Parts of Speaking Publishing

 Two reasons for this post: to encourage more reading of my "stuff," and explain my coming absence.  I've gotten much more traffic lately--not much for most people, but a lot for me. If you like my writing, there is plenty of it out there to read.  1.  my website, www.barbaragrahamtucker.net (has blog) 2. my ten novels and my five nonfiction books (theological works) 3. my other blogs that have not been added to in a while:  partsofspeaking.blogstpot.com and highereducationobserver.blogspot.com 4. the backlog on this blog 5. my podcast, Dialogues with Creators, on Spotify and Apple Thanks for reading the commercial.  Second, I will not be posting for two weeks because tomorrow I am leaving with a small group from the church I attend to visit Turkey.  For many years I taught Humanities and was enchanted by the Hagia Sophia. I am going to walk beneath its dome (wearing a head covering, because it's a mosque again now). For more years I have taught the Bi...

Is it a good or bad thing for a writer to find her books being sold on eBay for a lot more than the first edition cost? 

 Condescension. When I hear that word, I think of three things: 1. Someone talking down to another, as if the other is incapable of understanding a concept unless expressed in language of an elementary school student. This is also called "man-splaining," when coming from a man to a woman, which I am very familiar with.  2. Pride and Prejudice and the intentionally unctuous and annoying Mr. Collins. The word or its variants is used fifteen times in Pride and Prejudice , thirteen of them referring to Lady Catherine de Bourgh, or really, Mr. Collins' estimation of her. Two passages, one from his visit to the Bennett family and the other from Lizzy's visit to see him and Charlotte.  "During dinner, Mr. Bennet scarcely spoke at all; but when the servants were withdrawn, he thought it time to have some conversation with his guest, and therefore started a subject in which he expected him to shine, by observing that he seemed very fortunate in his patroness. Lady Catheri...

  How many sermons did my generation hear on this passage, especially as young people? (and since I taught at a Christian college for 12 years, I stayed a young person in that category for a long time.) Yet I feel the need to camp on it because now I have so much more life experience, good and not so good, to understand what Paul was saying about 1970 years ago. Here, with my contemplation words bolded. I beseech (urge, implore, greatly desire) you, therefore,  brethren, by the mercies of God , to present your bodies  a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable (rational) service.   I will stop there for now because the next verse (all versification being a matter of tradition not inspiration) seems to move on to another theme, into a step deeper or further into spiritual growth or "development" as I read today.  Paul wants this for them in light of what he has just written. And that is the end of chapter 11, after a difficult discus...

 Next week I will ride to the Atlanta airport, get on a plane about 2:00, stay on that plane for close to 12 hours, and land in Istanbul, Turkey. I will be with eight or nine others from the church I attend to visit the ancient city of Constantinople, Cappadocia, and the sites of the seven churches in Revelation.  A major event in my life. My seventh trip to "Europe" (Turkey is technically not Europe, but in NATO).  Do I have trepidation? A bit. I will stay close to my group and never stray. I do not plan to be adventurous in a place where I will stick out for my coloring, size, and clothing (despite keeping that last one as muted as possible). I will be a quiet, unopinionated, but friendly and open visitor to a place with a difficult history. Turkey, however, according to Wikipedia, is the fourth most visited country in the world (fifth or sixth on other lists), so they depend on us tourists. They are modern and their economy is fairly healthy.  (Not to sure about o...

 Over the past months I have been reading slowly through Romans. Slowly.  When I got to 8, it was a stroll to smell every flower and look into every leaf.  In 9-11, it was an uphill climb to fathom the perfect, unmistaken sovereignty of God and how Israel fits into it. I haven't reached the top on that one.  Now, I come to 12:1-2, which in my generation was the go-to text for speakers to young audiences. Despite all those sermons, it still perplexes me: knowing and proving the perfect will of God?  Well, he has just been writing about the will of God. Our sacrifice of our active bodies and inner selves (in contrast to the fatal sacrifice of physical animal bodies like those of centuries in the temple) to a service to God that is only rational in light of what he has just written, which ended with this: 11:33  Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable  are  His judgments and His ways past finding out! 34...

  https://www.christianitytoday.com/2025/09/why-charlie-kirk-landed-with-young-men-like-me/

 Three police officers were killed in Pennsylvania today, doing their jobs.  Will they get the honors of flags at half mast?  I hope so.  Our priorities are mislaid, at best. "Screwed up" seems more appropriate. 

  One time I was looking into improvisational acting and learned that one of the rules is to never say “but,” in response to an acting partner, only “and.” “ But” makes the conversation into an argument and dialogue into defense. I also find that “but” means what was just s aid before is dismissed, invalidated. Recently in my Bible study a woman was confiding in us that her investments were waning and she was unsure about her finances. She said, “I believe God can take care of me, but . . .” I somewhat too vociferously said, “Saying ‘but’ takes away the truth of what you just said.” Not one of my finest moments of empathy (although I should say the woman has told us this frequently) But …. T wo things can be true at the same time. This statement about “but” is too simple. And it can cause us not to listen. “ I know God will take care of me, but . . .” That could be the introduction to . . . a confession of fear . . . a true denial of God’s care . . . a questio...

  What Can I Say? by Mary Oliver What can I say that I have not said before? So I’ll say it again. The leaf has a song in it. Stone is the face of patience. Inside the river there is an unfinishable story and you are somewhere in it and it will never end until all ends. Take your busy heart to the art museum and the chamber of commerce but take it also to the forest. The song you heard singing in the leaf when you were a child is singing still. I am of years lived, so far, seventy-four, and the leaf is singing still.

 I John 5 speaks of the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life.  I, and I believe others, associate this with the three biggees of American culture: money (wanting things, covetousness), sex, and power (control).  The American church needs repentance as far as these are concerned.