A few weeks ago, a reader of this blog wrote to ask me what I thought about the use of “the r-word” in movies. She wrote about a movie where one scene includes a joke about the word “retard.” In her words, “I found the movie in it’s entirety funny even when one scene made me cringe. Some of my closest friends say “that’s retarded” or “that’s so gay.”I try to tell them I’d rather they not say those things,... Read more

I have a new post on The Park Forum: “Work: A Curse or a Blessing?“ Read more

When my husband was in college, he and his roommates were captivated by Christian asceticism. “Beat my body and make it my own,” was one of their mottos. This discipline mostly translated into not sleeping much and fasting from meals on a regular basis. It seemed a bit silly to me at the time. “Honor God with your body,” I would retort. “Take care of yourself. Get some sleep!” Our culture picks and chooses areas of self-denial. Patrick Deneen has... Read more

I’m planning to write more about “the R-word” (and even the designation of the word retarded as “the R-word”) next week. For those of you interested in more reading right now, I’ll commend to you Louise Kinross’ comments on BLOOM: “The R-Word: It’s a Hateful Slur That’s Got to Go” and “The Tyranny of Two Words“ Read more

When Penny was three-weeks old, I was on the phone, telling the story of her birth to a friend. I had gone over all those details so many times by that point, it was a relief to ask her the question, “How are you?” She talked about their kids, and then moved on to the frustration of having a husband who couldn’t remember to recycle. “I mean,” she said, “what is he, retarded?” She kept talking, but I didn’t hear... Read more

Last fall, an old friend and I spent a weekend together. We talked about everything–kids,faith, birthday parties and school and church. But at the end of the weekend, my friend asked, “Do you always live in this place?” “What place?” “This place –talking about intellectual things all the time?” Hmm. Well, yes, I guess I do. I looked back on that weekend and realized that in the midst of discussing what shoes she should wear to the wedding we were... Read more

I have a new post on Her.meneutics called “Eliminating Suffering or Eliminating People: When Genetic Testing Threatens our Common Humanity.” It begins: Imagine sitting in a doctor’s office and receiving this news: Good morning, Mrs. Santos. I have the results of the screening test you had last week, 12 weeks into your pregnancy. The test indicates a high likelihood that your baby will be a typically developing child, and I want to make sure you understand the implications of this... Read more

My old friend Stefan Lanfer has a new review and reflection on Penelope Ayers. On his blog, dadtoday, he discusses parents and children, dying and new life in a new post called Storytime. An excerpt: Reading it, I was struck that this particular phase of life is not so unlike that of becoming a parent in some important ways – There is no real preparing for it,No knowing quite what it will be likeor feel likeor whether you’ll really be... Read more

I have a new post on The Park Forum: “When’s the last time you visited a prisoner?” about the declining crime and murder rate in America and the subsequent increase in people behind bars. Read more

I have a vivid memory of an argument about Lent from 4th grade. We were living in North Carolina, and my family (and their social circle, thus, most of the families I knew) attended an Episcopalian church. Observing Lent was a given. I asked my best friend at school, “What are you giving up for Lent?” “I’m not giving anything up. My mom says that if you give something up for God, you should do it all year round.” She... Read more