While visiting a family in Canada a few years ago, I was charmed by the nightly news, which included a rather long segment of a cow blocking a road. I laughed in the first 30 seconds as everyone in the room did. But after 5 minutes expanded into 10 minutes of reporting, I had to leave the room. “So boring,” I thought. “And so unnecessary. Canadian TV thinks of this as news?” Yet, I also noticed in the newspapers, long sections of bios of those who had fought and died…

Eternal Spirit in the World We have lost a great leader In the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg Glorified, as she should be, In classrooms In the dormitories of millions Of growing women Beloved by a nation of every gender and race That was trembling with fears That the Law might deny them  Their Sacred Rights She gave us an emblem, a banner, a voice We needed and could not find Until her. Justice Ginsburg offered  Her intelligence and self-respect, Her gentle but firm wisdom To a nation that had…

There is much to worry us in this time. But if we look upon the anger, the tumult, the struggles to live and more than that, the struggles to be free- we see a different color in this now dark world. We see fiery red. And red means love in our culture. It also means bravery.  For many years, we have talked much about conflicts outside our nation.  But now the conflicts are not outside our borders, but within them. We have violence against black people and people of other…