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Showing posts with the label American culture

The Perfect Narcissist for the Selfie Age

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Photo courtesy of AP Photo/Matt Rourke The other night on my way home from the office, I stopped at the mall to do a little shopping.   As I got out of my car in the parking lot, I noticed a woman moving quickly through the parked cars with her arm outstretched in front of her.   She was holding her cell phone and videotaping herself walking to her car.   Periodically, she would run her fingers through her long hair to let the breeze catch the strands to give her that special wind-blown look. At work, I have started reversing into the parking space so that when I leave for the day, I simply drive forward out of the space.   Why?   I have had too many close calls when backing out with people walking behind me or in my blind spot while texting or looking at their phone screens thereby failing to see me.   It’s scary and I don’t want to run over someone. I have been plagued with muscle spasms in my lower back.   When the muscles seize, I have little cont...

The Real Mary Magdalene, Witness and Teacher

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Photo courtesy of New York Magazine For those who took part in the Women’s March today, January 21, 2017. “But now this one word hath my sense restored, Lightened my mind, and quickened my heart, And in my soul a living spirit poured, Yea, with sweet comfort strengthened every part: For well this word a spirit dead may rise, Which only word made Heaven, World, and Seas.” Gervase Markham “Marie Magdalens—Lamentation #6” On a starless night, a woman and child huddled in the front of a battered wooden boat as it was propelled by the waves toward the beachhead.   Water, cold and bracing, sloshed over the bow and pooled around their sandaled feet.   Dark and shadowy men met them and pulled the craft up onto the sand and hands extended to help the woman and child disembark on the black-shrouded coast of Gaul.   “I am Mary of Magdala,” the women whispered.   “I am Mary of Magdala, and I come bearing the blood of Jesus Christ, our savior,”   She wrapped her arm around ...