My daughter has introduced me to the soundtrack of Wicked, and I’m hooked. I haven’t seen the Broadway hit, but I like the challenging messages in the lyrics, starting with the implied questioning of the labels “wicked” and “good” applied to the two main characters. For those who don’t know what I’m talking about, Wicked [...]

This morning on CNN I saw a clip of a Detroit church that had three SUVs up on the altar while the congregation prayed for the recovery of the auto industry. Another mega church called to the altar all the members who needed financial help, and then the congregation raised $50,000 on the spot to [...]

On the long drive to Wisconsin for Thanksgiving, I read a book that made the time pass quickly: Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell (author of Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking and The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference). For those who don’t know Gladwell’s work, he [...]

Last night I read in the Duke alumni magazine that the rise in asthma rates during the last 25 years may have been caused by the folic acid that pregnant women have been taking in their prenatal vitamins. Have I mentioned that my daughter has asthma and possibly my son? And I was one of [...]

Between the Phillies winning the World Series and Barack Obama winning the presidency, Philadelphians have been walking around in a mild euphoria. Strangers smile on the street. Supermarket cashiers seem happy. Or at least they did last week. This week the hard realities of the world are creeping back into our consciousness. The Inquirer ran [...]

The 39 comments and 179 responses that C. Wess Daniels got to his recent survey made me appreciate what a dynamic forum the web can be. It’s prompted me to ask for your feedback this week, instead of just spouting my own numerous opinions.First, the big excitement here this week is that I have received [...]

I hate to exclude my non-Quaker readers, but over on Gathering In Light there is a poll of how American Quakers from different branches voted in this election. For those who don't know our history, Quakers have had their share of theological splits, and this is an attempt to see how they have affected our [...]

In 1994 Nadine Gordimer (the Nobel prize winning South African novelist) wrote an essay about South Africa’s first democratic election entitled “A Beautiful Day, Com,” describing the comaraderie that existed in the long lines as black people waited to cast their first votes, and whites like Gordimer worked the polls in support. The “Com” in [...]

Martin K has had a few interesting posts lately about the mixing of Quakerism and politics. The quotes from nineteenth-century Friends make for an interesting juxtaposition with twenty-first century Friends Twittering during the debates. I haven’t caught up to the Twitter phenomenon myself yet, but I know enough to suspect it’s a sign of how [...]

Last week I enjoyed three days of quiet, a rare luxury for a parent. Even more unusual, I had no access to email or the Internet, so whatever David Brooks and Maureen Dowd had to say about the candidates, I missed it. I also missed the ups and downs of the stock market. I didn’t [...]