I’ve been reading and binge-watching, of all things, documentaries on the Nuremberg War Crimes Trials. My motivation lies in current events. If we’re going to compare the Trump Administration to the Nazi Party and Trump to Hitler, we should study the real thing. We are awash in both similarities and differences. As one difference, the […]
On Atheism and Humility
Some of my most intense religious formation came during my chaplain residency at a large teaching hospital north of Chicago. One day a week I would bring my guitar onto my assigned unit. I would do what I called “corridor concerts:” singing in the hallway rather like a wandering minstrel. I kept the volume low […]
Learning Resilience (and Resistance) from a Song
As I suspect a lot of songwriters can tell you, one’s best songwriting springs from the subconscious. This does happen to me every once in awhile. (Years ago I wrote a funny song titled “Body Parts,” about an auto junkyard worker’s love for his girlfriend. Only later, when pointed out by others, did I realize […]
Little Celebrations #10: Liturgical Quotables
To be human at all, is to celebrate and commemorate, to laugh and weep, to worry and rejoice. When we do these things in thoughtful community they become full and sacred. This is because the holy itself is composed of the commonplace of each life. * * * * * * * * * * […]
Of Science, Bison Bones, and Eternity
On a side trip last year while camping my way to the west coast, I found myself casting up dust along a tooth-jarring washboard road across Nebraska’s badlands. After twenty miles I arrived at a gravel parking lot, from which a dirt path led down to a Monet-like pond. Glassy water mirrored sky, cattails, willow, […]