The Faure Requiem with Poetry
On October 14 our choir at First United Methodist Church in Waynesville, North Carolina, presented six movements of the beloved Requiem by Gabriel Fauré as the heart of a service …
Bowls from the Dogwood
The dogwood tree (Cornus florida) is a beloved feature of the woods and yards of the southern Appalachians. The four white, or sometimes pink, petals of its flower are tinged …
Slavery’s Amnesia
In our local paper recently a member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans wrote an Op-Ed holding that slavery was not the cause of our Civil War. While acknowledging that …
Some Side Tables
I just shipped off two side tables to one of my daughters and her family. They’re made of ash and walnut. The ash is in laminated strips, bent to a …
Cardinal Fears
Wild wings flashing He Cardinal thrashes enemies, marauders of his nest, his mate, his reddened honor. Daylight wakes his vigilant …
Music and Dance in our Mountains
The New York Times columnist David Brooks (whom we affectionately call Rabbi Brooks) has written recently about the virtues of small towns and local governments. Our town of Waynesville is …
Poetry and Public Prayer
We Americans are once again in a full-throated struggle over the viability of our republican institutions of constitutional government. The would-be despot our founders feared has indeed seized administrative control …
Conversation
[To My Readers: My posting has been delayed while a tech crew repairs my hacked subscriber list. I hope to be up and running by June 26. Stay tuned!] It’s …
The Arts of Peace: Some Working Thoughts
My wife Sylvia and I are co-chairing the tenth, indeed capstone, Lake Junaluska Interfaith Peace Conference, which will be held on November 21-24, 2019. The Conference will lift up and …
Charlie and Harold
A few weeks ago I took part once again in the Poet’s Gathering in Winston-Salem North Carolina, sponsored by Press 53. In one of our workshops Adrian Rice, a poet …
Remembering Martin, In Fearful Times
We will not let our fear beget the fear that frozen into bullets separates us from the love that frees us from such fear, that …
Holy Darkness
As we move to the end of the season of Lent and into the Holy Week between Palm Sunday and Easter, I want to share with you two panels that …
Interfaith Peace Conference 2018: Some Reflections
Last weekend we took part in the ninth Lake Junaluska Interfaith Peace Conference. The political convulsions of the last few years led to the theme of “Meeting the Other — …
The Dramas of Life
I recently flew over the snow-covered Midwest to Moorhead, Minnesota, across the Red River from Fargo, North Dakota, to celebrate my daughter Elaine’s birthday. (Yes, she is a Valentine!) My …
Galactic Sipapu
I hear that every spiral galaxy has only one black hole, an eye to look into the nothing that contains the light of stars too vast to count, …
Our Struggle over Religious Freedom
On the heels of our day to honor the legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr., comes a little known Religious Freedom Day to remember the commitment that anchors our Bill …