The Unclad Soul

The movie Bohemian Rhapsody looks at the 70s rock band Queen and its lead singer, Freddie Mercury, played brilliantly by actor Rami Malek. The critics panned the movie saying it played too safe with the complex real-life story of Mercury, his flamboyant life as a gay man, his long relationship with Mary Austin (Lucy Boynton), his Parsi or Persian family, and his death from AIDS. I thought the film provided an important portrayal of Mercury and Queen. It showed the human side of the band members and their struggle with success, with sharing the limelight, and with Mercury’s moods and genius. The sexual revolution of the 1960s and 70s, the Hippy Movement, and the rise of heavy metal music, rock, funk, and disco were all transformative. Janis Joplin, Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, Queen, and of course the Beatles all shaped not just the music scene, but society, in extraordinary ways. Queen, though, had Freddie Mercury and that made them unique. I found a distinct sadne...

(Note: This may be hard to take, but I think it's necessary. - TM) President Trump took his road show to Houston, Texas this week. He was there to support the Senate candidacy of Ted Cruz. However, he barely mentioned Cruz. Most of the speech was about, as usual, himself. One of the most disturbing things he said was a threat to send the military to the border to stop what he calls “the caravan” of refugees from Honduras and Guatemala from entering the U.S. First of all, he cannot legally do that. There is an Act that prohibits the military from engaging in civilian law enforcement outside of military bases (The Posse Comitatus Act). And secondly, really? Just ignore these desperate people? Without the slightest proof and with a desire to continue to scare his base, he claimed gangs, murderers, rapists, and terrorists are basically the people in the caravan. “We don’t want them,” he yelled to the crowd, who of course cheered and applauded. I don’t care to go on ab...

Dear Conservative Friends, I’m torn. Some of you I have known for years. Some of you are close friends, people I love and admire and care about. So it makes it difficult for me to understand your politics sometimes and your devotion to president Trump, your tolerance of his divisive partisanship, your silence regarding his often hurtful comments, and your acceptance of his merry clan of White House associates and Congressional chums many of whom are clearly corrupt and many others who seem hell bent on making America one race (white of course), one religion (Fundamentalist Christian), one economy (for the wealthy), one issue (the 2 nd Amendment), and one truth (theirs). Now, I’m sure you can turn that all around and say something similar to me about Democrats or liberals or others you strenuously disagree with or dislike. Understood. But I’m honestly concerned about the way things seem to be going in the country. Yes, liberals and moderates have often been lousy at govern...

In case any of us have forgotten, the Jesus of Christmas was a Jew. He was born one, lived one his entire life, and died one. He had no intention of starting a new religion (Christianity). His life as a teacher and healer was to do something good within Judaism, within the faith he had known all of his life. He did not die for the sins of the world. This was something his followers and the writers of the New Testament later ascribed to him. He died because he challenged the powers of the Roman Empire. He died because he threatened the Emperor’s influence, by promoting peace between people and nations, and not war and dominance. He died because he preached economic and political justice, which people were starving to hear and experience, but which those who governed thwarted. We forget these things. Or else we have never considered the real facts around the life of Jesus. But Bible scholars, theologians, archeologists, historians and solid researchers have known these things fo...

I asked Ingrid on the way to school the other morning if she could remember when she stopped believing in Santa Clause. She’s 13 now and I miss those days when she would stand by the tree in her Dora pajamas and chatter about Santa coming. She didn’t hesitate to answer my question. She said, “The year Santa never ate the cookies and milk.” Pilar and I were together then and we all lived in the house—Ingrid, her mom Claudia, and Pilar’s mom, Olivia, and Pilar and me. I remember I had set out the cookies and milk after Ingrid was in bed asleep and I always ate them before I went to bed and then would leave a note saying how good they were, signed by Santa. But that night for some reason, maybe I was just too sleepy, I went off to bed and left them there on a little stool by the tree. I don’t remember Ingrid saying much about it at the time. But apparently when she saw the cookies and milk untouched on Christmas morning, all the doubts she’d had about the whole Santa enterprise, fina...

I am a liberal Democrat. I am a Christian. I am a humanist. I believe in Choice. I support Gay Marriage. I believe in gay rights. I believe in reasonable gun laws including background checks at Gun Shows before a purchase is made. I believe in children. I believe in grand parenting. I believe in laughter and kissing and hugging and love. I believe in thinking, in using your mind and not just your emotions, which are often accurate, but can be easily manipulated. I believe in books. Books are guides into mystery and morality, into wisdom and insight, into gratitude and generosity, into acceptance and endurance, into risk and living, and we need all of that. I believe in pets because whether it’s a dog or a cat or a bird or a turtle it invites compassion from us and can make us a more decent person if we treat it with care and affection. I believe in the sacred which has the power to move and even transform us. Nature is sacred. Seasons are sacred. So is the ocean. Quiet worship before ...

In Mario Puzo’s brilliant novel, “The Godfather,” the mafia leaders meet for a critical negotiation to stop the fighting between families and to end the senseless bloodshed. In a room full of the men who wielded the most power a truce was established. Puzo writes, “The other Dons in the room applauded and rose to shake hands with everybody in sight and to congratulate Don Corleone and Don Tattaglia on their new friendship. It was not perhaps the warmest friendship in the world, they would not send each other Christmas gift greetings, but they would not murder each other. That was friendship enough in this world, all that was needed.” This is in a strange way what international political diplomacy is about. It is sitting down with your enemies and trying to find a way to keep from killing each other. It is setting up rules and codes of conduct and lines that can’t be crossed, as well as giving one another something in return, in order to establish an atmosphere of peaceful toleranc...