What if every word we sayNever ends or fades away,Gathers volume gathers weigh,Drums and dins us with dismaySurges on some dreadful dayWhen we cannot get awayWhelms us till we drown? Poet Malcolm Guite's words ring a solemn warning while post-election analysis, rife with bliss and blame, weighs the heart. There is so little grace in … Continue reading Whoever You Are and However You Voted, You Are (Still) My Neighbor
"Joy" is a bright, simple word. It tugs on the heart. The mere mention of joy reminds us of a deep lack in our lives. We live without joy more often than we'd like to admit. So I don't have anything against the political planner who came up with the notion of employing "joy" as … Continue reading Joy: God’s Utterly Uncontrollable Glimmer
When I'm talking with friends about a book I enjoyed, I sometimes catch myself sheepishly confessing, "Well, I listened to it," as if listening didn't count as reading. I still believe that reading a printed copy of a book, pen in hand, is the most satisfying and enriching reading experience and that reading a book … Continue reading Five (Plus Five) Favorite Audible Narrators
I once grabbed a paperback called 3 by Flannery O’Connor to occupy the hours on a road trip from Colorado to Missouri. My husband was at the wheel and our two sons, armed with snacks and action figures, were belted in the back seat. At the time, I was finishing my English degree at the … Continue reading Wildcat Was Worth the Wait
I watched Oppenheimer twice. By now, whether you’ve seen the film or not, you’ve at at least heard that this year's Oscar winning Best Picture is beautiful, mesmerizing and thought provoking, with incredible performances at every level of its cast. The glittering, destructive power of the atomic bomb, the intensity of American concern that Nazi … Continue reading Resentment’s Destructive Power: Watching Oppenheimer while Reading René Girard
My father passed away on Christmas Day. Even though he was 89, the hospital call informing us that he was "letting go" was a sad surprise: it wasn't his long struggles with COPD and atrial fibrillation or even the suspected prostate cancer worrying him that ultimately caused his death. A stone lurking invisibly in his … Continue reading A Story Doesn’t Always Go the Way You Had in Mind: Thoughts on Faith and Suffering
Calvin and Hobbes, Bill Watterson's beloved comic strip, once depicted Calvin in a philosophical stance, opining to his stuffed tiger that “today’s TV-reared audience is hip and sophisticated.” “This stuff doesn’t affect us,” the impish Calvin continues. “We can separate fact from fiction. We understand satire and irony. We’re detached and jaded viewers who aren’t … Continue reading Favorite Reads of 2023: Four Unexpected Delights
Advent's simple candles and starry nights temper December's brisk pace. If we let them, they restore us to better rhythms of prayer. The melancholy yet hopeful tones of traditional Advent hymns, especially "O Come, O Come Emmanuel" have prepared hearts for Christmas for centuries and they never fail to help my weary heart find that … Continue reading “Joy to the World” – Not a Carol, but a Psalm?
It’s a Sunday evening many years ago. I’m newly married and my husband and I are watching a news show, 60 Minutes most likely, on the little bookshelf TV we'd sacrificed a good chunk of our budget to buy. The camera pans a hopeless inner city neighborhood where crime is high and gangs tempt young … Continue reading No Man Is an Island: One of Many Reasons Why I Still Show up at Church
Once upon a time when my mother was a kindergarten teacher, a little girl walked into her classroom and brightly announced, "my grandma blew up in the space shuttle!" What? The incongruence seemed humorous at first. Why on earth would a child say such a thing? It was late January, 1986. The tenth mission of … Continue reading The Power of Story in Dark Times
