Saying Goodbye for Good

November 6, 2014 By Alissa Wilkinson

Wesley Hill wrote a great column for Christianity Today about a topic I think about often: how we say goodbye, and why our bodies matter in that. Christians believe not only in a future bodily resurrection. We also believe in the importance of our bodily lives now, with all the benefits that physical companionship entails. Food prepared and eaten together, eye contact initiated and sustained, hands clasped in prayer, shoulders and backs offered when a neighbor’s furniture needs to be moved—all these... Read more

Beauty is Embarassing

November 5, 2014 By Alissa Wilkinson

In The Curator, Janice Blakely looks at a documentary she watched almost accidentally, then couldn’t stop watching, and what she learned: I used to watch Netflix documentaries on my laptop while getting ready for work. One particular morning, without pretense or expectation, I clicked on the documentary Beauty is Embarrassing, and then, about twenty minutes into the film, I had one of those moments. A moment when a truth connects with you so deeply that time seems to stop. A slow-motion epiphany... Read more

Labor in the Dark

November 4, 2014 By Alissa Wilkinson

I really enjoyed this reflection from Howard Butt Jr., posted at The High Calling, about Toscanini and why we can’t dare give up: Howard Butt Jr. shares another encouraging video about faith and work. Sometimes success means long hours of work and preparation, just so we’re ready when the moment comes. It’s easy to get discouraged when all of our work goes unnoticed, or when it feels like nothing we’re doing really makes a difference. Imagine Toscanini, squinting down day after... Read more

Toward a Definition of “Religious Movies”

November 3, 2014 By Alissa Wilkinson

Last week, I got the itch to write about how we talk about what a “religious” movie is. So I did, and if you’re interested in the topic, you might find the post useful: . . . there’s a wide gulf between the various definitions of religious moviesthat we’ve been using. But because we’re using the same word, I think we too easily get confused and talk past one another. Here’s one sense of “religious movie”: a film that self-consciously seeks to... Read more

What If Age is Nothing But a Mind-Set?

October 31, 2014 By Alissa Wilkinson

The New York Times reports on an old study about age, and whether it may merely be a state of mind: Langer did not try to replicate the study — mostly because it was so complicated and expensive; every time she thought about trying it again, she talked herself out of it. Then in 2010, the BBC broadcast a recreation, which Langer consulted on, called “The Young Ones,” with six aging former celebrities as guinea pigs. The stars were squired... Read more

Lila and the Religious Novelist

October 30, 2014 By Alissa Wilkinson

Here’s a great review from The New Republic of Marilynne Robinson’s highly acclaimed latest novel, Lila: Marilynne Robinson is one of the great religious novelists, not only of our age, but any age. Reading her new novel Lila, one wonders how critics could worry that American fiction has lost its faith, though such worries make one think there might well have been wedding guests at Cana who complained about the shortage of water after witnessing the miracle with wine. Lila, like Home and Gilead before it, is... Read more

The Problem with Positive Thinking

October 29, 2014 By Alissa Wilkinson

Here’s a fascinating piece from the New York Times about the problem with positive thinking (and a solution): Positive thinking fools our minds into perceiving that we’ve already attained our goal, slackening our readiness to pursue it. Some critics of positive thinking have advised people to discard all happy talk and “get real” by dwelling on the challenges or obstacles. But this is too extreme a correction. Studies have shown that this strategy doesn’t work any better than entertaining positive fantasies.... Read more

How We Form Our Routines

October 28, 2014 By Alissa Wilkinson

Speaking of routines, Casey N. Cep wrote at Pacific Standard about how we form our routines: We might not live in manors as grand as Gardencourt or inherit sums as large as Isabel Archer, but we can all make ceremonies out of the things we do every day. A ceremony is simply something we do with care and attentiveness. Agreeable hours, then, can be made from whatever things fill our days, especially the things we love, but even those things that... Read more

Holy Routines: Teatime Sanity

October 27, 2014 By Alissa Wilkinson

Over at The High Calling, Marcus Broaddus writes about the routine of teatime, and how it brings peace to a hectic day: You get home from work late, again, with just enough time to eat before getting the kids ready for bed. They argue over whose turn it is to take their shower first or who touched whose stuff. You get them past their fussing long enough for them to brush their teeth. They come out of their room for snacks... Read more

What to Eat for Lunch

October 24, 2014 By Alissa Wilkinson

And for fun, on a Friday, so you can determine now to make good choices next week: you probably already know that what you eat for lunch affects your productivity the rest of the day. So what should you eat for lunch? The Harvard Business Review has answers: Unhealthy lunch options also tend to be cheaper and faster than healthy alternatives, making them all the more alluring in the middle of a busy workday. They feel efficient. Which is where our lunchtime decisions... Read more