Coming up this Sunday, two distinct foci.  At church, All Saint’s – a religious holiday designated to celebrate those faithful who have gone on to glory.  In the ‘hood, Halloween…

This past Monday’s newspaper was an extraordinary thing, a manifesto of weirdness so acute that I had to remind myself I was reading a newspaper rather than some dystopian novel. …

Last night, I insisted that we watch the 2006 movie, “United 93”, together. It’s the only major motion picture made about 9-11 that attempts to chronicle the events of that…

Answered Prayers “Please” comes so much more automatically to my lips than “thank you.” My list of hopes and special requests goes on, ad infinitum, and I impose on the…

What a week we are having in our world. The Taliban’s total victory in Afghanistan; America’s total failure to keep promises to friends, allies, or even U.S. citizens there.  The…

My younger sister, Samantha, brought me two relics of our teen years when she came to stay this week. I have been ruminating on them ever since. Item one: an…

Have you noticed? As we stumble out of this strange summer, reality is re-arranging itself into patterns that almost look like “normal.”  Almost. It’s painfully easy to spot vestiges of…

A prayer poem That turning point in history, inked signatures on the page Alive with promises to keep; they made the age New. Declared “independence.” Severed ties with distant kings. …

I majored in art history in college. These days, I am wondering whether “art” and “history” are both on their way to becoming non-sequiturs.  I bring this up because art…

Truth in dreadful disguise My girls and I watched a production of “Cinderella” recently. Released six years ago, this movie stars Lily James, was directed by Kenneth Brannagh, and consists…