Opinions

On a recent whirlwind trip to my hometown, I drove five hours and had exactly 15 minutes to get my luggage out of one car before driving another one, with my aunt in tow, to Broadway Under the Stars, on the grounds of the Alabama Shakespeare Festival in Montgomery, Ala.

To no one’s fault but their own, the movie industry is fading to black. The theatrical term, fading out or fading to black, is used when a performance on stage is ending. It’s also appropriate for the entire industry. But instead of the chapter or scene going dark to give the crew time to change sets, it is signifying the taste of the audience.

Something really surprising happened to me this year. No, I didn’t win the lottery or find a miracle pill to regrow my hair. It wasn’t anything like that. I actually made a big deal out of Valentine’s Day!

The prevalence of the f-word, sometimes called the f-bomb, is yet another sign that the world is going to hell…or, so it might seem. I find that troubling. I love words. I think everyone who uses the f-word simply has a limited vocabulary and no interest in improving it. I want to help: there are a lot of f-words out there which don’t deserve a tainted reputation.

In my first apartment, I purchased my individual initials in a stocky, wooden block design and promptly hung them in a vertical pattern to replicate what I had seen in the apartment of Mary Tyler Moore.

My husband, Peter, does not believe in Valentine’s Day. I mean, he knows it is a thing. It’s just a thing he prefers to ignore.

I suppose there has never been a subject of more songs than love, or spurned love. And few of us, if any, have lived without experiencing some of both.

Everyone loves a good party balloon. This week America got a good view of a Communist Party balloon, and apparently trusted it long enough to tour across the nation like it was an illegal alien crossing the border.

Have you ever wondered what is the purpose of television, games, movies, and social media? Many will say it was created to entertain and inform us, but what we may not have noticed, is that when we are constantly focused on these things, we are usually not listening to what God is saying. To understand what He wants us to do, we must give Him our undivided attention. This is accomplished when we find a quiet place where we can pray, worship, and be still before Him. To those who are not followers of God, this sounds silly, but the ones who cry out for His refining fire to purge their minds and hearts, realize the desire for entertainment can become a snare trap distracting us from our mission.

Every year, as the calendar smiles at Feb. 14, unlikely men can be seen ambling up and down the streets, carrying roses, red beribboned gift bags and boxes of chocolate. It is a sight to behold.