Liminal places – Page 3 – Boy in the Bands

“Words are very unnecessary. They can only do harm.”

Hurricane blogging update

I’ll either be blogging heavily about an odd mix of items over the next two days because I’m bored, or very little because the power will be out (or because I’m enraptured by the storm.) I live-blogged the last hurricane threat we had — in 2003 — and included in that post an hurricane-appropriate hymn… Continue reading Hurricane blogging update

Righting the bad news from Somalia?

There’s nothing good about the news coming from Somalia. Or the Somaliland area. Or whatever you want to call that drought-stricken place that’s among the most lawless in the world, the transitional government notwithstanding. But serious, concerned people have an interest in knowing what’s happening there and helping, so far as within us lies. Much… Continue reading Righting the bad news from Somalia?

Girl soldiers in Uganda: a film project

My work colleague, Zubedah Nanfuka, has produced a short documentary called Wives of War: Uganda’s Former Girl Soldiers of the LRA, the last referring to the Lord’s Resistance Army. If you care about understanding the role of women and girls — as soldiers, as sex slaves, as returnees — in armed conflict, I’d ask you… Continue reading Girl soldiers in Uganda: a film project

Emergency preparation: can stove

I think my several years of childhood in hurricane-vulnerable New Orleans has deeply affected my approach to emergency preparation. When there’s news of very bad weather coming, the first thing I do is put back at least two gallons of drinking water (Dutch ovens are good, plus a pitcher in the fridge) and plug in… Continue reading Emergency preparation: can stove

Easter Sunday with the Spiritualists

Hubby and I attended church twice on Easter Sunday: in the morning with the pleasantly-Protestant Presbyterians and in the afternoon with the Church of Two Worlds (no website), a Spiritualist church in Georgetown. Why the Spiritualists? Well, the church, though nearby, is an almost-unknown curiosity. Second, at one point, about half of the Universalist ministerial… Continue reading Easter Sunday with the Spiritualists

The Rood on Holy Saturday

For a few years — and in marked joy, unlike the last two days — I have read “The Dream of the Rood” on Holy Saturday, and have blogged (2004, 2005, 2009) encouraging others to consider the same. To recap, it’s a heroic Germanic retelling of the Passion from the Old English; the narrator, through… Continue reading The Rood on Holy Saturday

“Threads”

Threads, a 1984 BBC television movie, is an all-too-believable tale about the destruction of the Yorkshire city of Sheffield (and the world) from nuclear war. I watched it several times in the 80s and 90s — a foundation made VHS copies available to libraries — and ran across it again last night while browsing on… Continue reading “Threads”

To my stalwart New England friends

This journey, filmed by Joel Lawson, is my old neighborhood leading to my new neighborhood (and where my office is.) Sunny today — just as snowy.

Newsletters: more on the “why?”

The snow has stopped falling here in D.C., and I’m tired of writing about it. Back to church administration. Earlier, I wrote that much of the utility of newsletters — not e-newsletters, but the ones handed to you or sent by mail — comes from their physicality, thus providing a connection to the ministry that… Continue reading Newsletters: more on the “why?”