Rory Christopher's blog thinger

“ When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things. ” - I Corinthians 13:11 The Weakness of my father was unbelievable to me. As a young boy, I idolized my father. I really believed he was the biggest and strongest man on earth. A vivid memory haunts and elevates me simultaneously: I remember talking to my kindergarten teacher about my dad and how strong he was; I told her he could pick up a house with his bare hands, he was that strong. Of course, that is silliness to an adult, but to a child, it's my salvation. That is to say, the strength and fortitude of my father were something inspiring as much as it is comforting. He's the foundation of my strength and safety. He comforts me, corrects me, teaches me, and of course, comes down to my level to communicate and lifts me up when I fall. If he can pick me up with his bare hands, then he can pick up a house. When I did right he gave me enc...

Everyone has that piece of Tupperware; the one that was new and clean and shiny then one day, against your better judgment, or out of enthusiastic ignorance, you placed some spaghetti in it with a fine homemade red sauce. The kind with fresh herbs, pink salt that includes all those needed minerals, and a few mushrooms. Not the creminis, but the wild ones you picked in the Roosevelt National Forest. Then, the inevitable happened. You should have seen it coming, but you didn’t; you were too excited about your delicious and thoughtful leftovers: the plastic stained. It’s a seemingly permanent quality of that vessel.       Ok, well that was pretty specific, but I know it lands. In your cabinet there is a dish that’s stained red. Go look, it’s there. This is a conversation about true freedom. And to have this conversation, we must understand what freedom is along with its opposite: captivity. Captivity such a strange word, because it’s how we describe the condition o...

I was a special education teacher. Matter of fact, I taught Special Education for four-and-a-half years. I taught some non-verbal kiddos how to read, increased the diversity in their diets, taught them games and social skills, and–what I am most proud of–I helped kids out of diapers, who were well past the time to meet that milestone… And let me tell you, that is not always an easy task. It is always a rewarding task. Find the carrot By carrot, I mean the motivation for doing something that is not preferred; for example, if you want to buy a beer, but you have no money, you might help a friend move. Moving is a total garbage activity, but he may pay you and buy you beer; if you know how to negotiate, you will get an unhealthy amount of pizza too. BAM! You had no money; now you have pizza, beer, and money, because you leveraged your time and effort. Potty training is no different. The kiddos usually don't know how to leverage their time and resources to get what t...

Officescope.com Autism Spectrum Disorder is simply defined as a communicative and social disorder. However, there is no simple answer to how one should educate a student with ASD. The symbol for autism is a puzzle piece: this symbol is a perfect metaphor, because the method of educating someone with ASD is a puzzle, but so the cause. I believe environmental factors from our modern era of chemicals and artificial foods and products can have a huge impact on neurodevelopment. In addition to this, modern humankind has a diet eccentric to biological tradition, which may play a roll in how the human body (and mind) develops. And, this diet is buttressed through technology that is dependent and integrated with chemicals that are unique to our era. A few years ago, the Huffington Post published this article  that references a study, which links BPA to ASD. Last year CNN:Health linked similar findings. The University of Virginia found BPA had an immediate effect on the social life...

As an Eastern Orthodox Christian, I can't claim I know each person's destiny. Many christians (protestants mainly) would claim they do know this because they have particularly keen insight into what the Bible says or the hearts of their fellow man. Humans have such a short amount of time to understand the experience they are having on this earth; I believe (and this is me here, not any sect or church) that an atheist may believe in God if said atheist were to meet God. And, if said atheist was not always introduced to a God who's followers killed members of other faiths, burned books, pissed on corpses, insulted homosexuals, or violated the religious sensibilities others. Because of this, God would not reject or judge said atheist, but rather, reward the person for having a heart toward truth and kindness: the source of which is the creator of all things! perhaps the atheist is reserving his heart for Christ, remaining chaste, but the people presenting Jesus to him have d...

I have never been told to hate the junkie on the street To judge her value by her smell or filth or bare feet. And if I could choose whether she should live or die, The choice is clear, I would choose life. As for the bigot full of malice and anger I still have not been told to hate him either. And if I could choose whether he should live or die, The choice is clear; for him, I choose life. Being so young, I have not been told to be enraged At the killer living in his cage. Though the jury, judge, and law think he should die, The choice is clear; for him, I choose life. And the mother who chooses: “a baby is too much” For her reputation, comfort, career, and such. Or the Doctor helping her deal with the strife, I still don’t hate either; for them, I choose life. Or preachers and politicians condemning all of the above I don’t know how to hate them, my first instinct is love. He shouts and distorts each circumstance, saying they deserve to disappear, be locked aw...

Ottawa : Today there is a new attitude in the Canadian Capitol as the people chant: “Yes We Can,” and “Oui, nous pouvons.” “We wish to show unity with our new leader,” said Dominique Peridot , a Hot-dog vendor at a rally in downtown Ottawa on Saturday. “Yes we can finally be free. Yes we can use real money, not that fake funny-money we’ve been peddling all this time. Yes we can! Yes we can!” The US Government took over the Canadian Capitol on Wednesday as a result of a bet President Obama won against Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper . According to Canadian Press Secretary Sara MacIntyre , President Obama was depressed last month and drunk dialed Prime Minister Harper, lamenting that the Republicans were going to take over the House of Representatives in the upcoming election. Prime Minister Harper tried to console him by wagering the entire Canadian government; he believed the Republicans were “old news,” he said in a phone interview on Friday, “If it wasn’t for all the Absint...

I have been unemployed for three long and pretty dull and really disheartening months. The reality is I have been looking for jobs nonstop and I have applied over and over to every vague and non-compelling job description you all post week after week. Each time I find a post worth my time, I submit a great looking résumé –customized for each job description– accompanied by a genuine and mildly witty cover letter tailored as specifically as possible to the listing. Seriously folks, I am doing a pretty good job applying quickly after you post the position, with no errors, and to your specifics. Don’t think I am simply submitting a generic résumé, without regard to who you are and who you’re looking for. If you reveal who you are, I research your company and I even come in person to introduce myself (unless the ad says not to); but, I am almost always turned away with the directive, “go ahead and submit your CV online.” This letter is to let you know that this sucks; you can do better. ...

I am not a scientist or philosopher. I have not exhausted the depths of scientific discovery or waded into the philosophical postulations of all the “why”s and “how”s of existence and nature and purpose. Nor am I an artist –not in any traditional sense– but I do have a sense of what is communicated in arte. Even bad arta; an expression of one’s self, being, perception, and experience. One of my favorite artists is Bob Dylan. He confuses me and I have discovered why confusion is admirable. He doesn't communicate an answer or direct interpretation of life; but rather, the confusion we all feel about war and love, beauty and pain. Dylan, in many ways, combined a strange string of sounds and words that give a substantive realization to the pain that nurtures the human heart. Beauty is not found in an evasion of life, but rather an embrace of it. Recently, I had been given a bit more struggle than I cared to accept; but, as I was denied any control over my life and accepted th...

Permissiveness, often confused with compassion or tolerance, is really a distorted version of liberality, which deserves a particular suffix, -ism. Permissivenessism is controversial while being an obviously popular attribute to our social ethos since it is in most forms of contemporary entertainment. The controversy is not around its existence, but rather, its intensity. From the time just after the civil war, we have had what is called a “cultural revolution,” that developed into a “sexual” revolution; this turning over and upheaval of the social norms raised hell in an inconsistent, but “moral,” society. The revolution brought idioms like, “if it feels good, do it,” and “it’s all good.” The mentality motivating an “it’s all good,” attitude is what sums up the permissiveness of our ethos. Permissivenessism is well demonstrated in the television show, Friends. Friends is funny, sexually savvy, clever, and, most of all, young. The characters are not well established and imma...

...Americans have many fine qualities. A capacity to see ourselves as others see us is not high among them. Imagine a world that never knew Ronald Reagan, where Europe had opted out of the Cold War after Moscow installed those SS-20 missiles east of the Elbe. And Europe had abandoned NATO, told us to go home and become subservient to Moscow. How would we have reacted if Moscow had brought Western Europe into the Warsaw Pact, established bases in Mexico and Panama, put missile defense radars and rockets in Cuba, and joined with China to build pipelines to transfer Mexican and Venezuelan oil to Pacific ports for shipment to Asia? And cut us out? If there were Russian and Chinese advisers training Latin American armies, the way we are in the former Soviet republics, how...

January 29, 1950 Christopher Rory Hoops was born. He grew up in Southern California with four siblings and two loving parents. He was surrounded by love, books, music, and exotic plants from his father’s garden. In his teens, Chris met the world. His good and bad relationships ultimately lead to a conversion to the Christian faith, returning him to the Lutheran and Catholic roots of his parents, seeking solace and comfort in Jesus Christ. In his late teens, he studied constantly, absorbing as much wisdom as he could from his mentors, pastors, teachers, and parents. His late twenties we full of adventures, teaching full time, and leading many ministries while attending college. When he was twenty-seven, he married a woman who would become the foundation of his home, the greatest gift God would bestow upon him, Gail Melinda Turner. When he was twenty-nine, his first child, Erin Christine, was born. And his second and third, Christopher Rory, Jr., and Michael Charles, were given to ...

Taxing the upper class is one of those ideological, liberal clichés that never really works. The upper class are responsible for providing opportunity, stability, and reasonable dynamics to the economy which would not otherwise be achieved. Money needs to be spent to make it, this is the greatest provision of the rich, they invest their capitol because they want more of it. They want to stay rich. Providing jobs and capitol and creativity to the business world is what the rich are about, that is why they are rich. There are people like Paris Hilton and Michael Jackson who are now a laughing stock because of their perverse wealth; however, they are rich because of the lower and middle classes. Let me explain. The Hilton family owns hotels. Paris scrapes the creme of the top, but, the Hilton family provides jobs and an excellent dynamic to the hotel industry. Something to emulate, something to surpass. This raises the standards because now, even lower classes can often afford to s...