To listen to this reflection as a podcast, click here. J.K. Rowling’s seven-volume series chronicling the adventures of Harry Potter is crowded with rich details. Readers are treated to magic, mythical beasts, evil wizards, elves, wands, pet owls, a flying broomstick game called Quidditch, and over 200 named characters – all set against the backdrop of a group of British schoolchildren trying their… Read more »
To listen to this reflection as a podcast, click here. She became known as the little girl who seemed to be carrying the weight of the world on her shoulders. For the better part of a year, six-year-old Ruby Bridges walked to school in the company of armed federal marshals who were assigned to protect her. William Frantz Elementary in New Orleans, like many… Read more »
To listen to this reflection as a podcast, click here. “Love” and “forever” go together like macaroni and cheese. Do a quick inventory of your favorite pop and rock songs, and you’ll discover that lovers routinely make eternal promises to each other. Jackie Wilson tells the world, “(Your love keeps lifting me) Higher and Higher.” Natalie Cole declares, “This Will Be an Everlasting Love.” … Read more »
To listen to this reflection as a podcast, click here. Every day during this season of Lent we’re looking at one of the “3:16” verses of the Bible, spotlighting some of the significant theological statements that happen to fall on the 16th verse of the third chapter of a number of Old and New Testament books. “This is how we know what… Read more »
To listen to this reflection as a podcast, click here. “Nothing buttery” sounds like a winning diet strategy. It’s actually slang for a philosophical perspective called reductionism, in which apparently mysterious realities are reduced to “nothing but” this or that. Sigmund Freud (1856-1939), the iconic father of psychoanalysis, pursued scientific reductionism with what can only be described as relentless zeal. According to Freud, human… Read more »
To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here. During the past five decades, Morton Kondracke has been one of the most recognizable American political commentators. The independent-thinking journalist appeared as a panelist on The McLaughlin Group and co-hosted the lively televised conversations known as The Beltway Boys. Now at age 83 he continues to write for the non-partisan Capitol Hill… Read more »
If a single individual can be credited with the founding of modern American surgery, William Halsted should be mentioned first. During the late 1800s Halsted was one of the “Big Four” physicians who helped launch Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. A surgical virtuoso, he was personally responsible for innovating a number of critical procedures. Halsted was also one of the first surgeons… Read more »
Malcom in the Middle, a sitcom about a comically dysfunctional family, was a smash hit on Fox for seven seasons (2000-2006). Lois, the overbearing mother (played by Jane Kaczmarek) is married to Hal, the emotionally immature but heart’s-in-the-right-place dad (played by Bryan Cranston, whom few people suspected at the time was on his way to becoming a critically acclaimed star). They… Read more »
A few years ago I ran across an advertisement for a love potion. It was called Love’s Bouquet. At the top of the ad were four exciting words: Never Be Lonely Again! Further down it read: “Just a touch or two of this powerful love-potion-in-a-bottle is all you need to captivate a new partner or revive a flagging romance. Love’s Bouquet,… Read more »
What could be more appropriate on Valentine’s Day than a kiss? That could be understood in several different ways, of course. It’s a given that millions of people will be enjoying at least one Hershey’s Kiss today. Those 23-calorie guilty pleasures have been on the scene since 1907. Interestingly, no one knows how they got their name. Some people insist… Read more »
