In This Turbulent Time, Are You Stuck?

THE STORY BEGINS WITH …

RITA: I met Craig years ago when he came to Science House in Manhattan to work on business development. At that time, he was CEO of Assurant Solutions and now he is CEO of GXG helping other leaders to get unstuck. His new book documents his methods.

CRAIG: Let me define “stuck” because some people find it offensive when I ask them: “What are you stuck on?” It’s important to explain this: The way I define stuck is that we’re simply not moving fast enough to whatever the destination is. There’s a whole bunch of stuff we get stuck on. And the truth is: We all get stuck at some point.

I don’t want people to misinterpret. When I talk about getting “stuck,” I’m not saying that these are not good people, or they’re not working hard enough or that they don’t care. That’s usually not the problem. The problem almost always is …

Please, enjoy our two-video Cover Story this week—and we know you’ll want to share one this with friends—which is so easy to do on social media.

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From Our Authors: Letters to America

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Look Up into the Starry Night Sky

IN OUR FIRST LETTER THIS WEEK, author Ken Whitt invites us to visit his newly launched Traces of God Ministries website.

Ken’s letter of invitation appears in our Front Edge Publishing column this week—because our publishing-house team encourages all writers to carefully consider where they can welcome community conversation online. In answer to that question, Ken decided to launch a full-scale website, aided by web designer Michael Thompson. This letter from Ken explains what he hopes readers will find at his new online home, each week.

And, please, if you find them helpful, please share these letters with friends.

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And, from Duncan Newcomer—

Here’s to you, Mrs. Robinson!

LINCOLN SCHOLAR Duncan Newcomer salutes Pulitzer-Prize-winning novelist Marilynne Robinson’s appeal for a rebirth of America’s grand vision in this week’s New York Times. That’s a call to action that Lincoln himself often made during the turbulent years of the Civil War.

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Holidays & Festivals

What do we do with a holiday after toppling three dozen statues honoring its “hero”?

TUMBLING ALONG WITH COLUMBUS DAY—American journalists are unsure how to cover this “holiday” in a year when three dozen Columbus statues have been toppled nationwide—and protests are inspiring a growing number of regional leaders to distance themselves from this observance. We’ve got the story, which you may want to share with friends.

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Care to see all of our Holidays & Festivals columns? It’s easy to find our annual calendar of global observances. Just remember the address InterfaithHolidays.com

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FAITH & FILM 

ED McNULTY, for decades, has published reviews, magazine articles and books exploring connections between faith and film. Most of his work is freely published. Ed supports his work by selling the Visual Parables Journal, a monthly magazine packed with discussion guides to films. This resource is used coast-to-coast by individuals who love the movies and by educators, clergy and small-group leaders.

Among Ed’s free reviews and columns:

1. THE GOOD LORD BIRD—Ed McNulty writes, “Ethan Hawke has the role of his life as fiery Abolitionist John Brown in this tongue-in-cheek Showtime mini-series that he created and helped produce and write. The true part comes from James McBride’s National Book Award-winning novel of the same name, on which the series based.”
2. TIME—This gripping documentary was produced and directed by Garrett Bradley. It follows Sibil Fox Richardson, fighting for the release of her husband, Rob, who is serving a 60-year prison sentence. It had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in January, 2020, where it won the U.S. Documentary Directing Award.
3. NEW ORLEANS—Ed McNulty reaches back to 1947 to recommend this film, now streaming on YouTube. He writes, “When I discovered this 1947 film on YouTube, the main reason for watching it, other than the hope for some good jazz, was that it featured singer Billy Holiday in her only film, other than a short made back in the ’30s. She plays a singer named Endie whose boyfriend is Louis Armstrong, playing himself.”
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   Click this photo to read the review of ‘Hosea’ (2019).

   HOSEA—Ed writes, “Director/writer Ryan Daniel Dobson was inspired by the ancient prophet when he wrote and directed this love story that unfolds in the darkness of human lust and depravity. However, instead of the story focusing on the prophet and his mission to a fallen nation, Dobson centers his film on the former prostitute turned wife in present day Oklahoma City. Unlike the Biblical prophet, we are given the back story of how Gomer—here renamed Cate—became a prostitute.”

5. BORGEN—For years, the Danish series has been praised by critics in the U.S., but the series has not been available to most TV viewers. Now that Netflix is streaming three seasons of Borgen, Ed McNulty offers his own strong praise for these nearly 30 hours of exceptional TV. And, Ed adds some thought-provoking questions to consider as you begin to watch the series.
6. THE CIRCLE—This week, Ed also reaches back across the years to recommend another important film (in this case from 2000). He writes, “Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi’s movie begins and ends with a woman peering through a small window with a sliding panel as they seek information from someone in authority. Hence the title refers to a metaphorical circle … of women struggling to survive.”
7. RESIDUE—Merawi Gerima’s debut film explores the complex costs of gentrification—in this case, in Washington DC. Ed compares it to the other 2019 film The Last Black Man in San Francisco.
8. RUBY BRIDGES—Ed writes, “Ruby Bridges tells the story of how a six-year old Black girl integrated a New Orleans segregated school in 1960. … Not expecting a whole lot of it because it was a Disney film, it turned out to soar way beyond my expectations.”
9. ALL IN—THE FIGHT FOR DEMOCRACY—Ed writes, “Directors Lisa Cortes’ and Liz Garbus’s well-produced documentary could not be more timely, coming out just a month or so before the 2020 national elections.“
10. BY THE GRACE OF GOD, originally Grâce à Dieu—”Francois Ozon’s rivetting drama joins two other excellent films—Our Fathers and Spotlight—that personalize the issue of the abuse of boys by priests and its cover-up. The script, written by the director, is based on the real lives of three men abused as boys by Father Bernard Preynat (Bernard Verley).”

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