random thoughts
After dropping off our younger daughter at her high school, my wife and I were on our way for morning coffee, in the shopping area just south of us. The three prominent stores that caught my attention were Party City, Space Savers, and Eckerds. Then, a little farther down, a Blockbusters, an ABC store, and a southwestern/faux mexican restaurant; then a Jack in the Box. What do these stores mean for our common life in early 21st century North America?
We have parties.
We accumulate stuff.
We take drugs.
We watch movies, at home.
We drink hard liquour.
We are willing to try new kinds of food.
We occasionally need food and we need it fast.
***
I saw a great movie this week, The Upside of Anger. Well-written, complex characters, humorous and intense, real. A movie for folks moving through middle age, and yet the younger daughters in the movie are not just there as background. It is a film about the effect of anger on a family, and stars Joan Allen and Kevin Costner. I highly recommend it.
***
Our older daughter, Liz, is a first year student at UNC Chapel Hill. If you were in a cave this week, or were on an exotic winter cruise, you may have missed the fact that UNC won the NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP, defeating Illinois 75-70. Sean May had an incredible 26 points, 10 rebounds.
Congratulations, Tar Heels!.
***
I have a brief piece on the death of Pope John Paul 2, at MethodX. The media will now move on to two dimensions of this story: the difficult circumstance the new Pope will inherit (secularization in western Europe, diocesan bankruptcies and priest scandals in the U.S.) and the call for papal leadership from the global south. An essential reading on the latter subject is The Next Christendom: The Coming of Global Christianity (Oxford University Press) by Philip Jenkins. The appeal of the conservative John Paul to younger generations, another subject of fascination among the media of late, is another subject that has been discussed in another recommended work, The New Faithful: Why Young Adults Are Embracing Christian Orthodoxy (Loyola University Press), by Colleen Carroll.
***
It is a beautiful day in North Carolina. Enjoy it!
We have parties.
We accumulate stuff.
We take drugs.
We watch movies, at home.
We drink hard liquour.
We are willing to try new kinds of food.
We occasionally need food and we need it fast.
***
I saw a great movie this week, The Upside of Anger. Well-written, complex characters, humorous and intense, real. A movie for folks moving through middle age, and yet the younger daughters in the movie are not just there as background. It is a film about the effect of anger on a family, and stars Joan Allen and Kevin Costner. I highly recommend it.
***
Our older daughter, Liz, is a first year student at UNC Chapel Hill. If you were in a cave this week, or were on an exotic winter cruise, you may have missed the fact that UNC won the NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP, defeating Illinois 75-70. Sean May had an incredible 26 points, 10 rebounds.
Congratulations, Tar Heels!.
***
I have a brief piece on the death of Pope John Paul 2, at MethodX. The media will now move on to two dimensions of this story: the difficult circumstance the new Pope will inherit (secularization in western Europe, diocesan bankruptcies and priest scandals in the U.S.) and the call for papal leadership from the global south. An essential reading on the latter subject is The Next Christendom: The Coming of Global Christianity (Oxford University Press) by Philip Jenkins. The appeal of the conservative John Paul to younger generations, another subject of fascination among the media of late, is another subject that has been discussed in another recommended work, The New Faithful: Why Young Adults Are Embracing Christian Orthodoxy (Loyola University Press), by Colleen Carroll.
***
It is a beautiful day in North Carolina. Enjoy it!
posted by Ken Carter at 7:19 AM
Carter's Roost
1 Comments:
your observations of the stores is exactly something i'd be staring down in wonder. well put, cause i'd never get out why i was staring.
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