Items in: Who We Need to Be

These items ponder what it means to be human and what that says about who we need to be. What distinguishes humans from being mere animals? What makes us, as the German philosopher Heidegger put it, beings for whom “Being is an issue” and how do we resolve the issue of how to be?

It was the coldest of times, it was the hottest of times… …okay, so in this cute little invocation of Dickens, I may be exaggerating about the heat. But about the cold? It was no laughing matter. February 2021 hit Texas like a ton of frozen bricks. Wind turbines couldn’t spin, solar panels underperformed, natural gas flows were disrupted, power went out, and many died. The heat came in fast […]

What Are You Talking About?

Who We Need to Be
When an online discussion of energy reliability went wrong, I realized it was caused by hidden, incompatible frames of reference. Without realizing, we were using the same words to talk about very different things. Look out for mismatched frames, and don't let them ruin your conversations and relationships — or your understanding of God.
How the film enriched and changed me Hirokazu Kore-eda’s intimate observation and deliberate pacing in After Life draw me beyond its central notion (choosing a single memory from one’s life) and into a longing to be more often fully present in all the moments in my life. I want to be more fully alive and aware so I might see and feel the significance of each moment and every memory. […]

After Life: Finding Life Before Death

After Viewing Film Analysis
Seeing the film After Life, I want to be more fully present for and more deeply experience each moment. I want to be more deliberate about how I find meaning and significance, grounding it in community and camaraderie with the people around me, both momentary relationships and lasting ones.
Way back in second grade, I was good at math. I enjoyed it; it felt good to be good. One day I brought home a test result (oh my! a test…how abusive!). My parents’ reaction was positive, understandable, and well-intended, even loving, but it sent me far enough downhill that I intentionally failed the next test. I simply marked down mostly what I knew to be wrong answers. What was […]

Beyond the Roller Coaster

Who We Need to Be
Having failed a second grade math test, intentionally, I now better understand why I love deeply entering a film's world to experience its odyssey and the destination to which it takes me.
The street, loud with traffic and wind, was respite to Isak, the noise proceeding through his blond skull, rattling from his mind the fading echoes of the coldness of his girlfriend’s parting words. The gray sidewalk passed steadily beneath his feet, growing darker until the street lights came on, then a bit lighter and brown. Rarely did his eyes rise from that surface. I should head off any assumption that […]

Up I See Colors

Flash Fiction
[revised] Isak wanders in central Stockholm, the noise chasing away unwanted echoes in his mind.
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