Long Childhood is Uniquely Human?

Neat Slate article with a fascinating evolutionary explanation of why human beings have much longer childhood's than other biological relatives. Sometimes a scientific explanation of an element of our humanity makes us seem cold and meaningless. But not in this case. I'm moved by this one.

Spong's Jesus

Retired Episcopal bishop John Shelby Spong believes most of what is claimed about Jesus Christ is bullshit. It turns out he is a skeptic like I am. But he is different. After peeling away the supernatural claims that the story of Jesus is wrapped in, he still finds a profound spiritual force.

He argues that the bible is an inconsistent and contradictory product of its time that makes claims that no thoughtful modern person should believe. Christianity that dogmatically follows such a text is broken. Such is the Christianity that at its best coexisted with, and at its worst, fueled racism, sexism, and homophobia for nearly 2,000 before secular movements began to free us of these bigotries.

But Spong thinks Christ still is something powerful. He believes Christ was a real person whose life and teachings profoundly moved his contemporaries. But in Christ's time, people had only the supernatural language of their time to describe what they saw. But Spong believes there is something real that inspired the stories of Jesus that we know.

Who was the real Jesus? Spong says it is a man who taught people to live life fully and to embrace our full humanity. He taught people to transcend their tribalist survival instincts and love all regardless of race, religion, and gender. This was pure radicalism in its day.

The gift Spong gives is a concept of Jesus that is useful to non-Christians. In fact, I feel inspired by his version of Jesus without needing to know for sure whether it is fact or fiction. This version, completely lacking supernatural elements, is at least possible to a skeptic.

My pen obsession deepens

So now I'm obsessed with dip pens--those old-fashioned pens that you have to dip into an inkwell. It is technology somewhere between feather pens literally from a bird and fountain pens that contain ink and don't need to be dipped into an inkwell.

This began with my purchase of a trio of Pilot Varsity disposable fountain pens. That is a fun product--a $3 fountain pen that writes quite smoothly and despite its branding, can be refilled and reused indefinitely. I look forward to running out of ink and cracking one open.

I so enjoyed the feeling of the Varsity's nib scraping across the page that I got an itch to try writing with a dip pen. I bought a set with several nibs and started playing. I've had a blast comparing the feel of each nib. They vary in several ways.

Flexibility: A more flexible nib allows the writer to change the width of the line by varying the firmness of the pen on the paper. A firm nib is durable and works well for non-artistic writing.

Fineness: A narrow or broad line.

Ink economy: The finer and firmer nibs consume much less ink. One of the nibs can go several lines on a single dip.

I understand that dip pens are now used almost exclusively by artists. But I am just enjoying the experience of writing with them. I like the idea of writing the way people commonly did over a century ago. And as far as hobbies go, this is very inexpensive. I bought a set including two handles and six different nibs for about $10. Furthermore, dip pens have an old-fashioned utilitarian beauty to me, like a violin or a trumpet.

I'm interested in eventually playing with a true feather pen like many great minds fidgeted with long ago. I also want to try a glass dip pen. And I might also search around for an inexpensive practical fountain pen for regular use.

Photo from Wikipedia