November 2011
59 posts
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“If it is art — if it is honest to God, card-carrying, well done,...”
– —Phyllis Tickle, from “A Return to Mystery: Religion, Fantasy, and Entertainment”
Looking back at this old transcript in anticipation of this week’s show, “Monsters We Love” with Diane Winston, I found these lovely lines worth pondering.
Photo by Wyoming...
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An Advent of Doubt and Struggle
by Debra Dean Murphy, special contributor
Advent is my kind of season.
No, not the pseudo-Advent of most Christian piety with liturgically-correct hymns and texts on the Sundays of the season and full-on Christmas hoopla all the other days, but this one: the ancient, autumnal interval of darkness and foreboding with its achy uncertainty blanketing landscapes both inner and outer. This Advent...
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“At lectures there are always some who raise their hands. But I think it’s...”
– Paul Davies, on sending people on a one-way trip to Mars in this month’s issue of Wired magazine ~Trent Gilliss, senior editor
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Into the Wilderness: Parenting a Terminally Ill...
by Emily Rapp, guest contributor
“You feel your obligation to a child when you have seen it and held it. Any human face is a claim on you, because you can’t help but understand the singularity of it, the courage and loneliness of it. But this is truest of the face of an infant. I consider that to be one kind of vision, as mystical as any.” ~from Gilead by Marilynne Robinson
I...
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WatchLight Painting the Mines of North Wales
by Trent Gilliss, senior editor
If you’re looking for a brief respite between Thanksgiving meals or a brief interlude to the NFL triple play, check out this short film by Andrew Telling and Owen Richards. They shadow photographer Robin Friend as he traverses the foothills of North Wales and descends into an abandoned Victorian mine at Cwmorthin to do...
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Giving Thanks to My Ancestors on Día de Los...
by Jenny Ward McDonald, guest contributor
Last fall the idea to visit the family graveyard came to mind for the first time in ages. Día de Los Muertos seemed like the perfect excuse to make the journey. I allowed life and distance to keep me away, however, and I never went.
I am not Latina, but I did develop a strong appreciation for Mexican culture while studying midwifery on the Texas/Mexico...
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“I had an opportunity to read the speech, and I almost threw up. In my opinion,...”
– —Rick Santorum
The GOP presidential candidate, who, like John F. Kennedy, is also Roman Catholic, was speaking to a group at the College of Saint Mary Magdalen in Warner, New Hampshire in October when he made this comment about JFK’s seminal speech in 1960 in which the then-Democratic...
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“Most young people don’t look at history through the lens of hip-hop. Once they...”
– —Khalid el-Hakim, from the Detroit Free Press
His Black History 101 Mobile Museum educates people on African-American history and culture by displaying selections of more than 5,000 artifacts from black history in the United States. Wish I was in Dearborn last night to see some of pieces on...
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Expressions of Gratitude Improve Your Health
by Eric Nelson, guest contributor
Photo by Katie Harris/Flickr, cc by-nc-nd 2.0
Don’t worry. The article you are about to read has nothing to do with what you should or shouldn’t put on your Thanksgiving dinner plate. There’s nothing worse than having your hopes for the perfect holiday meal dashed by someone telling you that you might want to think twice before choosing this or that side dish.
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“Buddhism for me is like food I ate for ten years, for a long time as a monk, and...”
– —Ko Un, from his interview in the Cordite Poetry Review
The South Korean poet, who studied as a Buddhist monk for a decade before rejoining secular life, is considered a favorite for the Nobel Prize — with authors like beat icon Allen Ginsberg and Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh having written forewords...
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Anonymous asked: Have you experienced Joe Hutto's "My Life as a Turkey"? Currently watching a program on PBS Nature. Some fascinating insights into imprinting, presence, and being... Enjoy!
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Anonymous asked: Who is behind yourorganization
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A Prayer for Nature That Holds 100 Years Later
by Susan Leem, associate producer
Photo by Joel Bedford/Flickr, cc by-nd 2.0
Paul Brandeis Raushenbush, who is our featured guest this week at On Being, shared this poem by his great-grandfather along with his moving Thanksgiving Day Prayer. Nearly a century old, this prayer, Raushenbush writes, “reads so much like something that could/should be written today.”
Prayer for Nature by...
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WatchTuesday Evening Melody: “Plain Gold Ring” by Kimbra
by Chris Heagle, producer
Kimbra’s refreshing cover of Plain Gold Ring is a love letter to Nina Simone and her classic song. Built up from loops of her own voice created live in studio (watch the mic on the left), this mellow groove is instantly infectious. Don’t be fooled though, the her powerful voice takes us along to...
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Occupy Wall Street Takes New Park Owned By Trinity... →
As the OWS protestors are occupying Duarte Park, the Gothamist is providing live updates of the events.
~Trent Gilliss, senior editor
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WatchSurfing a Wave of Mystery
by Trent Gilliss, senior editor
When asked about surfing a world record 90-foot high wave (27 meters) above Nazare Canyon off the Atlantic coast of Portugal, Garrett McNamara comments in this Guardian video:
“This wave is very mysterious and very magical. It’s just such a mystery; you never know what you’re going to get out there.”
Magical?...
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A Turn of the Century Thanksgiving Prayer by...
by Susan Leem, associate producer
Photo by Brian Auer/Flickr, cc by-nc-nd 2.0
Thanksgiving is a time when many families gather in gratitude, and sometimes in prayer. Paul Raushenbush says his family prayer was written by his great-grandad, Walter Rauschenbusch. Composed around the turn of the twentieth century, the theologian and Baptist social reformer’s words remain as beautiful and...
Anonymous asked: Do you introduce us to the happiest women? The broadcast on Oct. 30 depicts is so male centered and completely oblivious to female compassion and experience.
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“With the demise of my own community’s two most revered leaders, Sandusky and Joe...”
– —Thomas L. Day, from his powerful piece in The Washington Post, “Penn State, My Final Loss of Faith.”
A participant in the Second Mile foundation as a teenager, a Catholic, an Iraq war veteran, and a Penn State alum, Mr. Day calls his parents’ generation to task and lets his...
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Anonymous asked: If you want to find God try spending 30 yrs. in a siberian prison.
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Anonymous asked: how to find "bell sound meditation" ?
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Anonymous asked: Have you read Dr. Melanie Joy's book, Why We Love Dogs, Eat Pigs, and Wear Cows?Or Dr. Will Tuttle's book, The World Peace Diet? Or Dr. Charles Patterson's book, Eternal Treblinka, Our Treatment of Animals and the Holocaust?Might you interview Dr. Steven Kaufman, one of the founders of CVA, Christian Vegetarian Association, or Dr. Richard Schwartz, Director of JVNA, Jewish...
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Parker Palmer on Healing the Heart of Democracy
by Kate Moos, executive producer
Participants at a conference reflect on a plenary session speech by Parker Palmer. (photo: Fund for Theological Education)
Parker Palmer is the founder of the Center for Courage & Renewal and the author of nine books, including well-known titles such as The Courage to Teach and Let Your Life Speak. He is the recipient of many awards and honorary degrees,...
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“For at least some of those with soul-destroying morning commutes, liberation may...”
– —Ray Fisman at Slate reports on a study that shows that telecommuting may not be the “working from home” joke many of us make it out to be. And, yet, when all the workers were offered a telecommuting option, half the employees opted to inhabit a cube, “preferring the hours in...
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Creed
by Shebana Coelho, guest contributor
On a morning, sharp with winter, fresh with cold, I rise and walk on mesa paths, red with longing-mine, red with loving-mine.
In slivers of air, here and there, smells of sage come and go. But their memory always lingers.
Bluejays dart through juniper without even a hello. But ravens stop and chat. From the tops of topmost branches, they say: one day,...
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Online Initiative Enriches Study of Sacred Texts...
by Matthew L. Skinner and Joshua M. Z. Stanton, guest contributors
Photo by Trey Ratcliff/Flickr, cc by-nc-nd 2.0
Picture this: an Iraqi reporter becomes interested in the work of a Jewish student in Israel after reading an article about Jewish-Muslim relations in medieval Spain that the student published online. The reporter contacts the student and interviews him about future prospects for...
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Are Legal Obligations Enough? Did Penn State's Joe...
by Trent Gilliss, senior editor
The Patriot-News editorial board has issued a stinging condemnation of the moral and ethical responsibility of Penn State officials, including the university’s legendary head football coach, Joe Paterno. How are you thinking through this mess and the moral and ethical responsibilities of Paterno about these alleged crimes against children?
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“Many people have criticized the so-called ‘social gospel,’ but Jesus...”
– —Billy Graham, from his 1984 book, Peace with God
The influential Evangelical preacher’s turned 93 yesterday. Happy belated birthday to you, reverend!
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Unforeseen Beauty and Possibility: A Decade of...
by Krista Tippett, host
The Brooklyn sun on September 11, 2001. (photo: by Joshua Treviño/Flickr, cc by-nc-nd 2.0)
In a perfect world, or at least a perfectly informed one, most Americans would have known something about Islam as the 21st century opened. They would have been aware that over one billion of the world’s people belong to this faith that emerged from the monotheistic soil of...
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“My sense of the holy, insofar as I have one, is bound up with the hope that...”
– Richard Rorty (1931-2007), from an exchange between the American pragmatist philosopher and the Catholic philosopher Gianni Vattimo in The Future of Religion.
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Who Was the Buddha? The Story of a Human Being...
by Toni Bernhard, guest contributor
An image of the Buddha is carved into a banyan tree at Wat Mahathat in Thailand. (photo: McKay Savage/Flickr, cc by 2.0)
The name Buddha means “awakened one.” This is the story of how a young man became the Buddha. As with all ancient tales, we can’t know what is to be taken literally and what is to be taken metaphorically. It doesn’t matter to me. I’m...
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"60 Minutes" Legend Andy Rooney Is Dead at Age of... →
“Writers never retire.”
Only one month after Mr. Rooney he delivered his final broadcast, the legendary CBS commentator has died. What a loss.
Here’s his last commentary for 60 Minutes.
~Trent Gilliss, senior editor
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Good News Story of the Week: Two Muslim Pakistani... →
When I read stories like this, I just want to stand up and sing that darned Lee Greenwood song (which drives me absolutely mad).
~Trent Gilliss, senior editor
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“The reality emerging out of the Exodus is not just a new religion or a new...”
– —Walter Brueggemann, The Prophetic Imagination
