Inappropriate Conversations

138: Missing Someone I Never Knew

Storytelling has always been a part of Inappropriate Conversations. Sometimes that involves telling the stories of others to make a point. Other times it truly is personal storytelling in the realm of nostalgia. I learned an important lesson this month about the power of personal storytelling, as if answers to questions I was raising might be coming from the grave.

Different Drummer: Frank Capra

Walk The Earth 9

Whether we can call a church a home if children "must know their place" within its walls?

137: Gambling on Taxation and Tourism

My position on gambling tends toward indifference. I'm less likely to make obvious observations about criminal activity or other societal implications than I am to reject ideas that state-sponsored gambling lowers taxes or drives tourism. In narrow (and largely long past) circumstances, that may have made some sense. Now, it is clearly less sustainable than the average "reality TV" show.

Different Drummer: Tom Waits

Walk The Earth 8

Whether "old" church (pre-Reformation) manages ritual better than church today in more modern or contemporary settings?

136: Converse versus Convert

It's not funny, it's hypocritical, how the same words can sound hateful or not based solely on whether they are heard rather than spoken. Sometimes we only understand the worst aspects of how we communicate when we hear ourselves through the angry words of others. The principle is very simple: if words you hear directed toward you are wounding rather than healing, then those same words directed toward others are hateful rather than loving.

Different Drummer: Peter of Bethsaida

Walk The Earth 7

Whether there is any one correct style of a ritual, including communion and baptism?

135: Nestor the Audio Commentary

From "Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer" to "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town" Rankin/Bass Productions seemingly could do no wrong. Output from there was far less consistent, including Nestor -- "Nestor, The Long-Eared Christmas Donkey" from 1977.

Different Drummer: Fred Astaire