Monthly Archives: May 2015

Investing in Our Future

Posted on May 27, 2015 by hessd

According to our long range plan, Bette and I will trundle ourselves off to a really good senior center by the time I am eighty years old. I met Bette when I was 68, so we’ve been talking about it … Continue reading →

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“Tangerines” is beautiful

Posted on May 25, 2015 by hessd

Ida, the Polish movie that won the Oscar for the best foreign film in 2014, is a more complicated movie, certainly. But Tangerines, nominated in the same year, is every bit as powerful.  Just to give you a sense of … Continue reading →

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God’s Holy Library

Posted on May 20, 2015 by hessd

The Bible is a book made up up books. It is, to say the same thing another way, a compilation. “Bible” points to the unity; compilation to the diversity. I think both notions are valuable and I’d like to think … Continue reading →

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ISIS and the Republican Party: Brothers in Arms

Posted on May 18, 2015 by hessd

The first scholar of political language I ever ran across was Murray Edelman. From his book, The Symbolic Uses of Politics, I learned that one way to assess the meaning of a political expression is to see how it lines up … Continue reading →

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The Bible in (less than) 300 Words

Posted on May 13, 2015 by hessd

The bulk of this post is going to be the work of others. My part in it will be limited to telling you who those “others” were and saying why I am so excited about what they did that I … Continue reading →

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Mothers as “Designated Worriers”

Posted on May 11, 2015 by hessd

It’s Mother’s Day today. Or Mothers’ Day. An addition to a chalked sign I saw today said, “…and to all nurturers.” Mother’s Day is so hard these days. There are ways I think it is hard and needs to be. … Continue reading →

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NCIS

Posted on May 9, 2015 by hessd

At the end of the show—the first episode of the first season of NCIS—Gibbs gets into a convertible driven by a redhead and is whisked away. Why? The best response I can imagine is, “Who cares?” And the best rejoinder … Continue reading →

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A Listening Silence

Posted on May 1, 2015 by hessd

I want to think today about how we listen to each other. This is not going to be a lament that we don’t listen to each other any more, but back in the old days, whenever you were a child, … Continue reading →

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