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The Ig Nobel Prize is a satiric prize offered annually since 1991, a pun on the actual Nobel Prize awarded in Sweden every year. The ignoble nature of these actual prizes aims to honor unusual achievements that “first make people laugh, and then make…
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All pastors have had a “first year,” and some of the lessons and experiences in that first year will likely make up the initial core snowball that will eventually roll into a large circular mound of snow 25 years later. One lesson or somewhat common…
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A recent news story reported research on a relatively new artificial sweetener. It gave the results of the study, but a majority of the story quoted the scientists on another point. They cautioned readers about how much they still don’t know about th…
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I love to try and wrap my head around things I don’t understand, to learn something about all that I don’t know. Usually this journey is rewarding; sometimes it’s fruitless, though, leaving little more than an empty feeling. Case in point: vandalism….
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With people around the world, I have been reading and listening to news stories about last week’s earthquake in Syria and Turkey. I’ve been struck by images of entire blocks and cities destroyed, more than 35,000 people dead, and scores of others inj…
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When is the last time you might say you were in awe of something? Can you think of the last experience or situation that caused you to utter the word “wow”? Maybe it was when you looked outside your window this morning to see a fresh coat of white sn…
Attempts and desires to predict the future are likely as ancient as the human brain itself. Wonderings or anxieties about potential good or bad fortunes heading our way arouse within us a desire to know now what will happen tomorrow, next week, or te…
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There’s another Santos in the news right now besides George, the congressman from Long Island who’s making headlines for his lies. Laurie Santos is a popular professor of psychology at Yale University. We should say very popular. Her 2018 course, “Ps…
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Dear Moms/Daughters, Fathers/Sons, Parents/Children, I am not one of you, but I see you. Technically speaking, you “sandwichers” are adults, likely in your forties and fifties, who find yourselves caring for both your aging parents and your own chil…
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There’s likely no place where people are in more of a hurry to get out than at the grocery store. Most of us, I’d guess, arrive at the store with list in hand (or at least some idea of what needs to be purchased). We grab a cart—or possibly tempt fat…
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Near the end of our annual Blue Christmas service, people come forward to light little votive candles. As they come, the sparkling lights on the Christmas tree and blue lights provide the barest of illumination in the darkness of the sanctuary. At ta…
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One of the things I love most about this time of year is hearing the details of others’ varied Christmas traditions. Between the shuffling in and out of the church on Christmas Eve last Saturday, I chatted with all sorts of people—some attending alon…