To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here One of America’s most famous musical compositions has a powerful spiritual core. In 1942, dancer and choreographer Martha Graham approached the composer Aaron Copland and asked him to write a ballet with “an American theme.” What he created was Appalachian Spring, an uplifting composition that more than a few music critics have hailed as… Read more »
To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here With its geysers, bubbling hot springs, grizzly bears, and herds of bison, Yellowstone National Park has always been a special place. Yellowstone’s significance, however, has undergone a bit of a transformation in recent years. Geologists have begun to grasp that America’s most famous park sits atop a “hot spot,” a thin place… Read more »
To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here If God really exists, why is the world such a mess? It’s easy to document that on any given day people all over the planet awaken to wars, famines, and corruption. Why doesn’t God, with one sweep of his hand, wipe the slate clean? No wonder “the problem of pain” is the number one… Read more »
To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here In Vienna, Austria, in the middle of the 19th century, going to a hospital to have a baby could be likened to a roll of the dice. Sometimes, new mothers did not return home. The mortality figures were staggering. Almost 20% of the expectant moms in Vienna General Hospital’s First Obstetrical Clinic succumbed to… Read more »
To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here If you’re into conspiracy theories, the late great Georgia Guidestones might be your cup of tea. They were huge. Their origin was mysterious. And their meaning definitely generated plenty of heated conversation. The Guidestones, sometimes referred to as “America’s Stonehenge,” were located about 90 miles east of Atlanta near the town of Elberton. Four gargantuan… Read more »
To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here On April 14, 1912 – 114 years ago today – the RMS Titanic struck an iceberg just before midnight. Two hours and 40 minutes later, the “unsinkable” British luxury liner plunged more than two miles into the depths of the North Atlantic Ocean. Historians estimate that more than 3 million ships are lying somewhere… Read more »
To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here Did you hear the one about the golfer describing his pastor? “His tee shots are a lot like his sermons: long, to the right, and always near a hazard.” Speaking of the little white balls that just provided four more days of drama at the Masters Tournament, why in the world do they have… Read more »
To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here Pablo Picasso’s 1937 mural Guernica is one of the most emotionally disturbing paintings of all time. It is enormous, standing about 12 feet tall and stretching 25 feet side to side. It is stark, featuring not a single vibrant color from his palette, but only blacks, whites, and grays. It is abstract, displaying classic Picasso… Read more »
To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here “How are you doing?”“Just fine, thank you.” That script, which most of us have followed more times than we can count, might constitute the world’s shortest conversation. But it hardly qualifies as a meeting of minds and hearts. And in this context, “fine” almost never means everything is fine. “Fine” often serves as a one-word… Read more »
To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here Why is this picture such a hoot? It’s a wonderful example of irony. Irony is a form of humor that’s somewhat hard to define. Technically, it’s “a contradiction between what a statement or situation is supposed to represent, and what it actually is.” Most of us know it when we see it. For instance, when a… Read more »
