Half a century is pretty “outta sight” if you ask me. To celebrate, here’s the two main Pet Sounds portions of The Beach Boys essay in Mess of Help. We’ve posted portions before but never all of it. Catch a wave: Brian Wilson was the original heart-on-your-sleeve auteur. Young men had been vulnerable on record before, but usually in […]
Mining Netflix: Masculinity Surrenders to a Force Majeure
Nearly a year ago, NPR released an article entitled The New American Man Doesn’t Look Like His Father where they examined the shift in American masculinity over the past fifty years. There were, of course, both positive and negative findings. For example, postmodern boys and young men have an increased respect for gender equality, but […]
Mining Netflix: Vulnerability on Notting Hill
There’s this girl. She’s someone who can’t be mine, and uh… it’s as if I’ve taken love heroin and I can’t ever have it again. I’ve opened Pandora’s Box and there’s trouble inside. If Hugh Grant vowed to collaborate exclusively with writer Richard Curtis (Four Weddings and a Funeral, Love Actually) for the rest of […]
Over-Confident Men and Underestimating Women: Some Thoughts on Shame and Leadership
Back in May I read an article in the Atlantic Monthly that rocked me. “The Confidence Gap” addressed the gaping hole of women in top leadership positions. I read it expecting the usual issues: poor math scores, smaller salaries, always feeling behind everyone else. And certainly, this article provided plenty of those sad and disappointing […]
Anne Lamott on Dropping Whiny, Guilt-Mongering Voices Into Mason Jars
I’m currently reading Anne Lamott’s, Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life, a super thoughtful, inspiring and funny book on the nature of writing, and how frightening and wonderful it truly is. I can’t put it down. Lamott talks a lot about how writing evokes vulnerability, and exposes all sorts of insecurities and fears, etc., […]
A Sigh of Relief: The Avett Brothers and Anne Steele Get Honest
Peace can be uncomfortably paradoxical. I’ve found that a vast majority of the conversations I have during the week beat around the bush–and the lack of substance only perpetuates existing anxiety. Art has proved to be exceedingly helpful, in that it often points me to an inescapable truth: when feeling stuck, the worst possible thing […]
Previously on Parenthood, Pt. 4: It’s Scary, It’s Really Scary
This is the fourth installment of a look at the theological (and pastoral) wisdom found in the current season of NBC’s Parenthood, mostly regarding the intersection of undeserved love and human suffering. This time I take a look at Adam Braverman (played by Peter Krause), who has been attempting to keep it together all season long […]
Previously on Parenthood: Max Braverman Breaks the Fourth Wall
The past few weeks I have been highlighting some theological insights to be gained from Parenthood, which is now in its fourth season. As I said in the post on Kristina and the other on Julia, there has been much suffering in the Braverman clan lately, but today I wish to highlight a reason for […]
