As I was driving home from Dr. Kenneth Miller’s talk up in St. Paul on Wednesday night, I listened to Brahms’ German Requiem. Having the almost-full moon peer down at me through my sunroof, it was an exuberant soul experience, let me tell you. It does the same thing to me that Vivaldi’s “Gloria in […]
Finding Darwin’s God
At the suggestion of Clara, one of my former students, I attended Dr. Kenneth Miller’s lecture on Finding Darwin’s God and Only a Theory (referring to Intelligent Design) last night at St. Kate’s in St. Paul. Amazing talk. Wow, if you’ve never heard him speak, do so. He talked for almost an hour and a […]
The Treasures You Get When You Read a Book
Today, I’m posting a piece I wrote a while back. I’m pretty sure it was for a children’s writing contest entitled, “What it Means to Have a Book Available in Another Culture or Language.” Our essays had to speak to that question. Mine really only spoke to culture, which is one of the reasons it […]
Making Kind Choices
A couple of years ago, Dan and I were watching Jesus Camp (which needs its own separate review, and which I have neither the stamina nor the strength to review here…there are so many astonishingly appalling things said in that movie…I wouldn’t know where to begin!) when there was a scene of a mother and […]
Cloud Cult
A year ago, Dan and I went to a Cloud Cult concert at First Avenue in Minneapolis where they were doing selections from Feel Good Ghosts (Tea-Partying Through Tornadoes). They’re an unusual band, with violin and oboe in tow–a sort of “indie-rock chamber orchestra”–and the starts of their songs sound like movie overtures sometimes, heartbreakingly […]