History, Real Life and Faith
Fictional motherhood patterned some of the ways I raised my children. The children would pause at the front door when they returned from school if they heard loud classical music. They’d scan my face and ask, “is someone coming over?” If the music was something particularly dramatic, like Wagner’s The Ride of the Valkyries, or possibly worse, Tchakovsky’s 1812 Overture, the…
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Can you pinpoint a moment in your life when everything changed? You wouldn’t have recognized it at the time. But a seemingly random, minor event diverted your life or maybe your happiness, forever. One decision: Where are my papers? If I run, can I catch that train? Why won’t my watch work? And the course of your life spins away. Some people…
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I spent my twenty-first birthday in the University Research Library writing a paper on King Lear. It was the Friday before finals and my 20-page Shakespeare paper was my whole grade. Since I was taking four English classes that quarter, most of my grades were based on papers. This was the final one, due Monday. (Pity me. I took twelve…
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We took our youngest children to Normandy to tour the beaches and pause in thanks at the American Cemetery. It was important, and they came back with a new appreciation for service. All those crosses will do that. I’d been there as a child myself. A movie to tell the story My father, a history-lover, felt his children should learn what…
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Venus flew in front of the sun in 2012. Everyone in my family was excited. We watched through the cool glasses my husband’s alma mater sent for the solar eclipse two weeks before. Being old school myself, I carried two pieces of paper–one with a pin hole in it–to view it without looking at the sun. His glasses worked much better. We…
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I know a widower raising an eight-year-old daughter. He’s concerned because six-months after his wife’s death, his daughter hasn’t said a word about her. Certainly, I’ve continued to pray for these two, but I also was heartened by the girl’s extracurricular activities and her summer plans. Because, to my mind, it’s all about using the arts to heal. The girl…
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