Searching for Sacred

Ashley Judd is the latest celebrity in the spotlight of scrutiny for her physical appearance.   Her face is puffy.   Critics assumed she had work done.   The reality, she was ill for a month and was taking steroids.   In addition, she confessed to not working out for six months and consequently gained weight.   Society deems her size 8 no longer thin and beautiful. Ms. Judd answered her critics in a thought provoking article( click here to read Ashley Judd's article ) .   Apart from raising awareness of how we are quick to judge and criticize one another based solely on appearance, she invited us into a conversation.   She asked the following questions:   “ Why was a puffy face cause for such a conversation in the first place? How, and why, did people participate? If not in the conversation about me, in parallel ones about women in your sphere? What is the gloating about? What is the condemnation about? What is the self-righteous alleged “all...

My heart is broken, or at least that is how it has felt the last couple of weeks.   I have been moved by discussions of race and social injustice, and noticed our knee jerk reactions to blame and accuse “those people” on both sides of the issue.   In the news, I learned that my former tennis coach was arrested for sexual misconduct with a 14-year-old student.   Outraged comments poured forth, “Yet another Christian pervert . . . let him burn in hell.”   We are quick to point fingers of harsh judgment and condemnation believing we would never act in such a devious way. We choose to blame and accuse in hopes to find reason and meaning into senseless acts. There seems to be a shortage of dialogue and an unwillingness to look deep into ourselves.   To see that we too have the capacity to destroy lives either through our direct actions or through our silence.   I have been intrigued with the Holocaust since my adolescence.   It began with reading The ...