, how to truly live.
Canceled
I hesitate even to mention “cancel culture” in this newsletter. First, it’s titled “Gifts and Forgiveness,” and it promises not to be about “‘beefs,’ disagreements, or controversies”. Second, while I know people feel strongly about the topic, most of what I’ve read or heard about it doesn’t strike me as especially thoughtful or helpful. Frankly, I’ve seen little that has given me the impression of principled, consistent engagement with the issue, and quite a bit more that has struck me as hypocritical. One moment, people are “anti-cancel culture” and the next moment, those same people are canceling someone – or at least that’s what it looks like they’re doing. That hasn’t been a universal rule, of course, but I’ve observed it over and over again. At the same time, it often seems like one’s position on “canceling” – like a weird meta-litmus test – might just be enough to get one canceled.
I don’t feel the pressure to come to my own conclusions on this quickly or to find a “side” with which I agree, but I have been eager to read some stimulating and thoughtful (if not always agreeable) pieces on it, and I just happened to read two of those this week.
- “Cancel”: A short piece on the concept by B.D. McClay
- “What if Instead of Calling People Out, We Called Them In?”, on a Smith College course that includes a module on “calling out,” which “may be described as a sister to dragging, cousin to problematic, and one of the many things that can add up to cancellation.”
Recommendations
Listen to Eric Reed’s Mercy and Grace..
Have a happy Thanksgiving!