What do Pope Leo XIV, the movie Sheep Detectives and a 15 year-old boy in Vermont who started Luke’s Military Museum in a trailer have in common?
Within the last week, all have been described as earnest.
There are several definitions of the word, but the meaning applied in each of these cases was “sincerity with seriousness or purpose.”
I hope seeing these seemingly unrelated examples is a signal that earnestness is becoming more in fashion as a trait we value.…
As the camera pulled back to reveal the face behind the hand that played the strings, a huge smile cut across my face. Tracy Chapman was on the Grammy Stage. Playing a duet with Luke Combs who had covered her classic, “Fast Car”, the crowd echoed my reaction. Taylor Swift stood and sang along, others followed suit. It was a quintessential “Grammy Moment.”
Later in the same show, Joni Mitchell performed at the Grammy’s for the first time in her prodigious career.…
I have heard Joni Mitchell’s “Both Sides Now” dozens of times, but until recently I never actually listened to it.
On Sunday, I watched the wonderful and moving film, CODA, where it plays a central role. Ruby, the sole hearing member of her deaf family, chooses it as her audition song for admission into the Berklee School of Music.
The desire to go to college is not shared by her family, who don’t appreciate their daughter’s love of music and fear the effects her leaving would have on the family’s fishing business.…
