Last Christmas I wrote a little essay entitled: "A Holiday Message from Ricky Gervais: Why I'm an atheist." The Wall Street Journal ran it, and it caused quite a stir. I was even asked to answer some of the comments. So for Easter I thought I'd do another one. Here it is. A Holiday Message from Ricky Gervais: Why I'm a good Christian. The title of this one is a little misleading, or at least cryptic. I am of course not a good Christian in the sense that I believe that Jesus was half man, half God, but I do believe I am a good Christian compared to a lot of Christians...
A Holiday Message from Ricky Gervais: Why I'm a good Christian.
The title of this one is a little misleading, or at least cryptic. I am of course not a good Christian in the sense that I believe that Jesus was half man, half God, but I do believe I am a good Christian compared to a lot of Christians...
Gandhi summed it up really. He said, "I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ."
For Kennedy, poetry has the great gift of "shap{ing} an endless conversation about the most important things in life." She learned that when she turned 50 and three friends sent her poems that afforded her both comfort and guidance. Thereafter she began creating this anthology of nearly 200 poems addressing the various stages of a woman's life, among them "Falling in Love," "Motherhood," "Death and Grief," and, yes, "Beauty, Clothes, and Things of This World." Many of the poems here are expected, e.g., Elizabeth Barrett Browning's "How Do I Love Thee," but others are delightful discoveries or reminders. Consider Kim Addonizio's "What Do Women Want?": "I want a red dress/ I want it flimsy and cheap/ I want it too tight/ I want to wear it/ until someone tears it off me." Or Paneshia Jones's "Bra Shopping": "At sixteen I am a jeans and t-shirt wearing tomboy who can think/ a few million more places to be…." Or Anna Swir's "The Greatest Love": "Her dear one says: You have hair like pearls.'/ Her children say:/ Old fool.' " The poets range from Sappho to Shakespeare to Plath, and Kennedy has the nerve to open with Gertrude Stein. VERDICT All in all, a warm and comfortable anthology for anyone (men, too) seeking solace in verse.
THE COLBERT REPORT, Comedy Central Mo 4/25: Rep. Ron Paul Tu 4/26: Timothy Naftali (director of the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum,) We 4/27: Ice-T Th 4/28: Wade Graham (Garden designer and historian, "American Eden: From Monticello to Central Park to Our Backyards: What Our Gardens Tell Us About Who We Are")
Mo 4/25: Rep. Ron Paul Tu 4/26: Timothy Naftali (director of the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum,) We 4/27: Ice-T Th 4/28: Wade Graham (Garden designer and historian, "American Eden: From Monticello to Central Park to Our Backyards: What Our Gardens Tell Us About Who We Are")