Bigger or Better: Life outside of Texas

  I was asked recently to give a talk on Joseph of Egypt. I'm sharing an expanded version here because I want everyone to see it and draw strength from it. Everybody has trials. Every single person. But the universality of it hasn't yet provided a satisfactory answer on the necessity behind each of those hard times. Sure, we have theories. Maybe the difficulties stem from agency--either we or someone else made a poor choice, and now we get to learn from the consequences. Maybe the struggles are because we live in a fallen world (aka "mortality") and we need the trials to become better people worthy of living with God. Maybe we are suffering because God made a bet with Satan [I'm thinking Job here] and we just need to hang on long enough to have full vindication and double the blessings we had before.  We've come up with phrases to offer to those who are suffering-- "God is in the details." or  "You're going through a refiner's fire....

 Parenthood is a difficult multidirectional journey.  In the first few months, unravelling from lack of sleep, you realize how selfish you actually have been in your pre-parenthood life, as you give so much of yourself to this new being that you begin to be untethered to who you once were. The postpartum period is not just a fourth trimester for the infant, but for the mother as well, for her life is even more tied to sustaining the baby than it was when the baby was in utero. I have never given so much for anyone as I did in that period, which seemed to stretch infinitely while I was in it, and only now seems to have finite bounds. I think all physicists should experience the postpartum months to grasp how warped time can become, because what holds more gravity than the beginnings of an utterly unique life just recently dropped into spacetime, dragging the parents into his orbit with such insistent yet basic demands? Strangely, as the baby gains mass, slowly leaving infancy, ...

 Nathan recently gave us colds, and because there is very little I can give him medicinally for his cough and ear pressure, we've been spending a lot of time every day in a steamy shower. The first couple of times he was pretty chill about hanging out in the tub, but after that he became quite wiggly and wanted to escape. What can I do to keep him in this homemade sauna? I know! We'll do science experiments. I let the tub fill with water, then collected various things--his newborn tub, a balloon, a massage ball, an empty water bottle--so that we could see which ones float and which ones sink. The balloon is big--do you think it will sink? Nope! It floats! The massage ball is small--do you think it will float? Nope! It sinks! Etc. Nathan really got into it, and grabbed a package of toilet paper to bring over to the tub. That's really cute, kiddo, and I appreciate your enthusiasm, but no. It's been several days since that "science experiment", but he continues t...