Last week, the Earth made a seismic shift, though mostly unnoticed. A gentle giant among us in terms of Anglican church music, John Bradford Bohl, died unexpectedly at the young age of 37. I had the joy of serving with him at Saint Paul’s K Street in Washington, D.C., and when I took over the venerable […]
When Deep Waters and Parking Lots Become Church
In 2007, almost ten years after her death, it came into more public knowledge that Mother Teresa experienced a terrible sense of separation from God throughout the majority of her ministry. Less than three months before receiving the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979, she wrote in a letter to one of her spiritual confidants, “Jesus […]
We Are the Chosen, And We Are Not Spared: Making Sense of Season Two of The Leftovers
In an effort to keep his show alive, Damon Lindelof and company are doing a lot of interviews after the finale of their mindblowing second season. This is a good thing, because nearly everyone I have talked to who’s been (ravenously) watching The Leftovers is desperate for more details. (That doesn’t mean the show is […]
A Leftover Episcopalian on HBO: Notes on The Rev. Matt Jamison
We decided a while ago to limit most of our television coverage to the weekender column. Get suckered by a clever plot device enough times and you learn that writing about a show mid-season is not unlike reviewing an album after hearing only a song or two. But I’m breaking that rule today. I couldn’t […]
On TV: The Leftovers, “The Prodigal Son Returns”
In Gene Wolfe’s Book of the New Sun, a young man named Severian works as a torturer, and in one scene, he helps administer the torturers’ most mysterious and sacred device: the revolutionary. After having gone through it, the victim says, “I thought I saw my worst enemy, a kind of demon. And it was me…” She […]
Another Week Ends: Little League Love, Excellent Sheep, Normal Thoughts, Memoir Distance, Lees of Memory, Leftovers and TMNT
1. First off, grab the kleenbox box because here’s a beautiful instance of grace in practice. It comes to us from little league coach Dave Belisle, whose Cumberland American team (Rhode Island) lost the Little League World Series championship game to Chicago’s Jackie Robinson West this past week. In their moment of defeat, Coach Belisle […]
Another Week Ends: Play Week, The Blame Instinct, Calvary, Parenting Trends, and God Save the Girl
1) It is “Play Week” at NPR, so let’s have some fun! Among the legions of playground research data, lab rat tickle tests (not joking), and zany stories about parents at “amusement parks”, play is becoming the boon of brain science, the absence of which we feel a threat to the very health of a […]
On TV: The Leftovers
And now for some thoughts on Damon Lindelof (LOST) and Peter Berg’s (Friday Night Lights) new show on HBO, The Leftovers. Spoiler Warning!
