This week I’ve got one interview, one podcast and one link.
If you want to look back at previous roundups, click here.

01

First up, the interview.  This is an interview with Christopher Bell (with Aditi Shrikant) about censoring music for kids.  Bell is an associate professor of media studies at the University of Colorado in Colorado Springs focusing on how race, class and gender intersect with children’s media.

Our boys are getting more and more into music and they are especially drawn to rap/hip hop/r&b.  Having grown up listening to mostly Country and/or Christian music (I know), this is a stretch for me but I’m discovering that I really enjoy it as well.

Our conversations lately have been surrounding the lyrics.  At first the boys assumed that if there was a bad word, the song was bad.  But we’ve been encouraging them to listen for the story that the song is trying to tell.  We don’t care so much about one bad word (or even several) as we do about telling a bad story.  Is this story worth telling?  Are these lyrics banal, debasing of others, or just uncreative?  Or is the song sharing about a struggle, a heartbreak, a joy, a system that needs to change?  To be honest, it would be WAY easier to just give every song that doesn’t have an explicit lyric a pass and leave the rest alone.  But as Bell points out, that’s lazy.

It’s a short interview but he packs in a lot to think about.  If you check it out, let me know what you think.  I’d be curious to hear how other folks navigate this with their kids.

02

Next up, the podcast.  The Liturgists are currently in the middle of a series titled “Christian,” interviewing different folks about whether they identify as a Christian and what that means for them.  Part 1 with Rachel Held Evans, Part 2 with Jennifer Knapp, and Part 3 (the one I’m sharing) was with Lisa Gungor and Jenny McHargue (wives of the two original hosts, Michael Gungor and Science Mike).

The conversation, which takes some surprising turns — especially near the end — was so enjoyable.  Both women articulate things that I feel but haven’t always been able to find the words for and the things that Lisa Gungor expresses at the end resonated with me so, so much.  Anyone else listened to this already?  What did you think?

03

Finally, a link.  I started working with a physical therapist last week in hopes of two things — (a) that I would be able to strengthen some of the areas that are growing weaker in my body, particularly on the my left side, so that they are as strong as possible and I can remain as active as possible for as long as possible and (b) to lower my levels of muscle and joint related pain on a day-to-day basis.

I’ve only been once so the jury is still out on whether I will actually be able to accomplish either of those things but the biggest take away from our first meeting is that I need to stretch more.  A lot more.  Like, 3 times a day.  Which feels like a lot but apparently stretching is one of the most important things for people with MS — to improve spasticity and alleviate pain.

It’s been a little over a week and so far I’ve only ever managed twice a day.  I’m working on it and decided that I need some kind of routine or a list of stretches to choose from because mostly I just sit down, stare blankly into the distance and wonder where to start.   I found this link and it’s helped a lot.  I don’t want to have to pull up the site everyday so I just made a list of the different suggestions and work from there.  I’ve also tried a few yoga stretching videos so if you know of any good ones, hit me up!