Harbingers

Like millions of my fellow Americans, I am “sheltering in place,” reading more, connecting through virtual means, walking with friends, playing with my companion cat, Patches.  But something miraculous is happening outside my house in my own front and back...

“Paradise Lost”

I believe John Milton’s epic poem, Paradise Lost, offers us helpful words for most of life’s puzzles and quandaries.  In his preface to that poem, C. S. Lewis said that anyone who sits down to read this work is a different person when they get up from...

Creation Story

Sunday found me in the pew at my church listening to the first reading from the Bible.  It was the official creation story found in Genesis, all about Adam’s being created by God and then later Eve’s being made by taking a rib from Adam’s side.  My...

Happy Birthday

On this date in 1931 a baby girl was born in Lorain, Ohio, who would grow up to become a writer who changed not only how we think about black history and people but how we think about language in the service of fiction and reality.  Yes, I mean Toni Morrison.  We lost...

Glaring Incongruities

A friend sent me a fascinating and gripping article about the black woman director, Dee Rees.  After years of doing strong work in theater, e.g., “Pariah,” “The Last Thing He Wanted,” and the powerful “Mudbound,” Rees is currently...