Handmade
The words of the song “Handmade” by Jimmy Rankin say, “Everywhere I go everything’s plastic.” I understand these words. It is all too easy to find pretense and masque all around us. Authenticity is something for which we long. We long for it in the music industry, in business, in spirituality, and in our relationships…
Continue readingAmerican Idol Expectations
“American Idol” and “Survivor” were certainly not the source of the concept but we can recognize that they have contributed to a sense of quick and easy fame in our culture. These television programs and many more “reality” shows have made household names out of ordinary people. Generations ago, if a person desired to become…
Continue readingLost Community
We have lost a good deal of our sense of community. If we think of changing the world at all, we think of doing it by ourselves and for ourselves. How much of our sense of “injustice in the world” is directly or indirectly related to the limitations this injustice places upon our own lives?…
Continue readingCold Capitalism
It has once again become fashionable to quote Ayn Rand.1 United States presidential candidate Mitt Romney recently announced his running mate to be Paul Ryan. Paul Ryan is the United States Representative for Wisconsin’s 1st congressional district who has his staff read this quote: “I swear—by my life and my love of it—that I will…
Continue readingHabits of the Soul
A couple of days ago I quoted C.S. Lewis regarding “wanting to act in a certain way because a first faint gleam of Heaven is already inside you.” As a follow-up to that allow me to direct our attention to another quote from the same book. In this section Lewis is speaking very specifically about…
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