Author: Peter Woods
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Slower may be better…
You have heard of slow food? It started in Rome in 1986, as a protest to McDonald’s opening a branch right on St. Peter’s square in the Vatican. Now Slow Food has spawned an entire Slow Movement. Norwegian philosopher Guttorm Fløistad sums up the Slow Movement well: ”The only thing for certain is that everything…
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“Fake it till you make it”, doesn’t help
In these days of liberated sexuality it’s quite acceptable to openly discuss previously taboo subjects. Feminism has liberated women especially in the area of sexuality and has brought fascinating information to light. In one survey it has been shown that up to ten percent of men and women admit to having faked an orgasm at…
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‘Talk is cheap’, they say, ‘but money buys the whisky’. There are various forms of this adage. The earliest one written down is from P.T. Barnum the circus tycoon whose antics were recently told in the movie The Greatest Showman. He said, ‘Talk is cheap, until you hire a lawyer.’ Speaking of whisky and illusionists,…
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Tolerating Intolerance
“You get what you tolerate”, was tattooed on the inside of her forearm. I suggested “You get what you negotiate”, she was adamant and anyway it was her arm! I didn’t argue but I did ruminate. We really are becoming less and less tolerant. Especially in matters of faith. Fundamentalism,a relatively new phenomenon and a…
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Thoughts of extinction enhance life
Life is very old and tenaciously fragile. On a table that holds my precious things I have a small black ceramic disk I bought in India. Made from a black clay it has the imprint of a spiralled shell. These disks are common at tourist sites and are made by pressing wet clay into fossil…
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The power of the feminine to save. Even from Hell
We all enjoy a love story. This one from medieval Italy is similar to a million others but is special because it happened to a great poet who recorded it in the most beautiful language. Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) is famous for writing the “Divine Comedy” which shaped Christianity’s ideas of heaven and hell forever. He…
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IMAGINE IMAGINATION IMAGINING
There’s more to imagination that you imagine. In “A Midsummer-Night’s Dream”, Shakespeare wrote, “And as imagination bodies forth the forms of things unknown, the poet’s pen turns them to shapes, and gives to airy nothing, a local habitation and a name.” The passage illustrates how the idea of imagining something into reality already intrigued artists…
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Advent 2
Luke 3 In the fifteenth year of the reign of Emperor Tiberius, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was ruler of Galilee, and his brother Philip ruler of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias ruler of Abilene, during the high-priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to…
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Advent 1 Year C
Luke 21:25-36 ‘There will be signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars, and on the earth distress among nations confused by the roaring of the sea and the waves. People will faint from fear and foreboding of what is coming upon the world, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then…
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A Good Friday Lament
My God, my God, how can you not be angry? How can you be silent at a time like this? Can you not hear the plaintive cries of your suffering Son? You have seen it all, and from the beginning of time. A world created as home for your children. Reduced to deserts and wasteland,…
