Therese's Birthday Jackalope

On this day, August 15th, some 43 years ago, Therese was born. To celebrate this anniversary the kids and I cleaned the house, got her some jewelry from Aqaba, and most important, we got her this birthday Jackalope. I have never owned a Jackalope, but as a fan of all things kitschy, I felt we needed to have at least one in the house. Happy birthday deer, I mean dear.

My Uncle Owen's Memorial Service & The Battle of Kadesh

I just returned from San Jose, where I attended the memorial service for my uncle, Owen Hawkins. He led a remarkable life, and like my dad, he passed away after a long battle with cancer. Owen was always very supportive of my mom and our family, and I'm sad too him go. My thoughts and prayers are with his wife and children. It was nice seeing so many of my relatives in California. The highlight for me was meeting my cousin Kim's new spouse, Mike Loades who is a historical weapons expert. He knows more about chariots than anyone I've ever met. At the reception, when I found out he shared my geeky love of ancient military history, we reenacted the Battle of Kadesh with chop sticks as the Orontes River, a cookie as Tell Kadesh, 4 salt shakers representing the Egytpian army divisions, and a couple of hidden pepper shakers representing the Hittites. Some of my relatives were impressed. Most were horrified.

Checks for "Public" Charter Schools

We just had to write a check for more than $700 to Lusher Charter School in order to cover Kalypso's "fees" for her first year of high school. These include test taking fees for advances classes, fees for being in an arts program at a school that is allegedly focussed on the arts, and various other expenses. This is of course on top of having to buy hundreds of dollars worth of supplies for the classroom, and having to write a check for Gilgamesh's "fees" as well. While we thankfully can afford these charges, many families can't, and I'm sad to see access to quality free public education slip away. Moreover, Lusher has a famous crawfish boil every spring, and I believe it is one of the largest fundraising events in the city. I wish Lusher was more transparent about how much money they raised and how they will spend the funds. But with the charter school model, salaries for administrators increase dramatically, while parents and teachers are asked to do considerably more work to keep the quality school running. Some parents such as ourselves fought pretty hard to get our kids into a quality "public" school like Lusher, and I've noticed with many Lusher parents a tendency to avoid complaining out of fear and other reasons. The feeling is that while our kids are there, we need to fully support the school. I need to do some research to find out if families at RSD schools need to write checks as well, and what happens if the parents are not able to provide the funds. Anyway, I sure wish K-12 education was a quality product entirely funded by taxes, but that is apparently crazy socialism talk.

Yahweh's Edomite Hood

Yahweh it turns out is a pretty popular deity, with more than half of the world's population worshipping him today. There are a couple of passages in the Hebrew Bible that seem to indicate a notion that Yahweh originally came from southern Jordan, or what was called Edom during the Iron Age. One example is Judges 5:4, one of the oldest poems in the Bible:

"Yahweh, when you went out of Seir, when you marched out of the field of Edom, the earth trembled, and the heavens dropped, the clouds also dropped water."

I think you can learn quite a bit about a person by visiting their home. So it was nice to return to southern Jordan this summer, an area where I spent quite a bit of time in the late 90's. I very much enjoy walking around in the desert, and I don't find it surprising to read about so many people in history having encounters with Yahweh in the desert, including Moses, Jesus, Paul and Mohammad. Heck, even Billy Jack had religious experiences in the desert, though I don't think it was with Yahweh. Anyway, Yahweh's home is a beautiful, serene, and harsh environment. While I didn't hear Yahweh's voice, or even see a burning bush, it was a pleasant experience just the same. Plus, I'm glad God didn't appear to me and ask me to deliver any messages. I'm pretty busy getting ready for the Fall semester. Here is a picture of Yahweh's home, taken early one morning, and yes there is a bush there, but it wasn't on fire...

Rising Tide IV

Kalypso and I just registered for Rising Tide IV, an annual conference about "new" media, blogging, and rebuilding New Orleans after the levees failed. I'm looking forward to hearing the keynote speaker Harry Shearer.

Out of the Loop and in the Wadi

Kalypso and I are just about finished with our survey work in the Barqa area near Wadi Feinan, Jordan. About another week left. We're currently in Aqaba and will do some snorkeling later, but for me the big news is as follows: I just survived 25 days without internet, newspaper, television, radio or any media. I feared that my first contact with the outside world would reveal something like "President Biden declares war on Mexico". Luckily, that never happened. I also just went through more than 1,000 emails. We're looking forward to heading back to New Orleans on August 1st, but for now, we'll just have to keep walking around and looking for flint and pottery.

Here are a few pics before I run, or swim as the case might be:
First, a very angry camel. Can't get enough of the camels out here.

Second, here is what the spectacular desert terrain looks like in our survey area. It was unusual for there to be clouds that morning.

Third, here is Kalypso on a sand dune.

Lastly, here is a picture of me and my team trying to figure out where to go survey next.

Bonjour Paris

Kalypso and I are in Paris trying to blend in with the locals.

We've found Paris to be very expensive, so we tried to make some of what the locals call $ argent $ by playing French music near the Eiffel Tower. It didn't work, so we tried to pretend that I had Tourette's Syndrome. Still no money from the stingy Parisians. Sacre Bleu! Watch and learn mes amis:

Back to Jordan

Kalypso and I are heading off to Jordan. Tomorrow we fly to Paris where we'll stay for a few days, and then we're off to Jordan. We'll be joining some old friends in the south of Jordan conducting an archaeological survey in the Wadi Barqa. Haven't been in Jordan for about 10 years, and can't wait to get back. It's such a magical place.

Jury Duty, Wasps, and Allegations of a Supreme Court Nominee's Racism

Jury duty is finally over, thank God. It was emotionally draining and I continue to think about the ramifications of the verdicts upon which I voted. We were asked to make decisions after being presented with a very limited amount of information. We could ask no questions, and we couldn't even take notes. Moreover, I don't have much confidence in the idea that people are tried by a jury of their peers. I vividly remember being in the jury pool room and suddenly the entire room broke into applause. Turns out some guy had spun some wheel on the game show Price is Right and he won $1,000 or something. I wouldn't want game show fans to decide my fate. Also, the worlds that I heard about while serving on juries, a world where children have access to drugs and guns on a daily basis, where friends and family are lost to gun violence, I don't consider myself a peer to people from that world. I can empathize but I have no idea about the hard realities of that life. The experience reminded me of Aristophane's famous comedy Wasps, where the elder Philocleon gains pleasure from bringing guilty verdicts on the younger generation. However, I gained no pleasure.

My bad experiences on jury duty also make me think of the controversy surrounding Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor. She said in a previous speech "I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn't lived that life." Some have called her a racist for this statement. But I agree with her. Her experiences would make her better suited than me to judge others from that background. I by no means am advocating separate courts for separate classes, but I would argue that there needs to be diversity on all levels of the judicial system.

Service Learning and Biblical Studies

I recently published an article entitledService-Learning, Biblical Studies, and Resurrecting Flooded Bones in New Orleans on the Society of Biblical Literature's Forum site.