Finding Your Soul by David Anderson
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Taking Responsibility For Our Faces
“After a certain number of years,” said the writer Cynthia Ozick, “our faces become our biographies. We get to be responsible for our faces.” A few days ago, shaving, I noticed the beginnings of jowls. My chin was holding its own but on either side near the corners of my mouth, my face was starting…
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Loving the Unlovable
Some people may be “easy to love,” but I haven’t met them. “Easy to like”? Sure. But love implies closeness, sometimes inescapable closeness. Love means blood or vows or commitments we have made to care for people. Sometimes a commitment chooses us: someone needs help and no one else is either able or willing. At…
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Take No Thought For Tomorrow
I awoke today to 2.5 inches of snow. Just like they said. There is something deadening about foreknowledge. I can’t remember the last time I was surprised by a snowstorm. We are mostly surprised, I think, when the weather hypers get it wrong, when the ‘bomb cyclone’ or ‘polar vortex’ fizzles. But either way, we…
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Your Life and Posessions . . . in 2123
I’m not used to thinking where I will be in 100 years, but that’s what I was doing a few days ago. A friend sent this reel by someone I’d never heard of. It’s about what happens to you and everything you own in 100 years. Take a look (it’s just over a minute). I…
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“How Was Your Christmas?”
In the opening days of the New Year people often ask, “How was your Christmas?” The answer, of course, is supposed to touch on family who came—or whom you visited—people who got sick, flights that got delayed or canceled, dinners or parties or events, and so forth. If the question comes from a close friend,…
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Christ Is Here
John 1: 1-14 “In the beginning was the Word… And the Word became fleshand dwelt among us, full of grace and truth.” We end Advent in the place we began. On day one we looked into an empty cradle and filled it with our hopes and prayers. Now Christ is born, but—at least for us…
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Star of Bethlehem
Matthew 2:1-12 “When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy.” Stars are everywhere at Christmas—they top our trees and stud the skies of nearly every holiday card. It all began with the visit of the Magi, royal astrologers from Babylon, who showed up in Jerusalem, asking, “Where is he who has been…
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Joseph
Luke 2: 1-7 “And while they were there, the time came for her to be delivered.” Perhaps Mary’s labor has already started—we are just hours away now. And that means Joseph is worried. So much can go wrong. In ancient cultures, nervous fathers-to-be had rituals to perform during pregnancy and labor. In one old Greek…
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The Angel
Luke 2: 8-14 “And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory ofthe Lord shone around them, and they were filled with fear.” In our unenchanted world, it can be hard to take angels seriously. But if we dismiss the angels, there is no way for God to reach us. The word…