Thank You for Your Support

Thanks to all of you who have read and responded to my writings on autism, both here and at the Buckhead Church blog site.  Your support is very much appreciated.

By the way, if any of you have any questions that you would like for me to address, feel free to make a note of them in the comments section, and I may address them at some point in the future.

The Love Song of R. Joseph Derbes: A Valentine’s Day Rant

It’s getting close to Valentine’s Day, and so I thought we would take a look at T. S. Eliot’s poem “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”.

First of all:  Why Prufrock?

I studied this poem in my high school and college English classes, and I am sure many of you did as well.  Though I did fairly well in English, it was not my strongest subject.  My recollections of this poem consist mainly of being frustrated at my inability to see the meaning that my teachers said was right there if I would just look at it, wondering how on earth they could get the words of this poem to mean the things they said it did.  So I just let it go and went on with my life.  Then, this year at Christmas I stayed with my older sister, and this poem came up during the course of conversation.  (My older sister was an English major in college, and she did a paper on this poem in one of her classes.)  This got me interested again, as things that I did not understand before became clear to me.  So I did some research on my own, and here is what I have come up with.

Now, before we begin, I am assuming that all of you have already read “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”.  If you have not, you can find it here.  Even if you have already read it, you may want to read it again, especially if it’s been a while.  So go there, read the poem, and then check back with me.  I’ll wait.

Read  T. S. Eliot’s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”

A Day in the Life: A Class Presentation on Autism

For those of you who may still be wondering what exactly it is that I am doing as an education student, here is an actual assignment from one of my classes that you might be interested in.

One of the classes that I was required to take in my education program was a class on human growth and development.  This class looks at the ways in which people develop and learn over the course of their lives, from birth all the way to old age.

In this particular assignment, my job was to choose a stage of development, find two articles published in current scholarly journals that dealt with issues pertaining to that stage of development, and then do a presentation in front of the class in which I summarized the main points of the articles, and discussed how I was impacted by the information and who would benefit from it.

I chose to focus on the stage of toddlerhood (1 to 2 years old).  The articles that I chose related to autism in toddlers.

I’m Having a Crazy Dream…

I’ve been having a crazy dream lately.  I’ve been dreaming that one day I could know and love a woman intimately for the rest of my life.

Okay, I’ll admit it.  A lot of this dream is selfishly motivated.  I want a woman who will accept me unconditionally for who and what I am, and stand by me no matter what.  It would be nice to know that I could be a complete and total jerk, and the woman I love would still love and accept me no matter what.  There are some men out there who want this in a woman, and then they actually turn out to be jerks.  I would hope that I am not one of those men, but you never know.

Q&A With Guest Blogger Billy Phenix (Part 2)

[UPDATE:  Both of these posts, Part 1 and Part 2, are now closed to comments.  For some bizarre reason that I am at a complete loss to comprehend, the comment spammers have fixated upon these two posts as the primary target of their attack.  I just got tired of dealing with this, so I figured it would be best for me to just shut the whole thing down.  Besides, I figure that by now, anyone who has anything worth saying about these two posts has probably already said it.  Sorry for the inconvenience.]

Today we have guest blogger Billy Phenix with us once again.  Billy Phenix is a longtime friend of mine who wanted to stop by and ask some questions related to a post on autism I did a while back.  Last time we did not get through all of those questions, so now we will pick up where we left off.

Q&A With Guest Blogger Billy Phenix

[UPDATE:  Both of these posts, Part 1 and Part 2, are now closed to comments.  For some bizarre reason that I am at a complete loss to comprehend, the comment spammers have fixated upon these two posts as the primary target of their attack.  I just got tired of dealing with this, so I figured it would be best for me to just shut the whole thing down.  Besides, I figure that by now, anyone who has anything worth saying about these two posts has probably already said it.  Sorry for the inconvenience.]

Today we are very excited to have with us a longtime friend, Billy Phenix.  Billy Phenix is currently the high school pastor at Buckhead Church.  I have known him for several years, ever since he was the singles pastor at North Point.  He was very interested in an earlier post about autism on this blog, and he wanted to come and ask me some questions on that subject.

Joe’s Deep Dark Secret

At this point I wish to make a confession. Not a confession of sin, mind you, but still it is something that I feel is very important. This is something which up to this point I have only discussed with my immediate family and a few close, well-trusted friends. One of these friends has encouraged me recently to write about this on my blog. At first I was reluctant, because I did not feel comfortable with sharing it outside the circle of my closest friends. Yet I have seen a great deal of personal honesty in the blogosphere–especially in the work of Michael Spencer, my all-time blogging hero, who has written several confessional posts dealing with his personal life. I am beginning to think that perhaps what I am about to share would be appropriate here after all.

So here goes…

JOE’S CRACKING UP!!!!! The Final Installment

[NOTE: This is the last of a three-part series. Here is the first installment. And here is the second installment.]

First of all, for those of you who have been tracking with me through all of this, my apologies to you for taking so long to finish. But in looking at where I had intended to go after the end of the first installment, I have had second thoughts about sharing a lot of that material.

What I can say is this: In recent years my priorities have changed drastically. I once had big plans and big dreams of making a big name for myself, but in recent years, thanks to the inspiration which I have drawn from certain books and from the lives of certain people, that is no longer the case.

JOE’S CRACKING UP!!!!! The Second Installment

[NOTE: This is the second of a three-part series. Here is the first installment. And here is the final installment.]

In the previous installment I laid some groundwork by sharing about recent events in my life–notably the loss of my job–which are motivating me to strongly consider the possibility of teaching English overseas. In fact, I have been considering this option for quite some time, though in light of current events I am now considering it much more seriously. Now I will begin to unpack my reasons for this–the good, the bad, and the ugly. I will start with the bad and the ugly.

JOE’S CRACKING UP!!!!!

or Why I Am Considering the Possibility of Becoming a Missio…I Mean English Teacher in the Far East

[NOTE: This is the first of a three-part series. Here is the second installment. And here is the final installment.]

Don’t worry. I am not packing my bags and preparing to hop a plane over there as I write this. It will probably take me several months to a year to decide definitely whether or not I intend to do this. After that, it will probably take another several months to a year to complete all the necessary preparations. So I will still be around for a little while.

Still, since this possibility is on my radar screen, I feel it necessary to let you know and to share with you my reasons for considering it. Some of these are good, some are downright selfish, and some are just plain ugly. But for better or worse, they are all mine.