To listen to this reflection as a podcast, click here. It’s amazing how many TV commercials and printed advertisements portray the joy of being at rest. A woman gazes out her window, savoring a cup of coffee. A couple yawn and stretch on silk sheets, welcoming the rising sun. Friends walk together slowly through the woods. A teenager strums a guitar at the… Read more »
To listen to this reflection as a podcast, click here. It’s not always easy to appreciate modern concert music. That’s especially true when it comes to the radical creations of artists like the French composer Pierre Boulez (pronounced Boo-LEZZ, 1925-2016) and the German musician Karlheinz Stockhausen (1928-2007), two of the most influential avant-garde composers during our lifetimes. The irony is that contemporary musical artists… Read more »
To listen to this reflection as a podcast, click here. Cattle are not the brightest lights in the barnyard chandelier. As Winnie the Pooh might describe them, they are creatures “of little brain.” But in one regard they are absolutely brilliant – the idiot savants of all livestock, as one cattle owner describes them. If there’s a weak place or hole of any kind… Read more »
To listen to this reflection as a podcast, click here. “Mommy, why did God make mosquitoes?” That’s a very good question. And it’s one that grown-ups annually find themselves asking as spring weather morphs into the signature heat and humidity of summer that mosquitoes seem to love. “Mosquito metrics” are daunting. Entomologists know of at least 3,500 species, 175 of which are proud to call… Read more »
To listen to this reflection as a podcast, click here. A man was walking across San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge when he saw a woman looking lonely and despondent. Fearful that she was about to do something desperate, he ran to tell her that God loved her. A tear came to her eye. Then he asked her, “Are you a Christian, Jew, Hindu,… Read more »
To listen to this reflection as a podcast, click here. Jerks definitely make the world a more interesting place. Gary Larson likewise made the world far more interesting during the 15 years that his Far Side cartoons ran in syndication in more than 1,900 newspapers. Larson is now 72 years old and retired from the craft that made him globally famous. He put down… Read more »
To listen to this reflection as a podcast, click here. By and large, the Ten Commandments are wonderfully brief and straightforward. Don’t lie. Don’t murder. Don’t steal. Don’t commit adultery. The second commandment is a bit more complex: “Don’t make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. Don’t bow… Read more »
To listen to this reflection as a podcast, click here. The picture above is beautiful. And also disquieting. Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin are hurtling toward the surface of the moon in the Apollo 11 Lunar Module on July 20, 1969. Within a few hours, Armstrong will take his “one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” No one suspected at the… Read more »
To listen to this reflection as a podcast, click here. It’s rare for people to admit they’ve made big mistakes in the past. A pair of church historians, William Cook and Ronald Herzman, recall the time the moderator of a political forum asked the candidates vying in a local election to acknowledge a single personal misstep – anything at all – and what… Read more »
To listen to this reflection as a podcast, click here. Charles Dickens is hands down the most famous fiction writer in the history of the English language. A few years ago, he was cited as the author of the most memorable line in all of British literature: “God bless us, everyone!” (Tiny Tim, from A Christmas Story). But that’s just the start. Dickens also… Read more »
