Cultural Commentary
As I see things …
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Giving Gifts: “Nothin’ says lovin’ like . . .”
Like what? If you can finish that sentence quoting the commercial with the Pillsbury Dough Boy, then that’s one way to answer the question. This time of year, as people consider giving Christmas gifts––to whom and how much to spend––traditions will give way to practical concerns. While money can always be used, that doesn’t mean it’s always appreciated. Money Talks but Does Money Communicate Love? If you want to know why I don’t give money as a gift, watch the movie The Apartment. In this film, the personnel director of a successful Manhattan agency with 32,000 employees is having an affair with the office building’s elevator operator. These characters are…
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And a Little Child Shall Lead Them
If you have read the Harry Potter series, seen the movies, or if you have visited one of the theme parks based on this fictional character that came out of nowhere to capture the imagination of millions of people worldwide, then you know about the dementors. The ingenious creation of author J.K. Rowling, these demented tormentors suck the life out of human beings. Visually, the movies portray these . . . these what? Creatures? Beings? Spirits? Well, whatever. Dementors are evil and shown graphically. Dark, like wispy clouds that swoosh, knowing no barriers of time and space, they attack their target––their mission to pull from human beings the very source…
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What Can We Learn from Bible History to Help America Now?
Back to the Future Can Learn from the Past The movie, Back to the Future, came out in 1985. A person born in 1985 knows nothing of what happened before they arrived on planet earth. Though each of us enters a story already in progress, it disturbs me to think that so many who have been born since 1985 think they know so much. Technology has put a “smart phone”––a computer––in the hands of anyone, even idiots. A computer can retrieve information, but cannot impart knowledge or understanding. Ask SIRI. Or “Google it” is not the same as knowledge. A computer can answer a question, yet never bestow wisdom. History…
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Seeing Bob Dylan––A Dream within a Dream
The night before my husband and I went to see Bob Dylan, I dreamed I met him. It had not occurred to me that I would ever get to see Dylan in person––the opportunity, the tickets, the timing––this desire had never registered on my life’s continuous imaginary movie screen. In my dream, Bob Dylan first made eye contact and then walked straight toward me with an outstretched arm bent slightly at the elbow, the crowd parting before him like the Red Sea parted before Moses. Transfixed, I resisted the instinctive urge to turn around, seeking where he had in mind to go. He couldn’t be looking at me, I thought.…
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How the Stock Market Affects You Even if You Don’t Invest
If you have a job and work for wages or a salary, the stock market affects you. Even if you don’t invest. Even if you pay no attention to the stock market. Even if you say you don’t care. The stock market is a place where companies sell stock to get the investment money to build and grow their businesses. Individual investors, foundations, universities, and retirement funds invest in the stock market to make money for future disbursement. The stock market is a place where people buy and trade shares in companies. Investors try to buy low and sell high, thus making a profit from their investment. When investors don’t…
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Let’s Make Language an Obstacle to Understanding
This copy of a Calvin and Hobbes comic strip came in a letter my mother wrote me years ago. Calvin tells Hobbes that he likes to verb words, even though he admits that “Verbing weirds language.” “What?” Hobbes asks. Calvin explains. “I take nouns and adjectives and use them as verbs. Remember when ‘access’ was a thing? Now it’s something you do. It got verbed.” Hobbes replies, “Maybe we can eventually make language an impediment to understanding.” My mother died in 1998. I miss my mother’s prescience. She did know a lot more than I gave her credit for at the time. She was good at projecting long-term trajectory. Almost as if she could…
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Isolation, Solitude, and What’s Missing in a Hurried Life
One of my favorite movies is Cast Away (2000). Spoilers, video clips, and opinions follow. The movie tracks the fast-paced life of a Fed-Ex executive who works as if he is saving lives by shaving seconds off the process of delivering packages. This character, Chuck Noland, played by Tom Hanks, drives employees as if every second counts. “We live and we die by time, and we must not commit the sin of turning our back on time.” Chuck Noland, character played by Tom Hanks The movie begins at break-neck speed to dramatize Noland’s life, his relationships, as well as to display the cost of hurry, of racing through each day like…