I have just finished watching a series on Netflix called Unorthodox. The story centers around Estey, short for Esther, a young Jewish woman in a community of orthodox Jews and who at age 18 finds herself in an arranged and largely loveless marriage. After a year of failing to get pregnant and a growing discontent … READ MORE…
Robert Heylmun just returned after a month in Italy and shares this reflection on how he missed our St Paul’s “form and order” in worship Oct 29, 2019 I’ve just listened to Andrew Green’s sermon on the importance of being mindful of what words we use. Very good advice. But the distinction between using hateful words … READ MORE…
It was a hilarious film in 1990 as Macauley Culken plays an eight-year-old kid who is home alone and whose ingenuity fends off two would-be burglars (bunglers?). Home alone isn’t always that funny. Yesterday in the check out line at COSTO, the checker had to look up a price for something I was buying. I … READ MORE…
Robert Heylmun reflects on loss. We never get used to it. The news of a friend’s death, I mean. As someone in his 70s, I’d think that some amount of immunity from the profound feeling of loss would have accrued, would have allowed me to take in the news with a dignified equanimity. Pauline’s death … READ MORE…
You may know Robert Frost’s poem The Tuft of Flowers, but if you don’t, I commend it to you. The scene is a hay field in the late morning when the speaker has gone to turn the newly mown hay. The mower, having been there at dawn to complete his work, has gone his way. … READ MORE…
The death of Antonin Scalia last Saturday almost immediately spawned a political argument about his replacement. The clichéd phrase of his not being cold before the vultures arrived is, like many clichés, exactly apt. During their debate the Republican candidates universally agreed that President Obama ought to forego putting a name before ‘their’ Senate for … READ MORE…