We’ve already discussed Pope Francis’ “conference affiliation” as a predictor of how well he’ll do in the upcoming “tournament.” Now it’s time to look at the second trait of winning basketball teams and see how Pope Francis measures up. This trait is the consistently high ranking of winning teams in the AP Poll throughout the season. This poll is a weekly compilation of the individual rankings of 62 sports journalists. In almost 30 years, the winning team was ranked at... Read more
The Second Sunday of Lent has a powerful message. There are two ways to recognize our own beauty. One is to put on makeup. The other is to clean the mirror. The same is true of religious faith. There are two ways to understand the story of salvation. One is the makeup version – to believe that something “outside” of the world created it, got it started, and then intervened when we mucked it all up. And something needs to... Read more
Many of us will be glued to our TVs or smartphones this month, watching the NCAA men’s basketball tournament. But there’s another kind of March Madness afoot. Pope Francis will celebrate the tenth anniversary of his papal inauguration on March 13. Let’s say that Pope Francis’ “season” is his first decade in the role, and he’s going into the “tournament,” which is the remainder of his tenure. At age 86, it’s not likely he’ll have a third decade. Since his... Read more
It would take many football fields to house everything written about the theology of sin. At the risk of outing myself as a heretic, I will admit that I wonder if the concept of sin is all that useful. Today’s gospel reading for the first Sunday in Lent focuses on Jesus’ 40 days in the desert, withstanding temptation in preparation for his public ministry. It’s no accident that the first reading that prefaces it today harkens back to the temptation... Read more
The first Sunday in Lent tempts us to question what temptation is all about in the first place. I have very little willpower. If I’m on a diet and you give me a slice of pie, I’ll ask for seconds. And if I’ve overspent my budget when asked to travel abroad with a friend, I’ll pack my bags. If I’m exercising when I get a notification that a new season of Only Murders in the Building has dropped, the only... Read more
Does anyone else despise those Captcha tests that websites make you complete to confirm that you are a flesh-and-blood human? I doubt I’m alone. The goal is noble – to prevent computer programs and artificial intelligence from hacking into a site by presenting a task that only a human could complete. But they can be very annoying. The ones where you simply click on a checkbox aren’t that bad, but the rest I could do without. Who wants to waste... Read more
Some women love being pregnant. Hearing the heartbeat for the first time, deciding on names, preparing the nursery, feeling the baby kick – for many mothers to be, these everyday wonders are the stuff that dreams are made of. Then there’s me. I did not like being pregnant, not one bit. To be clear, I loved THAT I was pregnant. I loved that I was becoming a mother and that in a matter of months I would get to... Read more
Like most kids, my son fell in love with French fries at a young age. At restaurants he ordered them with cheeseburgers, sure, but he also thought they were the perfect accompaniment to just about any entrée. Meatloaf and French fries? Why not? Beef stew and French fries? Delightful. Spaghetti and French fries? Inspired. Of course, I didn’t let him actually get fries in these odd pairings, but that didn’t stop him from trying to order them. Even more interesting... Read more
Picture an ancient cemetery at night, the tombstones crumbling and weeds crawling through the crevices. The wind howls ominously. The sky, a purplish black, is thick with dark clouds until . . . flash! White lighting erupts followed by the sound of a loud thunderclap. Then the Vincent Price voice-over begins: “The sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will be falling from the sky, and the powers in the heavens will... Read more
I’ve never liked Halloween, primarily because I’m a big scaredy-cat. I hate haunted houses, horror movies, and all things that go bump in the night. Personally, I find life to be sufficiently anxiety-provoking all on its own without adding manufactured fear into the mix. Maybe that’s why I’ve always been a rule-follower. I was made fun of in elementary school for always doing what the teacher told us to do, and I only got one detention during all four years... Read more
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