Kristin Berkey-Abbott
Kristin Berkey-Abbott
A poet, a scholar, a teacher, a wanna-be mystic--always wrestling with the temptation to run away to join an intentional community--but would it be contemplative? social justice oriented? creative? in the mountains? in the inner city?--may as well stay planted and wrestle with these tensions and contradictions here, at the edge of America.
August 2026
September 2026
October 2026
Top Words
- sunday
- farewell
- saturday
- fragments
- pumpkin
- full
- poem
- satisfying
- alternate
- quilting
- labor
- woes
All posts (37)
In late 2022 and early 2023, I first heard about ChatGPT and the current incarnation(s?) of artificial intelligence, I heard a lot of experts telling us that machines/programs/AI can't learn the way humans can learn. Then they'd explain the creation process of these technologies and how humans programmed them to...
As a teacher, I have had students do peer editing a variety of ways: in pairs, in groups of 4-5, as a big group passing papers to the left every ___ minutes, online as a discussion thread, and so on. My new approach with peer editing in my two different creative writing classes has gone better than any other...
Yesterday was a fairly good day. At church, as I was moving through the communion liturgy, I could feel my throat about to crack, and sure enough, I went into a coughing fit. Because I was at the words of institution, I felt weird about having someone else speak the words--Lutherans believe that only ordained or...
Yesterday was an overscheduled Saturday, full of rewarding activities, but almost too full. I had Zoom calls, one after another, along with a conference call with the church council which was meeting in Bristol, and a phone call to catch up with my sister. I volunteered at the Lutheridge Camp Store, a frustrating...
Even though my friends tease me for my apocalyptic mindset, my ability to see dystopia lurking around every development, I am not always quick to see immediate, personal danger in world developments. I remember a leadership team meeting in early February of 2020, when our college president mentioned this strange new...
It's been a good week, but I feel behind, in the way that I often do once the semester gets underway. I was shocked yesterday when I wrote in my bullet journal: "Teaching Plans, Week 5." Let me capture a few notes from the week:Writing:--This week's short story writing made me think of earlier writing I've done....
In later years, when I wonder why my blogging fell off a cliff in the past week, let me remember 2 factors. Tech woes kept me offline or otherwise engaged for several days: an internet outage one day, followed by my authenticator app not working and then being glitchy.But I've also been writing a short story! Once...
It has been an intense few weeks, book-ended by Quilt Camp on one end and Crafts for Christmas on the other end. I made a quick trip to Columbia, SC for an overnight last Wednesday; I am trying to go once a month to see my grad school friend who had the catastrophic stroke 2 years ago.I've had tech woes with the...
Labor Day brings to mind many things for me. I think of the ways this holiday has changed. In my lifetime, Labor Day signaled a coming end to the intense heat, with only a week or two left. But in our time of planetary climate upheaval, no longer.Labor Day has also signaled fashion choices, like when to put away...
Yesterday was a frustrating day. On Thursday, I had trouble with the authenticator app that I have to use to get access to my online classes. On Friday, I had the same trouble, so I thought I'd call the help desk early in the morning before everyone else tried to call. So, at 4 a.m., I called, and at 5:20, I was...
We've had a major internet outage in my service area overnight, so let me make a quick blog post in case it flickers out again.On Monday, I made this Facebook post, which has gotten more likes than almost any other Facebook post I've ever made:My department chair just said I am the Swiss Army knife of the...
I was sad to hear of the death of Wendell Berry on Monday. But why should I be sad? He was 92 and had lived a good life, mostly on his own terms, from what I could see. But the death felt like "one of the greats has left us" moments. I remember reading him in college, so his writing has been with me a long time.Back...
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