Category: Culture

How Vietnam Scarred Us

My generation came head-to-head with the draft and the Vietnam war just as we reached the age of questioning and rebellion.

Shahada-Shema

I find the similarities between the Shahada and the Shema…striking in their similarity. Even the words both mean “hear, listen, pay attention.”

My Muse from Gerichsstaal 600

What we need most in the U.S. is truth and reconciliation. Maybe that’s what the Nuremberg trials represented for Jews, incomplete as they were.

Injustice Anywhere…

Oppression and injustice are not competitive sports with winners and losers and a need to take sides.

Good Grief

Memoirs by Kate Braestrup and Bryan Stevenson come as close as possible, for us earthlings, to putting religious truths, love and grief into words.

Re-Blog: The News Media’s Biggest Bias

Originally posted on Melting-Pot Dharma:
There’s a story about Korean Zen Master Seung Sahn (1927-2004): One morning his students saw him reading the newspaper as he ate breakfast. They chided him: “You tell us, ‘When you eat, eat. When you read, read.’ But now you’re eating and reading.” Seung Sahn looked up from his newspaper…

The Illusion of Group

As liberal religions seek more honest dialogue about race, they bury themselves deeper into racial and ethnic groupings.

Solar Energy — Day 365

…over a year and four weeks, we have prevented the release of 8,250 kilograms of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

A Sad Answer from the Old Country

I came across that passage…as I was looking through resource material without a hint that I’d find a mention of a man I had wondered so much about, my father’s father.