I watched the grainy, blocky video in silence. My friend was singing “Land slide” and I felt a cer tain taut ness in my eye brows and a pecu liar heavi ness in the cor ners of my mouth. By now it had become a famil iar feel ing, this phys i cal expres sion of sorrow. Can the child within my heart rise above Can I sail through the chang ing ocean tides Can I han dle the sea sons of my life?” ~Fleet wood Mac, “Land slide,” The Dance, 1997 Sonia Lee '06, whose mel low and res o nant voice was … [Read more...] about The Pursuit of Suffering
resurrection
Introductions: Dissection of body and soul
Medical school is mostly boring and the parts that are not are often tragic, which is why few people write about the experience. Prospects facing newly-minted residents and attendings are not much better, as the overwhelming secularization of a discipline once seen as divine has fueled financial exploitation, divisive politics, and increasing frustration, cynicism, and disillusionment in those who once sought something more meaningful. While there have been exponential gains in scientific understanding and treatment … [Read more...] about Introductions: Dissection of body and soul
Advent and the Second Coming
This is the first week in Advent. What is Advent you ask? Simply, it is the four Sundays before Christmas (see my post from last year). As a separate liturgical season, Advent has its own areas of focus. Perhaps the strongest emphasis (besides preparing to celebrate Jesus' first birth) is on Jesus' return. Jesus' Second Coming can have unpleasant connotations in many modern minds. Popular authors have spun out scenarios of empty cars on the highway in the wake of “the rapture” (the idea that Christians are taken out … [Read more...] about Advent and the Second Coming
Easter Isn’t Over
Over the weekend, a friend asked me a good question about the resurrection: Why does it say "He is risen"? Shouldn't it be "He has risen"? Most modern translations actually use "He has risen" in places like Matt. 28:6. But "He is risen" still holds a central place in our Christian vocabulary. Just to cite two examples: Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Christ the Lord is Risen Today! My guess was that either a) grammar has simply changed since the 17th century, or b) the present tense is expressing a … [Read more...] about Easter Isn’t Over
A few minutes with Updike’s “Seven Stanzas at Easter”
Make no mistake: if He rose at all it was as His body; if the cells' dissolution did not reverse, the molecules reknit, the amino acids rekindle, the Church will fall. -- John Updike. Seven Stanzas at Easter. 1960. Accessed at http://www.iserv.net/~stpats/Updike.htm (4/21/2011). While reading Kent Annan's After Shock: Searching for Honest Faith When Your World Is Shaken (InterVarsity Press. 2011), I came across selections from John Updike's Seven Stanzas at Easter. On Easter, as he wrestles with faith in the … [Read more...] about A few minutes with Updike’s “Seven Stanzas at Easter”