Easter in Ordinary

Weekly, I post four articles that I found significant and a poem accompanied by some comments about what we can learn from them. Our lives are enriched by seeing better. Each week, one article comes from the world of photography, a discipline that is about seeing. Another article comes from the world of technology, hence seeing something of the future. Another article takes up an aspect of our life together, seeing more clearly the other. Another article refers to faith, seeing the unseen. Finally, the weekly post concludes with a poem, because poetry is about seeing words whose arrangement allows us to see anew. One of the regular criticisms in Pope Francis' challenge to the world is of what he calls a " throwaway culture ." Today, I'd like to ask us to take another look at those who are so easily thrown away and how we might challenge that. Halawa Correctional Facility Makahiki Ceremony 2015 . Kai Markell photographed the inmates at the Halawa Correctional Fa...

Weekly, I post four articles that I found significant and a poem accompanied by some comments about what we can learn from them. Our lives are enriched by seeing better. Each week, one article comes from the world of photography, a discipline that is about seeing. Another article comes from the world of technology, hence seeing something of the future. Another article takes up an aspect of our life together, seeing more clearly the other. Another article refers to faith, seeing the unseen. Finally, the weekly post concludes with a poem, because poetry is about seeing words whose arrangement allows us to see anew. Thank you for reading this post. Today, we will take up the issue of languages and, more specifically, the death of languages. Next, we will take a look at the aftermath of the attack in Paris and some suggestions on how not to overreact to the terrorist threat. Then, we will see through Twitter and an experience of conversion. In the world of photography, I share with you...

This fine book, An Alley in Chicago: The Life and Legacy of Monsignor John Egan , tells an important story of the Church in Chicago before, during, and after the Second Vatican Council through the life and experience of one of the city's more notable inhabitants, Jack Egan. (An earlier, 1991 edition is available for free here .) Simply put, I loved this bittersweet book. Jack Egan , a priest of the Archdiocese of Chicago, led a life that is difficult to summarize: priest, pastor, community organizer, and activist are but a few words. A teacher once told me, "To tell me who you are, tell me who your friends are." This book, populated by Egan's many friends, tells us a lot about who he was. Many of the names were known to me, certain names were people whom I had met, and a select number of them are people that I have known well, and a few are still with us. The story is bittersweet for three reasons: first, for those recalled in the book who have gone on to their et...

Doris Kearns Goodwin writes big books. I have an intimidating pair of them. Her 2005 book about Lincoln, Team of Rivals , stretches 917 pages, 121 of those pages are notes. The Bully Pulpit: Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and the Golden Age of Journalism , a "brief" 892 pages, has but 96 pages of notes. I worked my way through The Bully Pulpit first. Intending to sound like one of the work's principal subjects, Theodore Roosevelt, it was "a jolly good read!" In The Bully Pulpit , Kearns Goodwin paints vivid, attractive portrayals of Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft through their lives as young men, colleagues and friends, president and cabinet-member, fierce adversaries, and reconciled old friends. Alongside these principal characters, we meet their wives, their families, and the journalists who covered them. We meet Archibald Butt , who loved and served both presidents as a military aide and confidant. Kearns Goodwin tells of his deat...

Weekly, I post four articles that I found significant and a poem accompanied by some comments about what we can learn from them. Our lives are enriched by seeing better. Each week, one article comes from the world of photography, a discipline that is about seeing. Another article comes from the world of technology, hence seeing something of the future. Another article takes up an aspect of our life together, seeing more clearly the other. Another article refers to faith, seeing the unseen. Finally, the weekly post concludes with a poem, because poetry is about seeing words whose arrangement allows us to see anew. Amid the grief of terror striking Paris yesterday, France will weigh invoking Article 5 of the NATO . I invite us to pray for the victims, but also to envision a new way forward. We will look at the place of restorative justice in the community, some research about incorporating migrants into society, religious perspectives toward religious violence and extremism, and how ...

We've heard elected officials and candidates speak routinely of " trust, but verify ." The adage, invoked by many, including Ronald Reagan, recommends that while a source of information might be considered reliable, one should perform additional research to verify that such information is accurate, or trustworthy. Amid concerns about the impact of big money in political campaigns, at the heart of democracy is a trust in the veracity of elections. We need to trust that the published outcomes are legitimate, accurate, and fair. We also know that democracy will not survive if the electorate is not vigilant. Dr. Beth Clarkson Hence, Dr. Beth Clarkson raises some troubling issues. I should preface by noting that Dr. Clarkson is a statistician, a professional mathematician. She is Chief Statistician at the National Institute for Aviation Research (NIAR); Senior Research Engineer and Chief Statistician for the National Center for Advanced Materials Performance (NCAMP); a...

Weekly, I post four articles that I found significant and a poem accompanied by some comments about what we can learn from them. Our lives are enriched by seeing better. Each week, one article comes from the world of photography, a discipline that is about seeing. Another article comes from the world of technology, hence seeing something of the future. Another article takes up an aspect of our life together, seeing more clearly the other. Another article refers to faith, seeing the unseen. Finally, the weekly post concludes with a poem, because poetry is about seeing words whose arrangement allows us to see anew. Thank you, again, for reading this post. I am grateful to those readers who find my weekly reading suggestions interesting or even helpful. I also appreciate your feedback. If you want to include a comment below about the article that most strikes you or how it touches you, I would find that helpful. This week, we look to the new presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church...

Mature, public conversation about issues that matter is foundational for democratic society. I am delighted that Mark Zuckerberg's " A Year of Books " offers such an opportunity. To contribute to that dialog, I will offer commentary on each of the readings proposed by Zuckerberg. Somewhere in the back of my head, I recalled seeing Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty by Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson in footnotes or the content of some book. After concluding Why Nations Fail , I embarked on a fruitless search to find the reference. I thought maybe Moises Naím included it in The End of Power . Or Hank Paulson, given the lengthy examination of China by Acemoglu and Robinson, might have referred to it in Dealing with China . Finding no reference to it, I even turned to Steven Plinker's The Better Angels of Our Nature , but such a discovery would have been anachronistic as Plinker wrote before Acemoglu and Robinson. While I cannot rec...

Mature, public conversation about issues that matter is foundational for democratic society. I am delighted that Mark Zuckerberg's " A Year of Books " offers such an opportunity. To contribute to that dialog, I will offer commentary on each of the readings proposed by Zuckerberg. As an undergraduate, I studied in the Program of Liberal Studies , a "Great Books" curriculum that led my classmates and I to encounter the finest works of Western Civilization. Only a portion of one semester included a brief traipse through Eastern writers, specifically Confucius’s Analects , The Way of Lao Tzu, and the Bhagavad Gita . As well, I have read little by way of science fiction in recent years. So, it was an interesting offering to read Cixin Liu's The Three-Body Problem as the latest selection by Mark Zuckerberg. Reading any work, especially in translation, from another culture poses special challenges. A work of Chinese science fiction, then, has particular cul...