“Do you read Camus?” I love film, but it is hard to find films that I want to watch. Even with almost boundless choices, Netflix, iTunes, Amazon Prime and more— including the local theaters —I can look and look, and still not find what I’m looking for. I want the story to be about things...
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“But did he hear their screams?” My wife Meg is named after two martyrs who lost their lives during the horrible “killing times” of Scotland in the 17th-century. Two Margarets, one an older woman and the other a girl, were staked in the bay as the tide came in, condemned to death for their refusal...
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Now, but not yet. Everyone everywhere, sons of Adam and daughters of Eve that we are, sees the same world, and tries to make sense. We don’t have to be philosophers to do that; in fact sometimes philosophers miss it badly. What is required is that we be human beings— ordinary men and women who...
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“Picasso at the Lapin Agile” sounds just about as good as it gets— and not surprisingly, the play is born of the genius of Steve Martin. Once upon a time we saw it performed at the Ford’s Theater here in Washington, DC, bringing smiles to a place better known for sadness. Most of the story...
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The culture is upstream from politics, always and everywhere. A few days ago I made that argument at the University of North Carolina, giving the Wilberforce Lecture. While each week my work matters, and each time I speak I feel “holy butterflies,” this seemed more weighty to me. There had been a tremendous amount of...
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“At crucial moments of choice, most of the business of choosing is already over.” So argued Iris Murdoch, moral philosopher at Oxford University, and in a thousand ways we know it to be true. Parents understand this, spouses understand this, neighbors understand this, citizens understand this, athletes understand this— because it is true for everyone...
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