Each year on Christmas Eve, millions of people gather around their TV sets—or today, their computer screens—to watch the classic movie It’s a Wonderful Life. The main character, George Bailey, has a chance to see what the small town of Bedford Falls would have been like if he had never been born. In one scene, … Read more
Each day is a thread you are weaving into an epic tapestry. One day, the threads will run out and your life will be over. When your friends and loved ones reflect on your final tapestry, what will they see? Will they see shadows and a hint of greatness that was never fulfilled? Or will … Read more
When I became a college professor in 2004, one of the courses I was assigned was Introduction to the Arts. It was a basic survey course covering visual art, architecture, music, theatre, and film from a Christian philosophical viewpoint. The area I knew the least about was architecture. I had always been fascinated by it, … Read more
Have you ever held up an hourglass and looked it closely? From a distance, the sand looks as though it was one single element that can snake through the bottleneck between the top and bottom of the hourglass. But upon closer inspection, you can see that it’s just thousands and thousands of tiny grains. The … Read more
In the Hero’s Journey storytelling template, we begin with the main character. He or she exists in what is called the “ordinary world.” The ordinary world is Luke Skywalker on Tatooine, Dorothy in Kansas, Frodo in the Shire, Michael Corleone before he gets wrapped up in the family business, and a thousand other examples from … Read more
When you look back over your life, you can see a pattern. We spend lots of time and energy going from person to person trying to find an answer to the central question that drives our lives: What is my purpose? It’s more than a metaphysical or spiritual question. It’s also a practical one. We … Read more
A powerful movie, if you haven’t seen it, is Dead Poets Society from 1989. The late Robin Williams plays John Keating, an English teacher who has an unorthodox way of teaching his students. In one of his lectures, he challenges his students with this line, from Walt Whitman’s poem “O Me! O Life!”: “… the … Read more