The question I volunteered to cover today is: Why is Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ considered a Catholic movie? I’m going to run through some caveats first, and then look at ways the film is particularly consonant with Catholic spirituality; finally we’ll get down to the one non-negotiable that secures this movie its ultimate Catholic street cred. #1 Oh my gosh it’s so violent. Sometimes we say a movie is “Catholic” or “Christian” as code for “G-rated, with... Read more
A friend* posed this question recently: “I’m trying to get in shape, but I read different things about exercise. Some people say running is good for you, others say it keeps you from building muscle — am I doing it wrong?” I’m not an exercise guru, but I’m a person who exercises, and who does so under constantly changing physical constraints. Here are my thoughts, presented for you to tweak as-needed. #1 Your personal health is the primary guide. It... Read more
This is a quick PSA based on some conversations trending at the moment, on the hazards of “Graded Exercise Therapy (GET).” Short version: If someone suggests you try this GET thing, fire them from your life. So here is my favorite workout of late. I get on the ice, and I run sprints for an hour working hockey skills. I usually take two brief water breaks, during which my heart rate gets down to 140-150 and then I go back... Read more
H/T to Jonathan Turley for the heads up on the new ban on abayas in French public schools. I want to address a question he posed, and also provide some background and context for American religious readers. Most of the links will be in French, but Google Translate should hold you in good stead. Turley writes extensively on freedom of speech issues, but his specialty is American law, not French law. Therefore he wrote: The same intolerance could be used... Read more
Good piece at The Atlantic on the wealth divide in admissions to public universities: “These State Schools Also Favor the One Percent.” The gist of it is that the high tuition at state flagship universities, especially for out-of-state students, creates a de facto set of admissions preferences favoring wealthy students. As someone now scouting colleges for the fourth time in six years, I agree wholeheartedly. I take issue, though, with this quote from the piece: Administrators are essentially running two institutions... Read more
Great piece this morning by Ed Yong at The Atlantic “Fatigue Can Shatter a Person” summarized here if you don’t have access to the whole thing. One of the points he makes is that “fatigue” is an all-encompassing term that covers a multitude of what are in fact very different symptom sub-types. Your doctors need to understand how different these types of fatigue are, and as Yong points out, there is a good chance they don’t. This is exactly like other... Read more
I write a fair bit about the mental game of living with chronic illness, and maybe that seems off-topic for a religion website. So let’s compare a tweet from an actual doctor who regularly sees patients with autoimmune diseases versus this morning’s Gospel. First our tweet, and this is so typical of the experience of many patients with difficult-to-diagnose illnesses: Just saw a teenager with autoimmune disease and #POTS who was sent to a certain "ability lab" outpatient rehab program,... Read more
My friend Emily DeArdo and I have a fitness club. It meets via text message, and it involves reporting in how we’re doing and how our day went, and congratulating each other for making good decisions where our health is concerned. And here’s the thing: Emily is the girl who has kept me going on exercise, and not giving up, when it was extremely difficult to believe that it mattered. When you have a chronic illness, exercising is really hard.... Read more
I’m out of the closet as a Taylor Swift fan, even though I fully recognize that significant parts of her work and political beliefs are contrary to the Catholic faith. I won’t say I am comfortable holding onto the true, good, and beautiful in a mixed-package that has some serious concerns as well? But also at times Swift expresses Catholic things, and ordinary human emotions and experiences, with spot-on artistry and magnificence. So I work with it. The question I volunteered... Read more
From a conversation this evening: Your daughter who likes to do “boy” things will be much happier as a girl-who-does-boy-stuff than going through life pretending to not be a girl. Don’t let sexist haters keep your daughter from enjoying: fast cars contact sports science math dark colors trains firefighting yard work heavy machinery carpentry electronics dinosaurs martial arts sci-fi sports bars electric guitars short hair comfy shoes chainsaws grilling steaks professions that earn a living wage . . . or... Read more
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In