Art has the power to weasel behind our defenses, awaken us emotionally, disturb the smooth surfaces of our certainties.
Debra RienstraJuly 3, 2021
It’s heartbreaking to see the once-beautiful churches in these photographs encrusted with mold and junk and falling apart. Plaster crumbles from sanctuary ceilings, organs molder, pews gather coatings of dirt and dust, stairwells collapse into piles of beautifully carved, jumbled pieces.
Debra RienstraJune 5, 2021
What does a vote mean? What do we think it does? What is, you might say, our theory of voting? It seems to me that we Americans operate out of a variety of confused, mostly unconscious, somewhat conflicting theories.
Debra RienstraOctober 22, 2020
Can we enjoy the process of puzzling things out when we’re not sure, at the end of it, that there’s an answer?
Debra RienstraMay 1, 2020
Maybe this is why my favorite songs on the album are the most melancholy.
Debra RienstraNovember 9, 2019
Earlier this week, Gillette dropped a new advertisement called “We Believe: The Best Men Can Be.” Well, you would think they had dropped a match in a puddle of gasoline. Using all the slick production values a $17 billion corporation can muster—including a lush musical…
Debra RienstraJanuary 19, 2019
I couldn’t even watch one whole episode. The first season of the new Marie Kondo television series, Tidying Up with Marie Kondo, dropped on Netflix this week. Obviously, Netflix timed this premier to capitalize on our New Year’s ambitions before they fade into Februarian disappointment.…
Debra RienstraJanuary 5, 2019
But perhaps individual virtue-modeling (what we used the call “the character question” in American politics) is not the only question. What if we also ask whether our leaders create an atmosphere that cultivates virtues?
Debra RienstraNovember 10, 2018
