The power of identity
Ta-Nehisi Coates and Bryan Stevenson are two of the more important voices today speaking about race in America.
All posts tagged: Random DJB Thoughts
Observations from Home (The It Is Still the Christmas Season Edition)
If it is the Christmas season, it means that the Browns are likely to have a new family photo taken by our friend John Thorne. (Blog interruption: For those who may be wondering about the use of Christmas language after New Year’s Day, just think of the 12 Days of Christmas. That’s how we celebrate at the Brown home.) I’ve written before about the fact that we wouldn’t have family photos if not for John. Thankfully, he showed up at church on December 20th and asked if we would like a family picture. All four of us were there, and it was also Andrew and Claire’s 23rd birthday. A perfect day to capture the family for 2015! John used two settings, with two different cameras. At the top you see us in the church yard, while the photo below shows the Washington National Cathedral in the background. What a wonderful gift for the Christmas season. Thank you John! Speaking of getting the family together: I’ve been hinting over the past couple of months that I’d …
Farewell 2015, Hello 2016
Once again, the New Year puts me in a reflective and optimistic mood. As in the past, I’m taking to More to Come… to reflect on the year just past, account for my resolutions, and look ahead to 2016. 2015 was the year that both our children graduated from college, my father turned 90-years-old, and Candice and I had blessings too numerous to count. While our family has been blessed on many fronts, the same isn’t true for so many of our fellow citizens of the world. The news we hear on a daily basis seems overwhelming in the nature and scope of the issues we face as a planet. As an example, my recent reading (the subject of an upcoming post) has focused on our country’s seeming inability to come to grips with our terrible history of racial divide and hatred. But I could just as easily be reading on income inequality, climate change, fake news, our increasingly broken political system, increases in poverty, or other similar challenges we face in this country and …
A Republic, If You Can Keep It
When asked, following the Constitutional Convention, what kind of government had been created, Benjamin Franklin made a now famous reply. “A republic, if you can keep it.” Those words have been on my mind a great deal in recent weeks. I wonder why? Could it be the calls from those who want us to seal the borders, shut off all immigration into the U.S., and deport 11 million individuals? Could it be presidential candidates saying – when a decision is made that recognizes that we are a secular nation and not based on religious law – that we have “criminalized Christianity?” Could it be the calls to register Muslims and to reopen the internment camps of WWII? When I hear these speeches, I’m reminded of the late great Molly Ivins’ quip about Patrick Buchanan’s famously combative “culture wars” speech at the 1992 Republican National Convention: It probably sounded better in the original German. But that’s not why I sat down to write. I’ve read three books over the past couple of months that all bring …
Our year in photos – 2015
2015 featured college graduations, a celebration of Daddy at 90, and a birthday run-in with an ambulance.
Setting the record straight (Or when “True but not always factual” won’t do)
A few weeks ago I wrote a post about a visit I’d had with my dad. When it comes to writing about family, I tend to follow the dictum that I first used in It’s a Wonderful Life (For Tom Brown on His 90th Birthday) back in July. In that post, I listed 90 things about the wonderful life of my father and included the caveat that these were “all true, even if they are not all factual.” Well, I guess that wasn’t good enough for my father! As an engineer, he likes things precise. So earlier this week I received an email from my dad entitled, “More to Come, editing.” I had recounted a story I’ve heard many times before. My parents were part of the post-war (WWII) marriage boom that begat the well-documented baby boom. Both were from the small town of Franklin, located about 20 miles from Nashville. My father had just graduated from Vanderbilt and he and my mom were married in the First Baptist Church in Franklin. Before beginning his …
Live blogging World Series 2015 Game 3
Live thoughts in the midst of Game 3 of the 2015 World Series.
Before World Series Game 2 begins…
Before tonight’s Game 2 of the 2015 World Series begins, just a couple more random thoughts to add to last evening’s post. First of all, do yourself a favor and read Joe Posnanski’s column about Game 1. Posnanski worked for a long time in Kansas City and he understands the Royals. Here are the first three paragraphs to whet your appetite. The Royals lost Game 1 of the World Series to the New York Mets many times on Tuesday night. They lost it when two-time Gold Glove first baseman Eric Hosmer could not decide whether to charge or back off a chopping groundball. They lost it when their No. 3 hitter Lorenzo Cain inexplicably tried to bunt the tying run from second base to third with nobody out. They lost it when manager Ned Yost decided to pinch run for the team’s best slugger Kendrys Morales, leaving the team with the punchless Jarrod Dyson in the middle of the lineup. They lost it when the Mets sent their unhittable pitcher with his Hollywood name — …
I Haven’t Laughed This Much in Years
Last evening Candice and I kicked off the 2015/2016 season at Arena Stage with the hilarious Destiny of Desire, a new play by Helen Hayes Award-winning playwright Karen Zacarías. I haven’t laughed this much in years. This modern comedy is based on a Latino telenovela, and Zacarías and the cast are pitch perfect in capturing the wild plot twists, overplayed drama, and shirt-ripping passion required by the genre. The play begins on a dark and stormy night in Mexico, when two newborns are switched in a hospital, and the play gallops along from there for two hours to the entirely predictable, but nonetheless enjoyable, ending. The all-Latino cast is strong, and the Arena crowd – which is generally stingy with its praise – gave a swift and heartfelt standing ovation. Candice and I attend 6-8 plays a year at Arena, and I’ve never seen a crowd leave in such good spirits. This is a rollicking good time. Even if you’ve never tuned in to a telenovela on Spanish-language television, you’ll quickly pick up the vibe …
Connecting…across a distance
After a very busy week of conference activities in Cambridge – going from early morning until late in the evening – Candice and I came to London for two days to rest and reconnect with each other and with our souls. Knowing that we were likely to need a break from seven days of nonstop travel, meetings, tours, discussions, and connections, we chose to see where the spirit would lead. Little did we know that although we were quite a distance from home, we would connect to friends old and new in ways wonderful and unexpected. The train from Cambridge deposited us at King’s Cross Station on platform 9, and that was the first reconnection. My mind immediately went to those summers of reading Harry Potter books to Andrew and Claire at the river house. And I thought…hmmm, I bet Platform 9 3/4 is around here somewhere. Sure enough, there was a queue of twenty-somethings waiting to take their picture at Harry’s famous point of departure for Hogwarts. We laughed, and reminded ourselves that our …
MORE TO COME... 