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Articles by Scot Bellavia
SCOT BELLAVIA: God in the Library
Talking to strangers about God is a muscle I don’t work very often. But I try to take the opportunity when it comes up. A few weeks ago, I was working on my laptop in a library at a shared table when a man sat down diagonally from me. As he prepared to read and study, his phone rang or dinged, and he swore at it, fumbling to silence it. He looked at me and our tablemate, a woman napping on the far corner, worried the interruption disturbed us. It hadn’t.
SCOT BELLAVIA: What Are Alexa’s Pronouns?
I’ve heard it said that we’ve welcomed robots into our homes without hesitation because they don’t look like us. Had the Roomba and Alexa been humanoid, we wouldn’t have become so dependent on them. It’s the theory of the uncanny valley; the aesthetics would be too unsettling to tolerate. But our words betray us. We treat these machines like pets because of how they seem to respond. Indeed, they have become conversation partners. The new frontier is AI chatbots like ChatGPT.
Am I Proud to Be an American?
I posted that question on Facebook a few years ago on the Fourth of July. I wasn't asking how proud or embarrassed my Facebook friends were of the global reputation of the United States, as the question might infer. Instead, I wanted to know how much weight my connections gave to their citizenship compared to other identifiers like race and, especially, religion. The following is how I answer that question this Fourth of July.
That Awkward Moment
In the true crime book The Onion Field , Joseph Wambaugh describes a moment between two characters: "Sometimes the boy wished they could sit and that words would flow. But when they sat, eyes would turn shyly away. Father and son usually fell silent. It was the ancient inherited shame of fathers and sons." While that's not everyone's paternal experience, it is a familiar trope.
SCOT BELLAVIA: On Reading
For all their differences, books by writers about writing agree on one thing: To be a writer, you must be a reader. So, I read voraciously. I heard once that the excitement of starting a book is not the anticipation of "entering new worlds," as the posters in elementary school libraries entice. For adults anyway, the thrill of starting a book is the thought that you'll have the free time to finish it. When I first heard that take, I didn't want it to be true. I wanted to enter those worlds.
An Exhortation to X Out
Friend, listen to my words. YouTube is a root of all kinds of evil. On it is unfiltered, unregulated, unverified, unrighteous refuse. And such is all of social media. It is 2025; do ye not yet know the schemes of The Algorithm? She feeds thine eyes only on what ye will agree with and what ye will disagree with. In effort to engage thee, she enrages thee. She wants thine eyes and takes thy heart. The Algorithm makes saviors out of mortals and Satan from children of God.
First Week With the Third-Born
(At the hospital) These pangs are worse than I remember. I am never doing this to my wife again. Heh, as if avoidance ever guarantees safety. The baby is stuck on their way out for what turns out to be 27 seconds. I watch the way the doctor looks at the nurses and I assume the worst. I feel faint and they tell me I am pale, but if my wife can keep going I will, too. I don't notice (thank God) when a nurse gets on top of her and pushes from the outside.
Leading Well Begins with Reading Well
Leadership is more of a posture than it is a position. An employee can have great influence on their organization, whether they are the CEO or the new intern, if they are willing to be an example. Hard work is contagious and when a lazy CEO sees a new intern going above and beyond the expectations, it is both convicting and motivating.
Work Like a Full-Time Employee...Whether You Are One or Not
This title may sound odd to you regardless of whether you work full- or part-time hours. If you’re working part time, this message is partly for you. Perhaps you are already working full time. You may be thinking, “How does this apply to me? I’m already doing that.” This is for you as well. Reflecting on my own work over the past months, I have realized some of my work tendencies as an employee as well as some changes in those tendencies.
We Are Who We Spend Time With
“Where there is no guidance, a people falls, but in an abundance of counselors there is safety.” —Prov. 11:14 In a recent blog post, I mentioned one of my favorite quotes: You will be the same person in five years as you are today except for the people you meet and the books you read (Charles “Tremendous” Jones). In that post, I discussed the influence of the books you read on your life. In today’s post, I want to talk about the other part of this quote, the influence of the people in your life.
Overcoming Shame in the Workplace
The teacher called my name and I felt my face ignite. Blood rushed to my cheeks and I knew immediately that I resembled a tomato. I quickly answered the question and tried to wish away my blushing cheeks, which was fruitless after a classmate whispered, “Why are your cheeks so red?” This was a far-too-common scenario during my childhood. Eventually, I gained some self-confidence and shed a few insecurities so I can now speak when spoken to (most of the time) without turning into a ripened tomato.
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