WARNING - SOME SEXUALLY EXPLICIT PHOTOS BELOW. Two Girls. Set on a pedestal to be revered by little girls (and boys) - teaching values, morals, how to communicate, how to be great girls navigating through life. And then… Wrecking Ball. Slave for You. Titles that invoke violence and sexuality. Less and less clothing. Less and … More »
Mysterious narratives unwind themselves through our lives. Sometimes they have long, beautiful arcs. We guess and glimpse their conclusions – and happily we inherit them. Sometimes chapters end astonishingly. Sometimes everything implodes, unrecognizable, backwards. So often the great human task is to courageously weave the disparate, meandering tales of a life into the bolder impressions … More »
In this month’s Sh’ma print publication, Nigel Savage of Hazon offers us an unfortunate and potentially deflating reality: we live in a broken world with seemingly unsolvable challenges. He closes his thought provoking piece by alluding to the Mishnah, “We will not resolve many of the greatest challenges of our time — but neither may we desist from … More »
One significant engine of the world’s problems in many regards has been the transformation of news media into a form of entertainment. In too many cases, news no longer seeks to inform, but rather it seeks to be seen, to be replicated until thousands of Internet users see it. To that end, an editorial or … More »
There is a dream American, and it called and carried my ancestors on ships from the old world to a little Ellis Island just off of Manhattan’s shores. That same dream has spurred millions to immigrate along as many roads with the hope that hard work and fresh opportunity would lead to a better life. … More »
As I considered this month’s topic of “Noble Ideals, Tarnished,” my first association went to the B-52’s song Love Shack, where at the end Cindy Wilson wails, “Tin roof, rusted!” This apparently became a slang term for “I’m pregnant.” Who knows why? But it sounds like a declaration – “noble ideals, tarnished!” So fatigue, lack … More »
It’s easy to get down, facing life’s challenges To scream and to frown, heart covered in calluses Hopes dashed, lack of desired impact Arguing over what exactly constitutes a fact Ideals shattered, butchered and battered Clinging to a sense of calm but only getting madder At those who don’t care, who give up on … More »
(All Quotations come from Roland Barthes’ A Lover’s Discourse) A Buddhist Koan says: “The master holds the disciple’s head underwater for a long, long time; gradually the bubbles become fewer; at the last moment, the master pulls the disciple out and revives him: when you have craved truth as you crave air, then you will know … More »
As a teen, I bowed to each member of the nerds’ triumvirate: Rush music, X-Men comics, and Dungeons & Dragons games. For the uninitiated, Dungeons & Dragons is a tabletop role-playing game which has elements of collaborative storytelling and improvisational theater, with oddly shaped dice to settle disputes. In a game, you create a character, … More »