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Christmas Traditions Around the World
Taking a look at how different cultures embody the Christmas spiritWith less than a week until Christmas day, people across America are scrambling for the perfect gifts and stressing about cooking the perfect meal. Some might call it the over-commercialization of Christmas or an elaborate celebration of the season, but the fact remains that we Americans love to go big or go home when it…
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Give A Care! Holiday Campaign Thanks Caregivers for Their Dedication
This holiday season, show a caregiver you know that you appreciate their year-round effortsYou probably don’t have to try too hard to think of someone who takes time out of his or her life to be a caregiver for aging parents, disabled children, or other loved ones in need. We all know someone. That’s why the Center for Community Change is running the “Give a Care” holiday campaign…
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“The Changeling”
Discussing this unavoidable state as it pertains to “The Changeling”A couple months ago, I mentioned a book of plays that I had loaned to my mom. I didn’t think I’d ever bring that story up on this site again, but in fact, this week I’m examining a passage from one of the book’s plays. The play, by Thomas Middleton and William Rowley, is titled…
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The Newtown, Connecticut Shooting Victims
SevenPonds honors the memory of the Newtown, Connecticut shooting victimsIn the aftermath of the carnage at Sandy Hook Elementary, in the idyllic town of Newtown, Connecticut, many will find themselves asking questions. Some will wonder at the motive of the attacker, at the conditions that gave rise to his madness, at how such a catastrophe can be prevented in the future. We will mourn…
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How Can We Support Men and Women Living with AIDS? (Interview)
The Executive Director of Maitri shares the facility’s history and offers advice for caring for loved onesMichael Smithwick is the Executive Director of Maitri, a residential care facility in San Francisco for people living with AIDS. Maitri was founded in 1987 when Zen teacher Issan Dorsey took in a homeless student who was dying of AIDS. The word Maitri is a Sanskrit word that means compassionate friendship, and that is what this…
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The Newtown Connecticut Shooting Leaves the Nation Asking Questions
One Iowa casket maker donates caskets to the Connecticut shooting victimsThe shooting this morning at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, has left a deep mark on our nation’s consciousness. In line with the string of such random outbreaks of senseless violence this summer, the Newton, Connecticut shooting will perhaps stand out in the, so far, absolutely inexplicable nature of the attack, and the…
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The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
Semi-autobiographical novel reflects Plath’s own struggles with depression and suicidal tendenciesSylvia Plath’s life reads like a tragedy. A gifted writer and poet from an early age, she struggled with depression starting in her teenage years. She married poet Ted Hughes, with whom she shared a tumultuous relationship and two children. In 1963, at the age of 30, she committed suicide by sticking her head in…
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10 Famous People Who Died on the Toilet
Elvis, Lenny Bruce, and more met this unfortunate, yet funny-bone-tickling, fate1. Louis Kahn, an American Architect, died of a heart attack in 1974 in a men’s restroom in Pennsylvania Station in New York City. 2. Elvis Presley died of a heart attack in his bathroom in 1977. History disputes whether the heart attack was caused by drug intake, his weight, or what his biographer called…
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