For readers new and old...

So what is Points of Inflection about, anyhow?


It started out with my involvement in the GreenFaith program.  I wanted to think in a numerate and faith-based way about the way the world changes when we human beings are no longer a (physically) small "disturbance" on the surface of nature, but have become the "main event".  This change is the "point of inflection".  If you can spend ten minutes with me on video, this TEDx talk gives an introduction to some of these ideas.

While I was getting started writing on these things, our family was going through some other surprises.  Our youngest child began a coming out process which revealed the amazing, beautiful Eli/Miriam.  Out of respect for Eli's privacy and safety I did not write much about this journey during his lifetime; but since his death on January 29th there has been no need for secrecy, and many of the posts on PoI have been acts of remembrance and celebration.  And, I hope, of some defiance, in the face of the abominable scapegoating of the transgender community which is sweeping "conservative" America as I write.

Eli looking sharp.  I don't remember the occasion.

Meanwhile it turned out that I had developed cancer (or possibly that it had recurred from thirty years before), and I spent six weeks at John's Hopkins in Baltimore receiving radiation and chemotherapy, so of course that found its way into the blog as well.

Chemo time!

This might sound like a disjointed collection of personal thoughts, but I find some intersectionality here.  Cancer is a huge metaphor for the growth fetish that drives our consumption economy ("take heed lest ye are not consumed by one another" says Paul in Galatians).   In an earlier post I wrote about the obvious differences between the sympathy and support that cancer survivors can count on in church and community, and the stigma that still attaches to mental health issues.  And Peterson Toscano, that quirky queer Quaker, believes that the LGBTQ community may have a special role to play in resisting climate change.  Check this out:

And I forgot to mention rock-climbing, but that seems to have found its way into everything as well.  As I keep writing on this blog, I expect to explore more of these intersections.  I believe they are real. Join me!