My primary new year’s resolution for 2014 is “do more yoga.” Periodically over the last decade, I’ve done a fair amount of yoga, primary Ashtanga, which is one of the more athletic forms of yoga, usually done in heated room, and (to oversimplify) keeps a flow by inserting sun salutations in between poses. Part of why I’m drawn to yoga is that it is a both a meditative exercise and an embodied spirituality that gets me out of my head.... Read more
The word“holiday,” it turns out, is a conflation of the words “holy” and “day.”You can see the root words visually, of course, by simply turning the “i” in holiday into a “y.” And, indeed, the original intention of a holiday is to celebrate a holy day,a day “set apart” from our normal routine. And at its best, holidays can be a form of sacred time. Holidays have the potential to be sacramental holy days that reconnect us with the Sacred,... Read more
The following is a compilation of my recent “Top 10″ and “Best of” posts for 2013. Enjoy! Top 10 Best Books Read in 2013 Top 10 Best Albums Listened to in 2013 Top 10 “Netflix Instant” Streamed in 2013 Best Netflix DVDs Watched in 2013 Best Podcasts of 2013 Happy holidays to you and yours! Related Posts The Best of 2012: Books, Music, Film, and More The Rev. Dr. Carl Gregg is a trained spiritual director, a D.Min. graduate of... Read more
The following are the podcasts I’ve enjoyed listening to the most consistently since this time last year. This list is also in alphabetical order because agonizing over a precise order would take out all the fun: Buddhist Geeks – A short podcast, averaging only about 20 minutes: “after a few years, and well over a million downloads of the show, it became clear that Buddhist Geeks was something closer to a movement or community, rather than just a podcast.” In the... Read more
This list is not my favorite new releases of the year; instead, it is the best of the DVDs I’ve watched from Netflix since this time last year. Although I mostly stream Netflix Instant these days, we’ve kept the 1-DVD-at-a-time plan to supplement films not yet streaming. This list is also in alphabetical order because agonizing over a precise order would take out all the fun. 1. Game Change (2012): Based on the best-selling nonfiction book, this political drama follows... Read more
This list is not my favorite new releases of the year; instead, it is the best of the content I watched since this time last year. It also does not include films that I saw in the theater. In addition, this list is in alphabetical order because agonizing over a precise order would take out all the fun: 1. Aziz Ansari: Buried Alive: My wife Magin and I both enjoy stand-up comedy, and Aziz has inspired us to watch more... Read more
The Greek’s accepted their myths as true in the sense that they were not doubted, but they were not accepted in the way that everyday reality is…. A Greek conventionally put the gods “in heaven,” but he would have been astounded to actually see them in the sky. He would have been no less astounded if someone using time in its literal sense, told him that Hephaestus had just remarried or that Athena had aged a great deal lately. Then... Read more
This list is not my favorite new releases; instead, it is the best of the albums I listened to since this time last year. This list is also in alphabetical order because agonizing over a precise order would take all the fun out of remembering these albums: Alt-J, An Awesome Wave: Named after the keystroke for making a delta (i.e., triangle) sign on a Mac by holding down the Alt and J keys, the Leeds, England–based trio Alt-J is inspired... Read more
The following are the top ten best books I’ve read since this time last year. The list is in alphabetical order by the author’s last name because agonizing over a precise order would take all the fun out of remembering these books: 1. Michelle Alexander, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness: Each year, the Unitarian Universalist Association selects a “Common Read” for all UUs to study, discuss, and act upon. The 2012-2013 selection was Alexander’s powerful call... Read more
One of my professors used to say that his favorite time of the year was the last week of each semester. He called it “A Time of Great Synthesis.” He said he could almost feel it in the air: the energy of students preparing for final papers and exams, striving to weave all the disparate strands of knowledge learned during the term into a coherent tapestry. At the time, I used to sometimes roll my eyes when he would say... Read more
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