Columns Archives

Accounts of unstoppable, contagious dancing fools date as far back as the seventh century, and hail from nearly all parts of Europe.

Many of us use humor as a defense mechanism when things go dark, but Waititi seems to use humor as joy-finding—a way of mining light out of dark ore.

Let’s give generously to the ones who need it and the ones who are helping. And maybe, I dunno, put that giant pack of Quilted Northern back on the rack.

A reading challenge can be just the pause we need to stop and consider which books in our collections contain truth and goodness—which are told in a beautiful way.

Dahl wasn’t selling people rocks—not really—he was selling them a joke.

Christians are commanded to love our neighbors, but we cannot love people we make no effort to understand.

It’s in those moments that the internet feels like a good place to be—a place to reveal how a single story written by an English chap in the 1950s has touched and shaped thousands of lives for the better. 

In locking us into the perspective of one of these characters, 1917 ends up being a story that, through the artistry, reminds us that one life has value in the midst of millions.

Formulas are not the problem with The Rise of Skywalker, but we might say lack of formulaic vision for the whole trilogy.

How The Sound of Music can prepare us for Christmas.

Stories that follow patterns like this show us that no one is really nonessential—they give us a sense that although the world is big, every person is important, no matter their birth, status, role, or function.

Through stories and storytelling, we ask and examine the most basic questions about our humanity—about our loves, history, religion, philosophies, and more.

All these struggles to define what art is really boil down to fear—a fear that elitism will strangle joy out of what it is we all enjoy consuming.

The claustrophobic feeling of the not-knowing forces us inside ourselves to examine our own reactions to the scenarios presented in the stories and—in the case of movies—on the screen.

Memeing the classics can be a way to plant seeds of interest, sparks that make seemingly dull, intimidating, or difficult pieces of literature come alive with possibility.

When the grandfather reads the story to his grandson, he invites us all to sit at his knee and listen. He invites us to be children again.