Both psychiatry and religion care about the human spirit. I know they have seemed like enemies at times and I doubt if the extremists in either practice trust the other but trust has never been high on any extremist’s list, so that’s not a fair comparison. No, at their best, I believe both practices have overlapping interests but by tradition, they’ve rarely worked together. In The Road Less Traveled, Dr. Scott Peck associated the spiritual growth demanded by faith with growing emotional maturity but these were positive associations. To me, his more exciting, revolutionary work was chronicled in People of the Lie: The Hope For Healing Human Evil. In this book Dr. Peck suggested that evil could be cataloged and classified like any emotional illness and, more importantly, it could be treated. Dr. Peck defined evil as when a person uses his or her political power to let some one else suffer, rather than face their own personal shortcomings. The classic example is when one person lets another take the blame for his or her misbehavior. Now, under that definition, everyone has committed an evil act at some point in their lives but committing an evil act doesn’t make a…
I saw Fannie Flagg when I was young. Not as young as my husband, (who remembers her stint as the local weather girl) but in the early 1970’s, when Nixon was still president, my family got to see her on stage in a road-company performance of “Mame” with Bea Arthur supporting her as Vera Charles. It was a night of transcendent joy. Mame is a terrific show and Fannie took over the lead as if it had been written for her, my father forgot he hated all musicals and at the end of the performance the company got the longest storm of applause I’ve ever heard. Seriously, we beat blisters onto our palms that night clapping for that flame-haired woman who insisted life was a banquet and most poor suckers were starving themselves to death. That night, I decided no actress could inhabit Mame’s character well without understanding and supporting this philosophy. Ms. Flagg’s The All-Girl Filling Station’s Last Reunion has me thinking I underestimated her years ago. Fannie Flagg understands Everyone and Everything. She certainly understands Sookie Poole, the central character and perpetual mother-of-the-bride in AGFSLR. Sookie’s a member of the sandwich generation, still trying to fill the needs …
I am not a Narnia nerd. When my sister and I were young and used to arguing about everything we would debate the literary merits of C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien’s fantasy novels. It was a war of worlds and words, the Chronicles of Narnia v. The Lord of The Rings. (The things sisters argue about!) Without angering the full and affectionate hearts of Mr. Lewis’s supporters (including my sister) , my estimation is unchanged: with its created languages, and mythology, LOTR is a broader, more-original creation than the Narnia series. That being said, I am a fan of the work of C. S. Lewis and my favorite is The Screwtape Letters. Screwtape, if you haven’t heard of him, is a demon and mid-level administrator in Hell who writes to his nephew, Wormwood, a newly-minted, entry-level fiend, about the true tie that binds: their work on Satan’s behalf. It seems Wormwood has been assigned to guide some human to despair and a rejection of faith and the rookie needs help from Uncle Screwtape. Screwtape’s advice is sort of a theology in reverse because the guidance is to keep Wormwood’s “patient” from redeeming grace. Screwtape suggests that direct…
No one seems to recognize the name of Betty MacDonald any more. When I was little, her humorous books had a place of honor on my mother’s shelves and her series of Mrs. Piggle Wiggle books were staple of kid lit in primary school. She was even responsible for a Hollywood film series. These days only Google and Wikipedia can find her. If you aren’t familiar with mid-20th century pop literature, Betty MacDonald was a phenomenon. Her first book, The Egg and I (Yeah, I bet you thought that name only belonged to a restaurant franchise!) came out the year the war ended and sold a million copies in less than a year. It has the single greatest dedication I have ever read (To my Sister Mary, who always believed I can do anything she puts her mind to) and some seventy years later, it’s still good. Not flawless, but very, very good. The story is simple. Betty Bard is raised in a family of fascinating people and learns her mother’s guiding principle for a good marriage is, “whither thou goest, I will go.” When she was twenty, Betty married Bob, an insurance salesman twelve years older than herself. …
It seems half the world loves Julian Fellowes. A few mangy souls, like me, remember when he played Kilwillie in “Monarch of the Glen” but once he penned the screenplay to “Gosford Park” his acting days were numbered and his creation of of Downton Abbey and elevation to the House of Lords probably mean we’ll never see him in character again. Oh well. A wise person once wrote that authors, at their best, seem to pull back the curtain for their readers and introduce us to a world we wouldn’t otherwise know. What Julian Fellowes reveals is the inner workings of the British class system and if you think that’s a thing of the past, you need to pick up his novel Snobs. As of 2009 at least, the aristocracy still owns the most boring, exclusive club in town and the excluded are still trying to get in. The plot is a simple one: Edith Lavery is one of those very pretty British girls with a weathy, untitled father and a mother with social ambitions. She makes the acquaintance of Charles Broughton, an unmarried earl and heir to the Marquis of Uckfield. (That’s mid-rank in British nobility, lower than a…