To read fiction means to play a game by which we give sense to the immensity of things that happened, are happening, or will happen in the actual world. By reading narrative, we escape the...

When there is no news, we will give it to you with the same emphasis as if there were.

What does freedom mean if we accept the fundamental premise that humans are social beings, raised in certain social and historical contexts and belonging to particular communities that shape their desires and understandings of the...

Having contact sheets for all sorts of episodes in your life seemed to me intriguing and desirable. So much of my own history is beclouded by time, but a few sharp rays, in the form...

The only people who can ever put ideas into context are people who don’t care; the unbiased and apathetic are usually the wisest dudes in the room. If you want to totally misunderstand why something...

Of course, in television’s presentation of the “news of the day,” we may see the Now…this” mode of discourse in it’s boldest and most embarrassing form. For there, we are presented not only with fragmented...

Man is a coward in space, for he is by himself.

After 9/11, we did see Palestinian terrorism in the context of all terrorism.

With television, we vault ourselves into a continuous, incoherent present.

Agriculture must mediate between nature and the human community, with ties and obligations in both directions. To farm well requires an elaborate courtesy toward all creatures, animate and inanimate. It is sympathy that most appropriately...

The idea of the extraordinary happening in the context of the ordinary is what’s fascinating to me.

…you do violence with your words if you force them – art is given – the words received, moment by moment from unseen hands – call it a Muse …

You know, Junie, you’re fourteen now. I think you can certainly manage to put together a sandwich. …The thing is, if my mother had any idea what I had in my backpack, she would have...

Writers use narratives to select from everything there is, and make contexts by putting the pieces into relation; that’s what writers do, they make contexts.

When students learn to wrestle with questions about purpose, audience, and genre, they develop a conceptual view of writing that has lifelong usefulness in any communicative context.

You see the first thing we love is a scene. For love at first sight requires the very sign of its suddenness; and of all things, it is the scene which seems to be seen...

I need to be able to explain myself in context.

Is everyone who lives in Ignorance like you?” asked Milo.”Much worse,” he said longingly. “But I don’t live here. I’m from a place very far away called Context.

Reality is not a function of the event as event, but of the relationship of that event to past, and future, events.

One who has lived through the days of Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin, and the Japanese war lords feels something that a younger generation does not concerning the aberrations that are possible in this world.

Art is the conscious making of numinous phenomena. Many objects are just objects – inert, merely utilitarian. Many events are inconsequential, too banal to add anything to our experience of life. This is unfortunate, as...

Corporate & personal branding both require storytelling to be captivating. Stories provide context, meaning & the opportunity for relationship.

The problem then with Jesus is that he cannot be removed from his time and transplanted into our own without simply creating him anew

The will to truth is enshrined in the mind. It is undeniable, inescapable, mutable only if one’s humanity itself is rejected, itself muted. Yet the form of this truth, whether it be elaborate, simple, exclusive...

Do you follow the wrestling? Most people think it’s illegal, but you can watch it there. Ruby and Python are on display this evening.

You can cite a hundred references to show that the biblical God is a bloodthirsty tyrant, but if they can dig up two or three verses that say ‘God is love,’ they will claim that...

It’s not where you take things from – it’s where you take them to.”[MovieMaker Magazine #53 – Winter, January 22, 2004 ]

But however minimal, however threadbare, it (collective memory) is ballast of a kind. We all need that seven-eighths of the iceberg, the ballast of the past, a general past, the place from which we came.That...

Conformity is a problem for many small groups. Members put a higher priority on cohesion than on coming up with a well-reasoned choice. They pressure dissenters, shield themselves from negative feedback, keep silent when they...

Until you’ve been washed ashore you can’t know how all encompassing the sea has become.

Great experiences are built on a foundation of bad experiences.

I’ve always been spiritual but I’ve never had a proper context, and it took me a while to find the proper context. It’s hard to realize you can have any kind of relationship with God...

It follows that the one thing we should not do to the men and women of past time, and particularly if they ghost through to us as larger than life, is to take them out...