Inspiration and passion are tricky things. We need them to create, to write, to have meaningful interactions with our family, our friends and our world. Inspiration and passion are key ingredients to making us feel alive. We are excited by…
OPINION: A surveyor’s map
There is a bridge to nowhere where I love to go. The sculpture is a meandering walkway of wood and steel that rises into the trees with seemingly no real purpose whatsoever. As I approach the entrance I have two…
OPINION: Finish it!
In a live performance there is always the possibility of messing up. Anyone who has been on stage in front of people has experienced that moment when the next words don’t come out or the sounds that do are all…
OPINION: For the walking dead
On Friday, my friend Tori Lane held a benefit to raise money for HEART, a program of healing for victims of sexual assault. As a poet and visual artist, Tori thinks in metaphors and striking images. As a performer, she…
OPINION: ‘Everybody Loves Kostya’
Everybody loves Raymond. Or do they? The hit comedic sitcom lasted from 1996 to 2005 and can still be seen regularly in syndicated reruns almost any day of the week. It was created around the universal themes of family and…
OPINION: Instructions on living a life
A short poem by Mary Oliver: Instructions for Living a Life: Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it. I wonder what it would be like to live with this as a motto for my year. Lisa Cole Smith I sometimes…
OPINION: Missing the forest for the trees
When I was little I hated getting in trouble. I really hated it. It wasn’t so much the possibility of punishment as it was the feeling of tension, knowing I was at odds with my parents or someone else. In…
OPINION: Art is order
There is graffiti painted on the side of an underpass near my neighborhood. In large black and red colors it reads, “Art is Order.” Despite the irony of the tagger’s lack of respect for the order of law, I see…
OPINION: We’ve got skills
Church planter and consultant Doug Murren spoke at the NorthStar Church Network annual meeting last week. Doug’s the type of guy who tells it like it is in a warm, funny and extremely down to earth kind of way. You…
OPINION: ‘Looper’
While the trailer may lead you to believe you’ve seen this movie before, trust me — you haven’t. In fact, the director works very hard to weave a tale of time travel, crime and guns only to use that framework…
OPINION: Rejoice
On the way to work one morning this week I was praying to God to let me hear his voice. I frequently get so distracted by all the other things in my life that I get fuzzy headed and feel…
OPINION: Purifying the source
The recent YouTube clip denigrating Muhammed can’t really be called art or legitimate film in my opinion, but the questions surrounding it about responsibility are particularly interesting to me. What is the responsibility of the artist? I do not believe…