By David Fortier
Come Sunday morning, it will be time to trim my beard. Over the past month, I have let it go pretty much. So, it’s time. Other than that, the big news will have been the weather, with temperatures dipping into the negatives even without the wind chill. Around 8 a.m. on Saturday, I ventured down to New Haven for most of the day, the weather app on my cell phone registered minus 5 degrees Fahrenheit.
On Friday, when things were just starting to work themselves up, with the wind picking up as the temperature dropped, we had some work done on our trees. Yes, a crew began pruning at 9 a.m. in the backyard and ended up with the one tree on the tree border out front. They wrapped up around 3 p.m. or so. One told Mary that squirrels typically jump onto houses, but in our case the squirrels had a highway to our roof. No more.
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Reading/listening this week, brings me back to “Learning How To See” with Brian McLaren. I just ended listening to Season 1, a recap of all the ways bias creeps into our consciousness. Among those McLaren covers in the episode are these: confirmation bias, complexity bias, community bias, complementary bias, contact bias, conversative/liberal bias, consciousness bias, competency bias, confidence bias and conspiracy bias. The episode is available by clicking here.
All three seasons can be found here. The podcast is one of several provided by the Center for Contemplation and Action (CAC). Each episode of this series features McLaren, Franciscan Father Richard Rohr and activist Rev. Jacqui Lewis. Each of these include themselves in the Christian tradition; at the same time, they have broad experience in interfaith conversations.
Another couple of podcasts that I have listened to and plan to go back over are ones that review Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and his philosophy, which is much more challenging, and much less popular than we’d like to believe. “A Revelatory Tour of Martin Luther King Jr.’s Forgotten Teachings” can be found by clicking here. This is another Ezra Klein Show offering.
And finally, “Revisiting the ‘father of capitalism,’” one of the latest episodes from The Gray Area with Sean Illing that discusses Adam Smith, is a conversation with Alan Newhouse, editor-in-chief of Tablet magazine. Click here for the episode. You will need to scroll down the playlist for this specific episode.
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Regarding TBE this week, the number of times a reader might access free articles is being changed from eight to four. We really do want to make local news available to everyone. At the same time, we want to remind people that covering the news well means expanding our ability to report, and that means there is a cost involved. We believe that offering TBE at a very reasonable price, a $6 a month recurring donation, will allow us to provide necessary coverage for our community.
We are a nonprofit. True. But nonprofits need to have adequate funding to do our work. Toward that end, we have our suggested monthly donations, as well as one-time donations. The idea being the more people who contribute, the more we all bear the burden, even to the point of offering readers on fixed incomes unlimited access on request.
We hope you will choose to become a regular donor today.
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Around Bristol, the Republican Town Committee announced in an email that the mayor will be making a big announcement this Wednesday at Pint and Plate. It is an election year. Ummm, I wonder.
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Have a good week!
“Come Sunday morning” is intended to be a weekly review, a recounting of the past week and an anticipation of week to come. Among its features will be reviews of old and new books, sharing of favorite podcasts, some family news, Bristol events and happenings and issues surrounding education, work and community journalism. He can be reached at dfortier@bristoledition.org.
All TBE readers, supporters and donors
The Bristol Edition will be limiting the number of stories non-members and free readers may access each week. This decision is based on our financial projections and, most certainly, to remind people that TBE is serious about providing accurate, timely and thorough reporting for Bristol. To do this we have devised a financial support structure that makes unlimited access extremely affordable, beginning with a $6 monthly donation.
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