5 Sep 2014

People Say the Darnedest Things

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Following his first cross-country practice at his new school, my son had to report for an “imPACT” evaluation. The name comes from “Immediate Post Concussion Assessment and Cognitive Testing” and it’s now used widely in schools, apparently to see how our kids’ brains are doing. Gone are the days when only certain rough sports were considered the only culprits; it’s open season now for athletics in general. Apparently, the computerized Q and A session provides important “baseline” data—data we didn’t … Read More
15 Mar 2014

Let It Go, Sure, but Know When (What) To Hold On Too (To)

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Isn’t it a little weird that the hit song “Let It Go” is from a movie called Frozen? I mean — one is all about fluidity and movement, the other about being stuck in one place. Maybe there’s something here I’m not getting. In any case, the lyrics have got me thinking about all the times I’ve experienced the need to push something aside or watch it evaporate, versus the times I’ve experienced the need to hold on to something … Read More
6 Mar 2014

Religion, Transformed

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  How far can religion go into the popular culture until it doesn’t even resemble religion at all?  In my mind’s eye, I see a robed figure, walking with dignity, gradually being enveloped in a crowd of people who are shaking their arms, some dancing, and most definitely making a racket. When the robed figure starts acting the way the crowd does, we look closer, but we’re not altogether sure we like it. Look at this picture, for example. Isn’t … Read More
21 Jan 2014

There’s More Than One Way to Hustle

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  “You really aren’t comfortable with moral ambiguity, are you?” This was the question my husband asked me shortly after we emerged, one evening last week, from seeing American Hustle. For some reason he thought I hadn’t liked the whole movie, when what I think I said was that I didn’t particularly warm up to any of the main characters, except for maybe Carmine Polito, who is open to taking money from an unknown Arab sheikh for the casinos because all … Read More
13 Jan 2014

How Do You Make, How Do You Take Your Community?

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Is there a sure-fire way to tell the real thing from an imitation?  And what allows an imitation to be acceptable or even preferable?  When it comes to fulfilling our natural desire for community, who is to say if one kind is more genuine or life-giving than another? Some months after advising me to lay off the salt, my doctor also told me to cut out sugar and all white foods—wait, I think cauliflower is allowed — as much as possible. … Read More
31 Dec 2013

I Believe, Therefore I Do

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On the heels of Christmas with its mix of sacredness and enchantment, I’m setting out to write something here about the act of believing in something and how closely it is, or perhaps is not, aligned with leading a good life. Of course just about any fool would say that the quality of anything flowing from a particular source must depend primarily on the legitimacy of the source – or set of beliefs – itself. I would maintain, however, that … Read More
15 Dec 2013

Getting ready for Something, or perhaps for Nothing

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  Right now — with many of us running around trying to decide which particular thing would actually make a difference in someone’s life as opposed to just adding to a mountain of stuff really beside the point — seems like a good time to consider how far apart, or close together, nothing and something are. What we find here could come in handy. Opposites, you say?  Not so fast. Sure, who could argue with Julie Andrews (or, just the … Read More
23 Nov 2013

Ball of Confusion? Bring It On

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“You all should leave here feeling confused,” said one of my son’s professors during their semester in South Africa. Not what you would expect a representative of higher learning to say to students on a life-changing journey, but given what they had been absorbing at every turn about one side of an issue being just as compelling as another, they all understood what he meant. Listen to an advocate for wildlife preservation and then listen to a farmer struggling to … Read More
7 Mar 2013

Preachers’ Wives and Daughters Tell it on the Telly

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These days, I’m a little confused about whether the main function of television is to give us a break from our regular lives or to reveal aspects of other people’s lives that may in turn shed light on our own.  Maybe, even before this whole “reality” genre took off, it’s always been a little bit of both.  In any case, when I learn about new shows that come right into my territory, I become a bit like a four-legged creature:  … Read More

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