It would be easy to scoff. Her website says she’s a “Life-Cycle Celebrant®.” Note the registered trademark. She is ready to help you mark the significant passages of your life—wedding, funeral, coming of age, pet adoption—with a ritual that she will design specifically for you and whatever loved ones you care to have in attendance.
I definitely recommend brewing up a pot of strong coffee and reading through the piece yourself. But wouldn’t it be nice to have a dumbed-down version, with commentary, by your elbow as you read? An executive summary of sorts?
Rowan Williams for Dummies: On Human Sexuality Read More »
cultural commentary, spirituality
An art gallery downtown. Makoto Fujimura reads from The Four Quartets, testifies to what T.S. Eliot has meant to him. Tells of reading the poem aloud in the subway after 9/11. No one minded, he assures us.
Postcards from the Festival of Faith and Writing Read More »
arts, Calvin events, cultural commentary
I first found out about the new Broadway musical Hamilton during a car ride across Michigan last November. The family was packed in the minivan on our way to Thanksgiving dinner at my brother’s in Detroit. To pass the two-and-a-half hours of car time, we agreed that each person could choose a couple songs from “their” music, and we would take turns listening to each other’s choices. When my college-age son’s turn came up, he insisted that we listen to the Hamilton cast album.
Hamilton and Our Story Read More »
arts, cultural commentary, pop culture, review
Advice columnist Pious Petunia returns as a guest blogger to face her biggest challenge yet. What wisdom can Miss P offer for the horror that is Halloween?
Dear Pious Petunia: My children nag me every year to buy the expensive bags of chocolate bars to hand out as Halloween treats. Can I buy the cheap candy instead?
Miss P: Certainly. This is a fine opportunity to explain to the next generation the intricacies of the family budget. Set the little ones down in a circle and get out your laptop.
Pious Petunia Offers Treats, No Tricks Read More »
cultural commentary, Pious Petunia
We have arrived at that late-summer turning point when we take stock of what we have or have not accomplished since Memorial Day, back when the broad expanse of summer days ahead seemed to glow with promise: anything is possible! Build a deck! Clean out the basement! Organize the file cabinets! Write a book!
Time to admit—for another year—that it was all an optimistic fantasy.
Summer of the Low Achiever Read More »
college life, cultural commentary, review, silly
My daughter’s wedding is today. At last, the day has arrived! As you might expect, at my house we have been thinking of nothing but wedding wedding wedding for at least the past two weeks, and before that wedding business occupied a goodly share of our thoughts and energies for the past year.
A Celebration of Marriage as Covenant Read More »
cultural commentary, memoir, spirituality
Before the terrible shooting in Charleston on June 17, there was no Wikipedia page for the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church. Over the next 36 hours, 44 different editors made 152 edits to create a “solid” page, according to a fascinating blog post by librarian/blogger Peter Murray. Murray created an animation of that Wikipedia page so we can see it grow from “stub” to full page, complete with references. It’s worth taking a look, both at the animation and at the “finished” Wikipedia page. Murray describes how he built the animation, too, for you coding geeks.
Yes, they really joust! None of this Renaissance Faire theatrical choreography crap: pfuh! This is the real deal. Sixteen beefy guys with a glint in the eye and a fire in the belly suit up in 80 pounds of bristling steel armor, climb onto 1800-pound horses (they need a “ground crew” and a set of steps to get this far), and gallop at each other with 11-foot wooden lances at 30 miles per hour.
Ye Olden Reality TV Read More »
cultural commentary, review
*Any resemblances to real persons or events, past or present, are strictly coincidental.
Circa 1978
She: Honey, I think we were supposed to take that exit.
He: Are you sure?
She: Well, I’m looking at the atlas here and … boy, this is right on the edge of this page … here, I’ll look at the detail map on the next page.
He: Let me see that!
She: You drive! I’m navigating!
The American Road Trip: A Retrospective Read More »
cultural commentary, silly