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When I began leading a weekly service, ten years ago, my very first talk was titled “Fool-fillment.” It happened to land on April 1, so the topic of foolishness seemed timely. It also felt like a decent poke at myself,…

I like Venn diagrams. Travis suggested this punny title, “Now and Venn,” about a week ago, and now I can’t get it out of my head. I’m sure you’re familiar with Venn diagrams — intersecting circles illustrating the links or…

I just heard about a hotline started by a California art teacher, Jessica Martin, and her elementary school students. Anyone can call and hear pre-recorded messages of encouragement, in English or Spanish, from this group of kids: “Press one if…

by Patty Stephens I’ve been thinking about how we express our lives with language. Especially how we speak about love, birth and death. The advantage of having a very large family of 11 siblings, 20 grandkids, 30 great-grandkids, 3 great-great-grandkids,…

In high school, Travis had a friend named Natalie, an exchange student from Frankfurt, Germany. While she lived here, she did a lot of clothes shopping for family and friends back home — blue jeans and other items that she…

Springtime feels eager. I like that about it. Things ready to return, coming to life. Even with frustrating stop-starts, temperatures faltering all over the place, still we’re tumbling more or less forward into something frolicsome and fresh. This year feels…

It’s clear that we affect each other. We shape each other’s lives in big ways and small ways all the time, accidentally and on purpose. Our behaviors, our moods, what we believe, and what we say all exert powerful influences…

There’s a lot to like about the Beatles. Even if you’re not a super-fan, you’ve got to admit that their catalogue represents one of the most impressive collections of memorable tunes in history. Innovation in a variety of styles, haunting…

“I decided that if I could paint that flower on a huge scale, you could not ignore its beauty.”- Georgia O'Keeffe I’ve been thinking about scale. The relative size of things. Or, rather, my sense of the relative size of…

There’s a lot of ennui out there lately. Feelings of listlessness, dissatisfaction, the blahs… I’m encountering it everywhere. Which certainly suggests that it’s not only “out there,” but also in here, in me. It just seems harder to have fun…