Finding Your Buffalo
There is a story about a farmer who owns a buffalo. Not knowing that the buffalo is in its stable, the farmer goes off to search for it, thinking it has strayed from home. Starting off on his search, he sees many different buffalo footprints outside his yard. The footprints of buffalo are everywhere! The farmer then thinks, “Which way did my buffalo go?” He decides to follow one set of tracks and they lead him up into the high mountains, but he doesn’t find his buffalo there. Then he follows another set of footprints that lead way down to the ocean. However, when he reaches the ocean, he still doesn’t find his buffalo. His buffalo is not in the mountains or at the beach. Why? Because it is back home in the stable in his yard.
Cultivating Hope
Karen Casey’s book, Cultivating Hope, is a wonderful and hopeful book about how an individual can live a life that is fearless and meaningful at a time when such virtues are so difficult to find. We live in a very troubled time, socially, personally and financially. This is why Casey’s book is so important for us today. Casey also comes from a troubled background. All she really wanted out of life was for others to change. This, she thought, would ensure her security. However, she later discovered that she was the one who had to change. Although this was difficult for her to accept at first, she did keep trying to open up to the idea that if she didn’t change, nothing else would either.
Religion and the Human Future – Theological Humanism
At a time when discourse about religion seems polarized between fideistic theism and reductive secularism, Klemm and Schweiker provide an imaginative ‘third way,’ in the form of a robust theological humanism that draws on and transforms the rich resources of theological and humanistic traditions. Ours is a time when cultures and religions creatively interact but also often collide, and human power increasingly endangers forms of life while great technological advances enable us to better relieve suffering.
The Cult of the Amateur – Media and The Consumer
Does the media create a cult of the amateur? It would seem that the media insists that the consumer know as little as possible about the products that they are selling. The media is supposed to inform and educate the general public yet they seem to control how much and what people know at all times.
The Fragmented Self and the Media
The media is versed at making us feel so inadequate that we start doubting our beliefs and values after a while. This is really detrimental since we already have such a difficult time to think for ourselves and to assert ourselves. So what the media does is to keep eroding our already vulnerable and, in some cases, fragmented self.
