The Useless Tree

Family

  • Birthleave for Fathers

        Ingrid Robeyns over at Crooked Timber posts today on the debate in the Netherlands over granting paid leave to fathers so that they can participate in the care of their new born children.  She provides several grounds in… Continue reading

  • Childhood

         Should we consider childhood a distinct phase of life, separated by some level of maturity and knowledge from adulthood, or should we understand it as a synchronic moment in a larger dynamic process of life which cannot be… Continue reading

  • Saturday Cat Blogging

         Back from the beach – we had a great time.  I want to post some pictures but will start with one of my cat, Blackie.  Just want to make sure I work out some technical kinks with the… Continue reading

  • Are We Afraid of Birth?

        The chapter I am beginning now considers how Confucianism and Taoist would respond to a set of issues surrounding contemporary practices of birth: abortion, stem cell research, surrogacy, etc.  As I begin, I am struck by an idea:… Continue reading

  • Father’s Day

         Last year at this time we were in China, on our way to Dunhuang.  Marvelous.  I was not thinking then about Father’s Day, too absorbed in the moment.  But here I am today, at home, in the US,… Continue reading

  • Dogs and Legalism

        About ten days ago we got a new dog.  Larry (he came with that name) is a seven-month old hound-mutt.  He’s energetic and smart, and not aggressive toward our other dog, a four-year old beagle-mutt, Rudy (who also… Continue reading

  • Virtual Qing Ming

         I’m not sure if today is the exact day (because the exact day is calculated based on the Chinese calender), but it is the day usually referred to as Qing Ming.  This is the day when, according to… Continue reading

  • Traveling

         I have long had some differences with certain sections of the Tao Te Ching.  At one point (I’m at home and all my copies are in the office), the text tells us that you do not need to… Continue reading

  • Flexible Family Values

         A good op-ed in today’s Washington Post gets at the ways in which globalized modernity (or modernized globalization) undermines traditional family structures and engenders new social practices.  The author, Harold Meyerson, focuses on the divergent experiences of different… Continue reading

  • Modern Love: Another Taoist Parent

         I have blogged before on Taoist parenting and I have found a new example.  Although she may not intend to be, Suzanna Paola, writing today’s NYT "Modern Love" column, comes pretty close to being a Taoist parent.  … Continue reading