Ancient stories from icy terrain When I heard that Neil Gaiman was publishing Norse Mythology (2017), a retelling of the ancient Nordic myths I…
Ambition (Erin McGraw)
Ambition carries us into terrible places. I don’t understand why it has such a good reputation. People remark that so-and-so is very ambitious, and…
Dr. Strange (Scott Derrickson, 2016)
When battles are within and without Stephen Strange (played by Benedict Cumberbatch) is a brilliant neurosurgeon with a worldwide reputation and an ego that…
Njinga of Angola: Africa’s Warrior Queen (Linda Heywood, 2017)
The story of Njinga of Angola: Africa’s Warrior Queen is both fascinating and important. Fascinating because too many of us know too little of…
The Transformative Power of Story
Art / Culture / Spirituality
“Culture changes,” the Rev. Timothy Keller says, “when a society’s mind, heart, and imagination are captured by new ideas that are developed by thinkers,…
Black Flags: The Rise of ISIS (Joby Warrick, 2015)
The Story of ISIS If you are like me, a great deal of the conflict that roils the Middle East is rather unclear. Perhaps…
odd kid
odd kid the odd kid at the bus stop drops his backpack in the grass, sorta with defiance, but not really, not actually. do…
Rhiannon Giddens, Freedom Highway (2017)
Singing truth to privilege Some protest music rants angrily over wrongs, but the best shines love on injustice, and thereby allows us to sense…
When Progress Breeds Problems
Culture / Discernment / Pluralistic World
Usually we are simply swept along by progress, and hardly notice how the advances in technology and the marketplace actually work themselves out in…
Arrival (Denis Villeneuve, 2016)
A gift from beyond the horizons of time The plot of this movie is relatively simple: twelve massive spaceships suddenly appear at various points…