The Joshua Victor Theory

  “This one will write upon his hand–‘Belonging to Yahweh.’” Isaiah 44:5. Rob Poulos is a walking piece of literature. He has tattooed on his left wrist, “ B-A-C-K – period.”   Like it was lifted from the end of sentence. It was.   A few years ago Poulos joined a worldwide effort to help author Shelley Jackson tell her story on people’s bodies. Appropriately titled Skin , the “book” has 2,095 words. Each person bears on their body just one word. “It’s not that everything I do has to be tricked out with gimmicks and games,” she said. “I’m just interested in exploring the range of what a text can do.” Poulos heard about it in a literature class at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. He said, “I always told myself that if I got a tattoo, it had better be important.” At last count, Shelley Jackson was still looking for 400 people to bear her final 400 words. Just think, we could contact her after church, offer our human hides, and be part of an alternative publi...

  Life Sunday Sermon 2021 1 Corinthians 12:12-26 “From Invisible to Indispensable” Rev. Michael W. Salemink, Lutherans For Life   (lightly revised by Pastor Joshua Schneider for use on 1/17/21)   So, you have these two tiny organs in your ears. Sort of a sixth sense. The utricle senses your head’s horizontal motion, and the saccule detects its vertical movement. They live inside the mystical semicircular canals of the vestibular labyrinth. The magic happens using otoliths—literally ear stones—microscopic crystals of calcium carbonate, the stuff that makes up chalk, stalagmites, seashells, and Tums. Curious, because when the otoliths act up, you can get quite queasy. When your cranium moves, the otoliths lag a little behind for a minute and tickle miniature hairs. Your brain interprets these signals as a shift in position and compares the input from both ears with the data from your eyes to define direction and orientation. Experts call it proprioception or kines...