Remembering the Reverend W. Edward Harris (1935-2012) The Ministries and Faith Development staff offers our condolences to the family and colleagues of the Reverend W. Edward Harris who died on August 10, 2012. He was 77 years old. Rev. Harris was born in Tampa, FL on June 17, 1935 to Ira Walter Harris and Ruth Hope Duss. Soon after, his father remarried and he was raised by Mary Elizabeth (Smith) Harris, whom he referred to as his mother. He attained... Read more

If You’re Lucky, Your Heart Will Break: Field Notes from a Zen Life Three Reader Reviews at Amazon I have been trying to decide what is the best way to describe how I feel after reading this book. Inspired doesn’t encompass enough of it. Wiser, possibly, as I’ve learned through Rev. Ford’s numerous real – life stories and clear teachings and feel like I was right there with him during the last five decades. I enjoyed reading about his initial... Read more

On this day in 1955 fourteen year old Emmett Till, while visiting relatives in Mississippi from his home in Chicago was abducted and then brutally murdered. His offense had been talking to a young white woman. The nation recoiled in horror. For many this marks the beginning of the Civil Rights movement. Ironically on this same day two years later Senator Strom Thurmond began the longest filibuster conducted by a single senator in history, lasting twenty-four hours and eighteen minutes,... Read more

An interesting question, I think. I’m inclined toward yes, if not in a legal sense. And fascinated at the responses from my friends and others… And a tip of the Hatlo hat to Rod for the pointer… Read more

Christopher Isherwood was born on this day in 1904. A novelist, perhaps best know for the film adaptation of his Berlin Stories which would be the basis for the film Cabaret. He would also become an icon of the new Gay Rights movement. He was most important to me as a spiritual writer. A friend of his, the mystic Gearld Heard, introduced him to Vedanta and specifically to the swami in charge of the Vedanta Socity in Southern California, Swami... Read more

Neil Armstrong, as Wikipedia describes him, an “American NASA astronaut, test pilot, aerospace engineer, university professor, United States Naval Aviator, and the first person to set foot upon the Moon,” died today at the age of eighty-two. What a life… Good night, Rocket man… Read more

ON this day in 1835 the first of a series of six stories appeared in the New York Sun purporting to detail the discovery of life on the moon by the renowned astronomer Sir John Herschel. Who, I hasten to add, was an innocent victim of the hoax, as well. They just used his name as it was perhaps the most prominent in the field in that day. The astronomer appears to have been amused, at least until he realized... Read more

I was absolutely delighted to learn the scientists & engineers who put Mars Curiosity down, named that stretch of Martian dirt for Ray Bradbury. I think he would have appreciated it. I know I do… Bradbury dreamed something, a human dream. An ancient dream. God, I love NASA and the human dream that drives us toward the planets and the stars… Happy birthday, Ray! Read more

Ray Bradbury was born on this day in 1920. One of my literary heroes, and a serious influence on my young life. I’m not exactly sure why, but I love that the Wikipedia article on him claims he was a descendant along with Ralph Waldo Emerson of Mary Bradbury, who was tried and convicted as a witch, but who through means historians dispute, somehow escaped hanging. An obit recorded two quotes his views on God and love. According to the... Read more

On Facebook one of my friends noted what was the number one hit song when she was born. One of those easy things to reference thanks to the world wide web (and you thought it was just for porn…) Some people put a lot of store in their sun sign. Me, I think we can find much more by looking at the hit music on our birthday. It is astonishing what it can reveal about the human soul, and perhaps... Read more