Blog, HOPE: A PESSIMIST'S GUIDE, Week 8
“The wind blows wherever it pleases,” Jesus once said to Nicodemus, “You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going.” (John 3:8 NIV) As I am writing this I look out the window and watch the last of the lovely...
Blog, HOPE: A PESSIMIST'S GUIDE, Week 8
Hope is always found in spirit. They are forever linked. Hope is the essence of the energy force that drives the spirit. To be “in the spirit” one needs to feel hopeful. To win in sports, we must have the will and hope to succeed. To be successful in...
Blog, HOPE: A PESSIMIST'S GUIDE, Week 7
Scott Russell Sanders tells a charming story about his daughter’s wedding. He is in the vestibule of the church with the wedding party. “Clumsy in my rented finery–patent leather shoes that are a size too small and starched shirt and stiff black...
Blog, HOPE: A PESSIMIST'S GUIDE, Week 7
The word beauty brings to mind a set of visual images for me. I’m guessing this is, at least to some degree, a shared human tendency. I right away think of mountain landscapes, Arizona sunsets, the Sistine Chapel, my mountain bike and Marisa Tomei. The...
Blog, HOPE: A PESSIMIST'S GUIDE, Week 7
Last night I marched with thousands of people of all ages, ethnicities, and classes to the Port of Oakland. People were chanting, smiling, speaking about nonviolence, talking about change, playing Michael Jackson on stereo, and the list continues. What was most...
Blog, HOPE: A PESSIMIST'S GUIDE, Week 6
Just down the road from my home in Pittsfield, Massachusetts is the Hancock Shaker Village, a living history museum on the site of a former Shaker community. It is a beautiful spot, with oft-photographed buildings such as this Round Stone Barn. Both my children...
Blog, HOPE: A PESSIMIST'S GUIDE, Week 6
Little boxes on the hillside, Little boxes made of ticky tacky, Little boxes on the hillside, Little boxes all the same. There’s a green one and a pink one And a blue one and a yellow one, And they’re all made out of ticky tacky And they all look just the...
Blog, HOPE: A PESSIMIST'S GUIDE, Week 6
This week we look at Matthew 6: 19-34. 19 “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and...
Blog, HOPE: A PESSIMIST'S GUIDE, Week 5
I try to imagine the prophet Amos at a fancy cocktail party. He would be that guy, who seeing your new Mercedes in the driveway, would be compelled to go into detail about global warming from greenhouse gases, then move on without a breath to discuss the appalling...
Blog, HOPE: A PESSIMIST'S GUIDE, Week 5
This weeks reading from Amos 5: 21-27 couldn’t have come at a more appropriate time. I am reminded of the scene in DeMille’s movie The Ten Commandments where the slave driver Edward G. Robinson (bad casting) reminds the Israelites of their former life in...
