“We shape our tools and thereafter our tools shape us.” — John Culkin Watch one video about something. Pause on another. Search for something once. Maybe watch one particular kind of video all the way to the end, and suddenly your feed has reached a conclusion: Excellent. This is who you are now. 😂 So…
A Magnolia Morning Radio Reflection There are some things we understand better when somebody explains them. And then there are things we understand differently when we hear them. That’s part of what Magnolia Morning Radio has always been about. Music can get around the parts of us that want everything neatly labeled and logically arranged….
Who are you willing to stand beside, and who have you allowed to stand beside you? There’s a particular kind of strength in knowing how to stand beside someone. To stay when things are difficult. To notice what they need before they have to explain it. To learn the small details that make something easier,…
What happens when you are carrying today’s responsibility and tomorrow’s fear at the same time? There is a moment in Disney’s Finding Nemo that has stayed with me since the first time I saw it. Marlin tells Dory, “I promised him I’d never let anything happen to him.” And Dory answers, “Huh. That’s a funny…
There is a question near the beginning of Surface Pressure from Disney’s Encanto that tells us exactly what’s underneath all of Luisa’s strength: “Who am I if I can’t carry it all? If I falter…” The song then spends the rest of its time showing us why that question matters. Luisa carries weight. Expectations. Responsibility….
Some stories become more interesting when you revisit them as an adult. Because a Little Bug Went Ka-CHOO! is one of those stories for me. I loved this book when I was a child. I grew up surrounded by Dr. Seuss books and the wonderfully strange worlds that came with them. Looking back now, I’m…
Which role have you learned to play? Shakespeare gave us this familiar image in As You Like It: All the world’s a stage, And all the men and women merely players; They have their exits and their entrances; And one man in his time plays many parts. Centuries later, Rush echoed that familiar image in…
“Not everything that is faced can be changed; but nothing can be changed until it is faced.” James Baldwin, “As Much Truth as One Can Bear” But what does it actually mean to face something? We often picture facing a situation as immediate action: making the call, having the conversation, choosing the path, setting the…
Some songs ask questions that refuse to age. Supertramp’s “The Logical Song” begins in childhood, in a world experienced as beautiful, magical, and full of possibility. Then education begins. Expectations arrive. The child is taught how to become sensible, practical, dependable, acceptable, and appropriately defined. But beneath all that learning, a more troubling question survives:…
Have you ever been sincerely cared for and still felt misunderstood? Being cared for isn’t always the same as being understood. What might change if we replaced certainty with curiosity and listened before translating?
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