This week I found my essay written in November 2016, just days after the first Trump election. On re-reading it, I was surprised at how timely it feels and how presentiments from that time are tragically actualizing day by day. Also this week I heard a prominent writer reflecting on that period, on how people called her a ‘Cassandra’ in 2016, saying she was overreacting to things the candidate was saying. “I so wish I had been wrong,” this author... Read more
Lately I’m reading the political scientist Francis Fukuyama after hearing him speak on struggle. Specifically, on how struggle gives us meaning, and how humans need something to struggle toward. In the absence of struggle and challenge, something rushes into the void. As a writer and reader of fiction, I recognize the given: Every story requires conflict. My husband, a longtime literature professor, declares it definitively: “There is no story without conflict!” I would say this includes our own stories. This... Read more
Where Christianity gets especially real, where our faith is put to the test, is right here: where Jesus says, “Love your enemies and do good to those who hate you” (Luke 6:27-38). Major world religions hold in common a ‘golden rule’ stating essentially: ‘Love your neighbor as you love yourself’—a command to love others that is almost universal. But Jesus goes a painful step further, telling us to love our enemies. It is hard hard business. Because it is so... Read more
Last Wednesday, I woke to discover a protest was taking place at noon in the capital of my state, as it was in the capital of every state. A decentralized grassroots movement had come together to hit-the-streets and decry the authoritarian actions of Donald Trump and Elon Musk. I don’t usually make last minute decisions, but decided I had to put my feet where my words are and rapidly adjust my plans. My husband and daughter agreed to join me; a... Read more
Recently I left for the store and forgot my phone. When, a few blocks from home, I realized my phone-free status, I felt instant discomfort, wondering: What if my car breaks down? Then I smiled because—good grief—for most of my life, I always left home without a phone! Not only was I generally okay, but when something went wrong and I needed help, delightful things often transpired. Such as the time I was halfway between northern Oregon and northern California... Read more
In the story in this week’s lectionary gospel (John 2:1-11), Jesus tells his mother he cannot help the wedding host who has run out of wine because his “hour has not come.” It seems he knew something. He knew that as soon as he did a public wonder, it would start in motion the end of his life. And sure enough, it did. When he started going around Galilee and Judea doing miracles, at first he told people to keep... Read more
In the new year, I am rethinking prayer. By this I don’t mean that I started saying prayers differently. I mean that what prayer is to me completely changed. Really, decades have passed since I “said prayers” unless in a group setting—mainly because, for me, formulating words has tended to get in the way. In lieu of this, I have tried either to tune in to the divine in various ways, or to repeat simple mantras encapsulating what in most... Read more
Today I want to talk about Christmas and waiting. The Christmas season is one of waiting. Advent means, “the arrival,” and for those who celebrate, we wait for the arrival of Jesus into the world—because of all that he represents to us. And at this deep-winter time of year, we wait for the light to return, after months of light decreasing day by day. I feel too that much of the world is currently waiting. People wait to see what... Read more
For decades, I have not been precious about Christmas. This stems from years of having to share my daughter (an only child who’s now a wonderful 33-year-old) with several family gatherings on her father’s side, a gathering with her godfather’s family, and sometimes, her job, and from being a single-mom for many intervening years. Throughout the holiday, my daughter would be so exhausted trying to please everyone that I removed expectations for myself and any notions of an idyllic family... Read more
Perhaps my favorite thing about the Christmas season—just a few days away—is reminding myself and others how extraordinary are the stories of Christmas. Among global literature, they stand out as baldly subversive and anti-imperial while at the same time being neutralized. The gospel writers of Matthew and Luke (the only canonical gospels with birth narratives) each in their own way set up a stark confrontation between Jesus and the Roman Caesars, of all things—something no first-century reader would have failed... Read more
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