When I was a boy living on a ranch in Tennessee I spent glorious afternoons roaming with my best friend We rsquo d hike into the woods ride ponies visit the rodeo arena and venture into the barn to watch the cowboys work the horses But whenever I heard my dad rsquo s whistle mdash that clear sound slicing through the wind and all the other clatter mdash I rsquo d immediately drop whatever I was doing and head home The signal was unmistakable and I knew I was being called by my father Decades later I rsquo d still [... more]

In his monumental book The Great Influenza John M Barry recounts the story of the flu epidemic Barry reveals how health officials rather than being caught off guard anticipated a massive outbreak They feared that World War I with hundreds of thousands of troops crammed into trenches and moving across borders would unleash new viruses But this knowledge was useless to stop the devastation Powerful leaders beating the drums of war rushed toward violence And epidemiologists estimate that million people died in the epidemic adding to the roughly million killed in the war rsquo s carnage We rsquo ve proven [... more]

In his wonderful book Art Faith A Theology of Making renowned artist Makoto Fujimura describes the ancient Japanese art form of Kintsugi In it the artist takes broken pottery originally tea ware and pieces the shards back together with lacquer threading gold into the cracks ldquo Kintsugi rdquo Fujimura explains ldquo does not just lsquo fix rsquo or repair a broken vessel rather the technique makes the broken pottery even more beautiful than the original rdquo Kintsugi first implemented centuries ago when a warlord rsquo s favorite cup was destroyed and then beautifully restored became art that rsquo s highly [... more]

In pastor Christian F uuml hrer began Monday prayer meetings at Leipzig rsquo s St Nicholas Church For years a handful gathered to ask God for peace amid global violence and the oppressive East German regime Though communist authorities watched churches closely they were unconcerned until attendance swelled and spilled over to mass meetings outside the church gates On October seventy thousand demonstrators met and peacefully protested Six thousand East German police stood ready to respond to any provocation The crowd remained peaceful however and historians consider this day a watershed moment A month later the Berlin Wall fell The [... more]