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Current Events

Here’s where the roving eye of Bob Sitze lands on interesting or important events, trends, discoveries, opinions or research that are part of contemporary life. Sometimes missed in spiritually oriented utterances, the stuff of life consists of all the places where God’s hand stirs, supports or motivates. These blogs may also include links for further information or action.

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Dealing with dread, Part II

(When I profiled Generation Dread: Finding Purpose in an Age of Climate Anxiety by Britt Wray, I noted what I thought might be an empty spot: The foundational nature of spiritual matters, perhaps best perceived and promoted in congregations. Today some continuing thoughts about those possibilities.) My premise here: Our congregations are communities (of belief and practice) that can deal wiselyMORE...

Dealing with dread Part I

(Awhile back, I profiled Generation Dread: Finding Purpose in an Age of Climate Anxiety  by Britt Wray. The book accumulates concepts that can be helpful in grasping the nature of climate anxiety, as well as our reactions to it. These few ideas caught my interest…) Narrative foreclosure Psychologist Ernst Bohlmeijer and colleagues (Netherlands’ University of Twente) coined this term to refer toMORE...

Denying ourselves and carrying our crosses

My climate anxiety peaks periodically. When that happens, Luke 9:23b (KJV) pops into my memory—“Deny yourself and take up your cross”—as one possible part of the solution to global warming. I wonder if a society-wide ascetic mindset—although not easily engaged—might tamp down the factors that are causing our planet’s ecosystems to unravel. That theology feels hard to put into practice. If I’mMORE...

Fulminating

It’s Odd Old Words Day here at the sprawling FullofYears campus, and today’s entry is fulminate. (Please curb your vocabulary-loving enthusiasm until you decide whether to become a full-fledged fulminator!) This Latinate expression—from a root loosely arranged around “hurling lightning”—can add rhetorical flourish to ordinary words that describe expressed anger or condemnation—e.g., denounceMORE...

Book Review: Generation Dread

(Every so often I read something that’s impossible to summarize in a 300-word blog like this. Today’s entry solves that dilemma—sortof—by offering you my recommendation about a book that might be helpful (and hopeful) for your possible worries about global warming. I’m working my way through the final pages of a book that attracted me while I was roaming our library’s New Books shelf. The titleMORE...

Ashes to ashes

Increasing portions of the world’s population are today living in ash-infused rubble. Forest fires, wars and natural calamities have consumed their homes, their possessions, their occupations and their health. The ashes remind them how futile life may be—how long it will be for the debris to be removed and hopeful living to re-emerge. “Living in the ashes” might describe how people anywhere—butMORE...

Rewind, review, restate

(Today I revisit, reexamine and repeat familiar thoughts: When at our best, you and I can be a hopeful part of the solution(s) to the crises we see in the world today. This matter calls for repetition, this time with emphasis….) Perhaps like you, I wonder what to do about the waves of large-scale problems coming towards us from the near future. But—as I’ve noted in other entries over the years—weMORE...

Mess-makers and mess-sorters

I’m coming off a period of several weeks when digital spam-senders have been sorely afflicting me. This experience got me to thinking about two kinds of people—those who create messes and those who sort them out. In this case, the mess-creators flooded me with unrelenting torrents of unwanted information. Varieties of mess-makers invade other aspects of our lives—perhaps too many to waste ink onMORE...

Mapping the Milky Way with metaphors

(Every so often I read the writing of someone whose skills bring an idea or set of facts into focus with the kind of clarity that’s both rare and awe-inspiring. Today’s entry describes a recent example.) I have to tell you about a fascinating article I read in the February 2024 edition of Scientific American. It’s about the shifting character of the Milky Way. (See the link below.) The pieceMORE...

What to do with an extra day

(As a present from yesteryears’ calendar wizards, you and I will get an entire extra day in this month. Today’s entry explores some possibilities for using this gift.) February 29th is like a time-bank whose deposits we get to withdraw now—an entire day added to our lives! How might we think differently about Leap Day if we considered it as something like a bonus or added-value coupon good onlyMORE...

Bob Sitze

BOB SITZE has filled the many years of his lifework in diverse settings around the United States. His calling has included careers as a teacher/principal, church musician, writer/author, denominational executive staff member and meat worker. Bob lives in Wheaton, IL.

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