At $2, think of it as video dim sum.

All the video at thetinycompanycalledme.com me is now just $2 a serving - except the stuff that's free.

Under the Moon + Stars (feat. Mark Yaconelli)

The newest piece is called Under the Moon + Stars, featuring Mark Yaconelli telling a delightful story about something that happened the summer he was 13 years-old. It's a great way introduce a conversation about the future, about dreaming, about growing up, about being the person who believes in people + about the people who believe in us...

All the videos at thetinycompanycalledme.com are short, sweet, cheap and tuned to ignite reflection + conversation about faith + spiritual formation, about taking risks, going deep, growing up.

Know anyone who cares about things like that? Send them on over for a free taste, or an inexpensive meal, you know for... the soul.

Happy New Year.

jh

Meet Your 2nd Wife | SNL (+ comedy) at its best

As husband, father, brother, son, youth worker - all of me - I don't think it gets much better than this...

2015 | the year in US gun violence

The costs and benefits of cheap and easy access to firearms are written between the lines of this summary from the Gun Violence Archive.

You can find out how many people have been shot near you this year right here (one murder/suicide .57 miles from my home this year).

Click here to connect with Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America — the movement birthed in the aftermath of the Sandy Hook massacre in Newtown, Connecticut three years ago today. 

Use these links to communicate your passion directly to your US Senators and Congressional Representative.

If you're good with things as they are for a little while longer, no action is required at this time.

total embarrassment two | how it maybe came to this...

How did Jesus become an embarrassment to the Christian faith? Perhaps this snapshot tells part of that story…

My friend lamented, among other unsettling developments, the taking down of 10 Commandments displays in public spaces - as if most, or even many, of us care the tiniest bit about keeping those commandments personally or collectively. 

I said, “I think, if you care about the 10 Commandments, then live them out. Be the public display, carved in flesh and bone." I didn't mean to be glib... at least not entirely. 

If we were talking about taking down public displays of The Sermon on the Mount, I might have to think a little harder, but there's no danger of that. Nobody wants to be reminded of what Jesus said about how we are to conduct ourselves - the behavior and motives of those who learn his way. This is where Jesus is an embarrassment to the Christian faith. He prohibits exactly what most people seem to relish and demands exactly the sort of things almost no one likes or wants to do. He forbids retaliation and revenge, commands us to love our enemies and persecutors, and make peace with them or die trying. He calls us to be merciful, to forgive those who wrong us, to give up anger, to negotiate and reconcile, to settle out of court. Jesus commands us to love God as if nothing else matters, and he commands us to treat everyone we encounter with the loving kindness we want for ourselves. Christians hate this stuff so much we almost make it disappear by never talking about it, or talking about it only to explain it away. Most folks don't know how disagreeable the demands of Jesus are, because we've hidden them away where they can't do us any damage - or do us any good either... 

The rollup to Christmas has long been dedicated to considering and expressing our longings. What I long for this Christmas looks something like being the sort of person, and living in the company of people, who might be willing to love Jesus as Jesus is; not as we have attempted to remake him in our own image. I say "attempted" because the effort has failed so spectacularly that even a child - perhaps especially a child - can spot the fake a mile away (which is about as close as many of our neighbors want to get to anything like "church"). 

I want to welcome the embarrassing Jesus, and anyone he brings with him, to the feast of Christmas this year. To me, rest of it sounds like noise.

climate talks are... ahem... heating up in Paris

More than 100 countries have agreed to drive through a legally binding climate agreement in Paris.  China, Brazil, India, and South Africa are as-yet-uncommitted. For every 10,000 signatures to the petition linked below, Avaaz will will send an SMS to their delegates' phones inside the conference center. 

We're all in the same boat; if you want to know that everyone is rowing together, consider adding your name to the 42 million member Avaaz coalition petition. 

Thanks.

jh

total embarrassment | how did it come to this?

same song, another verse (a little louder? a little worse?)

It's not supposed to be like this.

No one has a right to walk into a concert hall, a cafe, a stadium, an office, a market, a grade school, and murder people. No one has that right.

The children must hear us say this clearly and with a whole heart. Who else can say it? Who else would? We are the ones sitting face to face with kids who question God, goodness, and self government, and all who represent themselves as being in charge of the world as it is 

It's not supposed to be like this.

The children must hear us say that the God who spoke through the prophets at many times and in various ways—who in these last days has spoken to us by his Son—this God takes no pleasure in the suffering and death of his creatures.

They must hear us say it's not supposed to be like this, and someday it won’t be—that the hope of the gospel includes a new heaven and a new earth where goodness is completely at home—we haven’t seen it, but in faith we see it coming. 

In the meantime, they must hear us proclaim that life is grace and horrible things happen; that the ground beneath our feet is prone to shift; that people are capable of breathtaking acts of love and self sacrifice, and staggering acts of violence and oppression; that the sun rises and the rain falls on the good, the ordinary, and the horrid.

They must hear us declare the mercy of God who promises the good news will one day prove to be as relentlessly good as the bad news is so relentlessly bad in these days. The children must hear us confess that life is hard and God is good.

But first, they must hear the active silence of us listening to them them. They must be convinced we hear their denial and fear and anger and confusion—that we have our own fear, and anger, and confusion.

They must see that we are not afraid of silence... not afraid to let paper and colored markers express what can't be spoken—knowing the children will almost certainly require more blue and violet and black and gray than yellow and green.

We must be prepared to talk when we believe they are ready to hear. Without glibness. Without talking down. Without bluffing.

Here's is a comprehensive list of things we can absolutely promise the young who live in our care:

1. We will do everything in our power to protect you each and every day.

2. ...(there is no 2).

We must not make promises we can't keep.

That said, we must not believe for a moment that being unable to do everything we wish, in any way disqualifies us from doing everything we can—or relieves our duty to wish and work in every way we must. Strength and goodness were never prerequisites for action. "Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord?" the writer Annie Dillard asks,"or shall stand in his holy place?" 

There is no one but us. There is no one to send, nor a clean hand, nor a pure heart on the face of the earth, nor in the earth, but only us, a generation comforting ourselves with the notion that we have come at an awkward time, that our innocent fathers are all dead—as if innocence had ever been—and our children busy and troubled, and we ourselves unfit, not yet ready, having each of us chosen wrongly, made a false start, failed, yielded to impulse and the tangled comfort of pleasures, and grown exhausted, unable to seek the thread, weak, and involved. But there is no one but us. There never has been. There have been generations which remembered, and generations which forgot; there has never been a generation of whole men and women who lived well for even one day. — Annie Dillard, Holy the Firm, Harper and Row, 1977 p 56-57

This is the spirit in which each generation of God's people ushers the next generation to that table God prepares before us in the presence of our enemies. None of us comes to this table because we are worthy. If we come at all, we come because we are hungry.

We must be present, ears and eyes and hearts open to what is before us and around us and inside us. We must push ourselves to remember and tell the truth as well as we can, and trust God to make that enough.

[This is adapted from from the silence of the lambs, posted December 14, 2012, following the massacre of children at the Sandy Hook school in Newtown, Connencticut (which, in turn, was adapted from It's Not Supposed to Be Like This, posted April 16, 2007, following the slaughter at Virginia Tech). Here are some biblical texts that inform these thoughts and may be useful as you explore all this: the opening paragraph of Hebrews...2 Peter 3...Hebrews 11...Matthew 5:38-48...Psalm 24...Psalm 23...Isaiah 55]

,

1 in 5 | man up

in the wind | tweets from the space ending 10.20.15

Where kids get the guns they carry + how to reduce the incidence of minors carrying firearms http://buff.ly/1OsoaOl 

Free 2015 National Bullying Prevention Month resources for teenagers http://buff.ly/1FIFjjW 

Sanitized for your protection|Is this a thing where you live? http://buff.ly/1N2OezB 

teenage tobacco use 2014 http://buff.ly/1N2P27z 

the price we pay for easing access to firearms just about all the time for just about anyone http://buff.ly/1L1QhOI 

States with informed antibullying laws reduce #bullying by 20% compared with other states http://buff.ly/1OiSOs7 

US teenagers by the numbers |annual death rate declined more than 1/3 from 1999 through 2013 http://buff.ly/1k0gIOb 

Digital Differences | Teenage Boys, Girls, Social Media + Romance http://buff.ly/1ZGvj1H 

The less $ parents made 2011-14, the more likely their children were diagnosed w/ ADD or ADHD http://buff.ly/1LcxUJb

US high school cigarette, cigar + marijuana smoking declined 1997–2013—% using pot but not tobacco rose http://buff.ly/1OGcKFI

fatal crash rates for teen drivers fell 56% 2004–13—but car crashes still kill more teens than all causes http://buff.ly/1NKdvPh 

Putin + Power | Food for thought from Fareed Zakaria http://buff.ly/1NMkIP1 

playing doctor | new report on how state lawmakers insert themselves between us + our physicians http://buff.ly/1LB4QsR 

In the wind | tweets from the space ending 09.19.15

9th grade is the most common year for sex abuse against girls | here's a pdf for parents buff.ly/1FebZBQ

separating wheat from chaff is a learned skill buff.ly/1Km7bat

YouTube Minecraft channels are not all created equal buff.ly/1iWnnZ5

My @Quora answer to What is a content designer? qr.ae/RoYfJb

In the wind | tweets from the space ending 09.13.15

why are we still talking about this? | 2015 VMA ratings were in the toilet with the show's lowlights 
buff.ly/1L4O1po #letitgo #youthwork

re: reports of sliding SAT scores | College success relates more to HS GPA than test scores 
buff.ly/1OeadQU #parenting @youthwork #learning

vapes + chaw | 2001–13 HS smokeless tobacco use rose more among athletes than nonathletes 
buff.ly/1EE4zI6 #youthwork #parenting

Does your underage child use Kik Messenger? | @Commomsense tips for #parents 
buff.ly/1KS6HNd #youthwork

happy Labor Day to all the greedy-grabby workers 
buff.ly/1PVKA8b #commongood #work

Every once in a while, a story... 
buff.ly/1UJJ6iE #mercy #storycorps

teaching - without preaching - about religious practice 
buff.ly/1QbSDOh #youthwork

rocks cry out | a StoryCorps Story about mercy

Julio Diaz courtesy StoryCorps

Every now and again a story like this one from Julio Diaz pops ups and stops me in my tracks. It's been floating around for quite a while but, somehow, I just heard it [h/t @JayHowver]. It's short, but, I think, long-lasting.

In an epoch of crazed, angry, fear, Mr. Diaz drops a little mercy on a stranger who needs it. Thank you sir. And thank you, StoryCorps.

greedy-grabby workers | Anne Lamott on Labor Day

I understand why politicians want to see labor as the cause of most of our societal and economic problems. It takes the focus off the banks, the corporations, the military-industrial complex. But public school teachers? I guess they really are sort of greedy and grabby — not to mention rich. Especially those greedy-grabby public school special ed teachers. My younger brother is one of them, and boy, is he raking it in. Talk about take, take, take. -- Anne Lamott

in the wind | tweets from the space ending 08.28.15

Too early | Early school day start as a risk factor for adolescents http://buff.ly/1DCAKak 

grade-by-grade | a parents guide to primary school learning objectives + methods http://buff.ly/1DMLaEc

UPDATE on the great northern migration | turns out it's 98043 http://buff.ly/1E07U3w 

holy moley | Stephen Colbert talks about life, the universe + everything http://buff.ly/1J3a13q

Future Framers of America | 15 year-old presidential candidate polling well in early states http://buff.ly/1Lnl2Cx 

when they're good they're very good + when they're bad they're horrid | suspect social apps http://buff.ly/1JvTElo

Diagnosis | 1997-2014: Has a health professional ever told you your child had ADHD or ADD? http://buff.ly/1LyRVJN 

social media network effect | a bit overstated + clunky perhaps, but here's a useful case study http://buff.ly/1Vi7A4S

The first time | new data on when college students are most likely to first try controlled substances http://buff.ly/1N0eI4p

in the wind | tweets from the space ending 08.08.15

Losing their cool? | life after middle school http://buff.ly/1Jkigw2 

Gray Matters | New medical study finds childhood poverty negatively affects brain development http://buff.ly/1MROlKk 

passages | 92024 - 98155 (give or take) http://jimhancock.blogspot.com 

passages | 92024 - 98155 (give or take) UPDATE

If you were thinking about coming to visit Susan and/or me in San Diego, think instead of what that visit might be like in Seattle - because that's where we'll be... tomorrow (assuming nothing weirder happens than us moving from San Diego to Seattle).

[UPDATE: We've found a lovely place to live in Mountlake Terrace, Washington - a touch more than ten miles north of Seattle proper (that's 98043 for those keeping score at home). It's worlds away from our little southern California beach town - there are big trees and blackberry brambles out the back door, and it's remarkably quiet. Second night in town we saw Kate in Shakespeare's As You Like It in the Seattle Shakespeare Company outdoor summer series; fourth night, we heard her sing a hilarious and delightful new song in the 17th annual New Voices concert at Seattle Repertory Theater - so, off to an entertaining start! Just a bit more unpacking and settling (thanks for helping with the move-in Hamers + Jaegers!) and we'll be fully operational. 

On this first day of school for many families we love, I suppose we're feeling the end of summer too - sad to have left our good life and lovely friends in California... and excited for all that's ahead.]

Leaving Colorado in 2000, we expected to land in the Seattle area but found ourselves happily rerouted for 15 wonderful years at the beach. Now, in the ebb and flow of all things, we’ve decided to complete the journey. We sold our little beach home at blinding speed, and we’re on our way.

In terms of work, other than physical location, nothing changes - the tiny company called me is still open for business, just farther north.

This move brings us back together with our daughter, the amazing Kate Jaeger and her wonder-spouse Eli, so we're majorly stoked about that. This reunion mitigates some of the melancholy we feel in leaving dear friends and neighbors in our remarkable San Diego community (we never expected that sort of closeness - what a crazy, beautiful grace... Thank you.)

So, on we go! More news when there is more...

in the wind | tweets from the space ending 07.14.15

sexting | L.A. Unified opts for prevention over punishment http://buff.ly/1HMhF4U

good news | Kentucky churches integrate Common Core standards in Vacation Bible School http://buff.ly/1MhVof4 

ending racism for good | "Try not! Do. Or do not. There is no try." http://buff.ly/1TovDxO 

You know they kill Nemo's mom, right? | Films you should watch + talk about WITH your child http://buff.ly/1gsLIV3

teenage sexual predators | important new study on adolescents who perpetrate sexual violence http://buff.ly/1O7tOTc

Not what the preacher said | 82% of 13-17 year-olds in Ypulse study say they are virgins http://buff.ly/1K54U5e
gamer survey | boys want better female game protagonists http://buff.ly/1K4ZBCQ

In the wind | tweets from the space ending 07.05.15

Common Sense Media's running list of outstanding movies for children, tweens, and teens buff.ly/1BBFkUX 

Brilliant. Neil Gaiman reveals the easiest path to becoming a writer h/t Publication Life buff.ly/1Gy4H70

#makegunviolenceharder | everytown.org

Summer reading for middle schoolers buff.ly/1IBaBV6 h/t @CommonSense

first person | a plantation tour guide + the questions she got about slavery buff.ly/1U5dnLd 

inside out | a graphic artist explores the overlap of 25 emotions buff.ly/1CHADEj 

in the wind | tweets from the space ending 06.21.15

Click away, Clickster...

little-to-no good news | new data on college sexual assaults

some people's children | essays, poems, and points of view from high school seniors on growing up in these parts

study this | active gaming MAY be physically as good for kids as playing outside

not trying to pick a fight | Ten Things We Should Never Say to Kids 

founding fathers haggle over the second amendment

founding fathers haggle over the 2nd amendment

not trying to pick a fight | 10 Things We Should Never Say to Kids

People get mad -— not everyone, but more than I would've thought — when they see some of the things I'm convinced we should never say to kids. It's as if I were insulting their mothers... as if I were saying something was wrong with the way they were raised. 

Um, yes, I see their point. That is what I'm saying: I'm saying more than half a lifetime of trying to help teenagers and adults finish the work their parents started but couldn't complete has convinced me we'd be better off saying nothing if all we can come up with is stuff like:

• Do You Have Your Jacket-Homework-Gym-Bag-Back-Pack-Keys? — because one day we won't be there
• What Were You Thinking! — because (at least if it has an exclamation point on it) that's almost never an honest question
• Because I Said So — because kids soon figure out that's hardly ever the real reason
• You Are Such a Pretty Little Thing — because it's a time bomb
• I’m Proud of You! — another sort of time bomb
• You Can Do Anything You Set Your Mind To — because it's a set-up
• Let Me Tell You What Happened Here — because children don't need us to do their thinking for them
• That’s Not How You Do It! — because what it that is how a child does it; and it gets done and the world doesn't end
• Don’t Make Me Turn This Car Around — because, “If you’re going to bluff, you have to be clear about what kind of game you’re playing.” [h/t Ehud Kalai, Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University]
• I Give Up — because no child ever needed to hear that from a parent

But of course we can come up with better things to say, and that's what 10 Things We Should Never Say to Kids is really about. So, go ahead... help yourself. 

Download 10 Things We Should Never Say to Kids