When hanging out with friends, I’ve started to wonder (surreptitiously) if they’d be good part-time surrogate parents. You start thinking these things as you project into the future, imagining your child as a future teenager who may not want to confide in you. You hope that, at that time, you’ll be able to encourage her […]
Extraordinary Women
The Time Magazine list of the 100 Most Influential People in the World is always fascinating, because for every person listed, you know there are thousands of unknown others who are also humbly changing the world. To my delight, under the Heroes section, Ang Lee (the Taiwanese-born director of Brokeback Mountain) applauds a Taiwanese woman, […]
Gospel of Glee
A few months back, I read a couple of the winning scripts of a well-known Christian screenplay contest. My aim was to figure out if I could write one. My decision was that I couldn’t. Now, before you jump to conclusions and assume I’m against all “Christian” movies, I’m not. But there’s a difference between […]
ABCs & Other Cool Stuff
ABCs For those of you in the throes of ABC learning, and even for those of you who are way past that adventure, but still love the beauty of all the letters, here are a few fun things I’ve discovered. First, Brooke Reynolds’ excellent list of ABC books (she does the remarkably creative and idea-filled […]
Is It Ever Right To Lie?
Years ago, when I was still teaching high schoolers, the movie Life is Beautiful came out, and it was the topic of much discussion as my students entered and exited my room during passing periods. “Go see it, Elliott,” they’d say. [They always knocked off the “Mrs.” I think it was their way of including […]