My friend Becky reminded me of this quiet (yet spectacular) CD when she mentioned that Isakov opened for Ani DiFranco this week in Rochester. [The above picture is the album cover of Isakov’s This Empty Northern Hemisphere.] There’s something in his music that tugs at you. It’s sad and warm and full of longing. It […]
Heresy Was Not Always Heresy
When you become a Christian, you are told that “God has a plan for your life” and “Jesus died on the cross for your sins” and “You will go to heaven when you die.” But you aren’t told where all that doctrine came from. Well, other than the pat phrase, “Yes, it’s all there. Right […]
Finding Purpose in Pain
I feel a little inept at commenting on poet Cairns’ book (The End of Suffering: Finding Purpose in Pain by Scott Cairns), simply because I’ve already dealt with the universal problem of suffering in Eve (for myself). That statement sounds more grandiose than I intended. “Dealt with suffering” is never as final as a door […]
The Magician’s Elephant
I just read Kate DiCamillo’s The Magician’s Elephant last night. It’s a quick read–not a flippant, insignificant read, by the way–but a gorgeously written fable or fairy tale, complete with both ugly truth and unbelievable hope and redemption. It’s about believing in the impossible, making the impossible possible. Doesn’t that sound like something every human […]
U2
Amazing concert. Just as expected. Snow Patrol and U2. For those of you waiting for U2 to come to your town, they have a new gizmo, which brings the concert to everyone, even those orbiting in the nosebleed sections. It looks like a cross between a frog and a giant spaceship launching pad. The “legs” […]