We aren’t very good at accepting “endings” as fans and cry for a sequel, reboot, or continuing adventures for our favorite stories. Sometimes this works well, but usually not so much. “The End” used to appear in films and perhaps it was better so. My dad told me that at camp meeting the time would come when the sweet fellowship had to come to a conclusion. Normal life was bringing the revival to a close and one good man would... Read more

This will first be published on the day, thirty years ago, when I married Hope Lancy. If all has gone as planned, we are on an island now, far away from troubles, and full of love. Whatever is the case, and wherever we are, there is a magical place where love endures that we reach “by providence divine.” Marriage doesn’t always feel magical. Many of us reach the shores of love through storms and with great hurts. Others find marriage... Read more

If we eliminated the popular music, theater, and video dealing with romantic love, there would be little left. This would strike our ancestors as odd. They valued friendship at least as much as romantic love and certainly more than erotic love. In fact, they would have valued the duty and love owed to any guest as highly for a grownup past the urges of puberty as the demands of romantic love.  Eros is always a dubious god for the good... Read more

Do not flatter the great. That’s easy to say, but hard to do and even William Shakespeare fell for the desire to simplify history and tell a patron what they wanted to hear. Charles Dickens had Henry VIII dead to rights: The plain truth is, that he was a most intolerable ruffian, a disgrace to human nature, and a blot of blood and grease upon the History of England. Shakespeare turned him into God’s chevalier which was not accidentally what... Read more

Genius needs company, so any company that tries to build on a solitary genius will fail. How do we know? The Bible suggests it, history supports it, and Shakespeare’s career proves it. Shakespeare may have written none of Edward III, some of it, or all of it. Scholars disagree and where the experts are divided, we the mere fans must be humble. The consensus seems to be that the genius of Stratford-upon-Avon wrote about half of it. Edward III is no Henry V, but Edward isn’t Henry... Read more

Israel was on the ropes, God sent Deborah, and Israel was saved. France was ruined, God sent Joan and France was saved. If tempted to despair, then do not. God will send us His woman and God knows America needs her just now. Shakespeare understood this pattern in history better than any writer. He demonized Joan to dispel the dangerous notion that God could have favored the French and he rewrote British mythology to give England a martyr savior in... Read more

If you were in King Lear’s family, the play is a tragedy. If you were the average Englishman, then the play is a miracle of divine goodness. Seeing this goes a long way to answering one worry some have about God, evil, and God’s goodness. Seeing God’s plan in action in a short period of time (a decade) is impossible. The world and His will are too complex. To cite just one problem: God wants maximum human freedom with maximum... Read more

Good luck if an organization is run by a man who wants the treats of power, but not the work. You will need it. Worse luck if you live or work in a culture of fear where the boss demands loyalty that he tests through tricks, arbitrary rules, and where hurt feelings can be fatal. King Lear decided his time as king was done, but instead of abdicating (as he should have), this foolish ruler divided his kingdom between his daughters.... Read more

Deliver us from evil the Lord’s prayer says, but often we rush to evil. Tragic to watch, worse to live through, many of us run to the sin that will destroy. This is bad enough, but the harm done to others is the greater evil. Pity Hamlet if you must, but Ophelia is the victim and deserves our sorrow. God save Hamlet, but God reward and redeem blessed Ophelia. Victim blaming kills. Justice demands deeds not words. Doubt it? Read Shakespeare.... Read more

Love does not exist where there is a lust for control. If the insights of Saint Paul on love do not convince a Christian, then he has a problem.  The last thing a lover would ask the beloved is to be “in charge,” because love demands nothing. A lover might be in charge in the work world, somebody had to marry Queen Victoria and Albert got the job, but love has its own economy that has nothing to do with power politics.... Read more