by Michael Carlon | Jan 3, 2010 | Faith and Pop Culture
Today I have the unenviable task of putting all of the Christmas decorations away. It seems that it was just yesterday when the kids and I took them down from the attic and I remember completing that task with excitement and anticipation. Today’s task, however,...
by Michael Carlon | Dec 8, 2009 | Faith and Pop Culture, Self Awareness
When I as knee high to a grasshopper (who says that?) I played in the Springdale Little league for Palmer’s Market (which, like some of the other sponsors including Handyman Hardware and Machlette Laboratories, is no longer in business in Springdale). I remember...
by Michael Carlon | Dec 1, 2009 | Faith and Pop Culture, Self Awareness
We children of the 80s hold a special place in our hearts for 1985’s Back to the Future. Imagine being able to travel backwards or forwards in time with nothing but a used DeLorean, a Flux Capacitor, and, of course, some plutonium stolen from Libyan nationalists. I...
by Michael Carlon | Nov 30, 2009 | Faith and Pop Culture, Self Awareness
I was very close with my maternal grandmother. My twin brother suffers from asthma and was in and out of the hospital when we were little. He absorbed much of my mother’s attention and, as a result, my grandmother would drive west to Plantation, FL from her condo on...
by Michael Carlon | Nov 24, 2009 | Faith and Pop Culture
The Godfather is one of my favorite books primarily because of Don Corleone; a character whose sense of family and honor is shadowed by his own brutality. It is hard to argue that “I’ll make him an offer he can’t refuse,” is not one of the best...
by Michael Carlon | Nov 19, 2009 | Faith and Pop Culture
This weekend I took the kids to see the most recent adaptation of A Christmas Carol. It is one of my favorite stories primarily because it deals with the very simple, yet powerful, theme of repentance. As rich as he is, Scrooge realizes that he has lived his life...
by Michael Carlon | Nov 19, 2009 | Editorials
President Obama, Hillary Clinton, and the majority leaders in both houses of Congress are not the first group of people to realize that the health care system in the United States is in need of reform. The US Conference of Catholic Bishops has been preaching on this...
by Michael Carlon | Nov 8, 2009 | Editorials
Originally printed in the Nov 12 Edition of The Stamford AdvocateLike many readers of the Stamford Advocate, I have been following the back and forth on ability grouping in our City’s public school. Both sides use their own biases to select data to support their...
by Michael Carlon | Oct 31, 2009 | Faith and Pop Culture
Certain songs are like bookmarks; just hearing them takes us back to certain times in our lives (you were so right Kenny). When I was in college, The Barenaked Ladies were just breaking with their first hit The Old Apartment; a quick piece of trivia, the video for...
by Michael Carlon | Oct 27, 2009 | Faith and Pop Culture
I remember studying psychology as an undergraduate and being introduced to Gestalt thinking. The primary philosophy underlying Gestalt thinking is that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. In practical terms, this means that we as people are all more than...
by Michael Carlon | Oct 15, 2009 | Faith and Pop Culture, Self Awareness
I remember being a kid and listening to certain tapes in my Sony Walkman so much that they would wear out and sound distorted after a while; kind of like when the batteries were running low or when the dentist gives you too much laughing gas. I would listen to certain...
by Michael Carlon | Oct 11, 2009 | Faith and Pop Culture, Self Awareness
As much as I miss the summer I have to admit that I love evenings in the fall; particularly when everyone else in the house is asleep and I have my dog Reilly and writing partner Clos Du Bois to serve as inspiration. And, no, Clos Du Bois is not related to Benson Du...
