To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here Seemingly out of the blue, there’s a new Indiana Jones. Fans of the Indianapolis Colts are keeping their fingers crossed that he might represent a positive turn in their football fortunes. NFL quarterback Daniel Jones – generally considered a first-round “draft bust” after five-and-a-half undistinguished seasons with the New York Giants… Read more »
To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here They’re called “nail houses,” and they’re appearing all over China. Just like a nail that needs to be knocked down or extracted from a board before it can be used in construction, nail houses stick out in places where real estate developers want to wrap up a major project. But a… Read more »
To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here Western culture, by and large, has embraced the premise that more is more. More money, more property, more opportunity – contentment is always just one exciting moment away. The problem is that more is never enough. A few years ago a corporate exec admitted, “We sell what nobody needs.” The problem,… Read more »
To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here Balloon stomp is a pretty straightforward game. Start with a group of children. Tie an inflated balloon to the leg or ankle of each child. Then shout “Go!” The kids descend upon each other’s balloons, trying to pop them with a hearty stomp – all the while defending their own balloon… Read more »
To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here There are circumstances. And then there are the ways we respond to circumstances. It is deeply wise not to confuse the two. In 1975 Laurel Lee, a mother with three young children, was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. Her husband, unable to come to grips with what was essentially her death sentence,… Read more »
To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here Until an episode during the eighth season of Seinfeld in 1997 brought it into the spotlight, few Americans knew the meaning of “yada, yada, yada.” Almost overnight it became a national catchphrase. “Yada, yada, yada” is essentially synonymous with “blah, blah, blah” – conversational fillers representing something so boring or inconsequential… Read more »
To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here What are the most irritating words or phrases used in casual conversation? A pair of American institutions of higher education actually keep track of such things. Lake Superior State University in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, annually publishes a list of words that most people are ready to consign to the conversational… Read more »
To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here Peggy Guggenheim figured she should at least give the guy a shot. The New York City socialite and art collector had crisscrossed Paris in 1940 as the Nazis closed in, purchasing a treasure trove of modern art. She returned home eager to put it on display – and, if possible, to… Read more »
To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here The late theologian Walter Wink called it the Myth of Redemptive Violence. It is the belief “that violence saves, that war brings peace, that might makes right. It is one of the oldest continually repeated stories in the world,” he wrote in his book The Powers That Be. Using force to… Read more »
To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here Today’s post is a bit different. Once a year I pause to address some of the questions I hear most often from readers. Where do you get the ideas for the subjects you address? Everywhere. I enjoy books, so many of the ideas spring from whatever I happen to be reading. I’m especially… Read more »
