If you’re looking for something unusual to give your mother this Sunday, you might consider a gift that is truly celestial: Christie’s auction house is selling a twenty-nine-pound lump of moon rock for $2.5 million.

The rock, technically called NWA 12691, was found two years ago in the Sahara Desert, where it probably crash-landed during an ancient meteor shower. It is exceedingly rare: less than 1,500 lunar meteorites have been discovered over the years, just enough to fit inside a small car. NWA 12691 is the fifth-largest piece of the moon on earth, dwarfing even those returned by Apollo astronauts.

“We should always think of helping others” 

You don’t need to spend $2.5 million, however, to give someone a gift they will truly appreciate. Thousands of American graduates are writing the slogan “Gowns 4 Good” on their mortarboards after donating their gowns to healthcare workers to use as personal protective equipment in fighting the coronavirus pandemic.

Gowns 4 Good is the name of a charity begun three weeks ago by Nathaniel Moore, a frontline physician assistant in Vermont. He is asking graduates to donate their gowns to more than seventy-five thousand frontline responders. Such gowns worn backwards, with the zippered opening in the rear and the high collar in front, meet the CDC requirements for covering the body.

On the theme of selfless service, consider Galina Yakovleva. As a child during the World War II siege of Leningrad, she learned to make the best of fearful times. Today, she’s using these lessons as she delivers food and supplies to needy people locked down because of the pandemic.

The eighty-year-old drives a white minivan every day through the streets of St. Petersburg. She was helping others for a decade before the pandemic struck and continues to serve in these difficult times. One of her care recipients said, “I don’t know how I’d live here indoors for a month if not for Galina. She brings me milk, bread, everything so I won’t die from hunger. I’m amazed. This person lives only for others, not for herself.”

Yakovleva explains her motive: “We should always think of helping others, at least a bit. Not just lie on the sofa.”

We are often the answer to our prayers 

Yesterday was the annual National Day of Prayer. Millions of Christians across the country prayed for our leaders and for our nation.

Continue reading Denison Forum – A celestial Mother’s Day gift: How to go ‘through’ hard times →

Jacquie Benetua-Rolens is communications and engagement coordinator at Santa Cruz Community Health Centers. Her two-year-old son has become a fixture in her daily Zoom meetings with colleagues, waving at them in his pajamas.

Before the pandemic, she worked in a small cubicle back at the office. Now that she’s working from home, she told the New York Times, “There is this softened, unfiltered, more honest version of ourselves that I’m enjoying getting to know. There is room to be forgiving and understanding with each other and ourselves. And it’s because we’ve all had to juggle.”

She’s one of millions of Americans taking part in an unprecedented social experiment. A Gallup poll found that a majority of those now working from home would prefer to continue doing so “as much as possible” after the pandemic.

It’s easy to see why. They are spending less time on the road. (The Times article cites a report that the average American who drives to work spends fifty-four hours a year stuck in traffic.) A 2014 study found that those who work from home are more productive. They run less risk of being infected by colleagues. They have more time for fitness during the day.

And a 2005 study found that job satisfaction increased with each additional hour spent working remotely (though it stopped increasing after fifteen hours working remotely).

The relevance of location to happiness

Telecommuting is obviously difficult for those in manufacturing or service jobs. The healthcare heroes saving lives in this pandemic cannot work from home. Nor can the frontline workers delivering food to stores and homes. Or the police officers risking their lives to keep us safe.

The Times article also notes that problem-solving and creativity can suffer when workers are isolated from each other. Such isolation can also lead to loneliness and boredom. And as we noted in yesterday’s Daily Article, homeschooling while working can be very challenging.

Continue reading Denison Forum – We are witnessing an unprecedented social experiment: A powerful way to experience unity in community →

In 1980, the first Tuesday in May was designated Teacher Appreciation Day. In 1985, the day was expanded to a week.

Parents who have been homeschooling their children because of the coronavirus pandemic are probably ready to celebrate teachers for the rest of the year. In his now-viral YouTube series, Some Good News, John Krasinski stated: “We here at SGN would like to start a petition that all teachers get paid 1.71 million dollars. Per day.”

CNN notes: “If there has ever been a time when appreciation for teachers is sky high, it is now. With the coronavirus pandemic closing schools, parents are now de facto homeschool teachers, discovering just how hard it is to teach.”

The article lists socially distanced ways we can thank teachers for their work, from social media campaigns to yard signs, thank-you parades, purchasing e-gift cards, and funding school supplies online.

The challenge of these days, of course, is that teachers require students. Teaching is a means to the end of educating those who are taught. Teachers do not speak into the air as though their words had some independent value. They measure success by the degree to which those they teach are able to understand and apply what they learn.

Baseball games with robots playing drums in the stands 

Professional baseball games are being played in Taiwan. However, players must submit to temperature checks several times a day. Cardboard cutouts and plastic mannequins have replaced the fans in the stands. A five-member band of robots plays drums from the stands.

But it’s not the same. One team’s manager said, “It just lacks a bit of energy, that kind of excitement of a real game.” He offers his players “imagination training” in the dugout, encouraging them to envision fans watching the games from their televisions at home. He tells them, “Maybe they are not here but they are still in front of television and cheering for us.”

One could argue that baseball doesn’t need fans in the stands to be baseball. Nothing on the field has changed. Wins and losses are recorded; players get hits or pitchers get outs. Batting averages and pitching statistics are being compiled.

But baseball was never intended as an end in itself. It creates no objective good for society. The games do not produce food, energy, or other necessities. The purpose of baseball, like that of other sports, is to entertain the fans who watch.

Three essential facts about God

Like teachers and baseball players, you and I were made to serve others by a God who serves us. Jesus testified that he “came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:28).

Continue reading Denison Forum – Observing Teacher Appreciation Week: Our lives are best lived for others →