Signs of the Times

Signs of the Times  •  13 September 2017 •  No. 136

Above: Satellite image from NASA's Earth Observatory of (l-r) Hurricanes Katia, Irma, and Jose

¶ Processional. “She's a rounder I can tell you that  / She can sing 'em all night, too  / She'll raise hell about the sleep she lost  / But even cowgirls get the blues.” —Emmylou Harris, “Even Cowgirls Get the Blues”

Signs of the Times  •  6 September 2017 •  No. 135

Special issue
Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA)

Above: Display of backpacks left by migrants attempting to cross the Sonoran Desert in Arizona, displayed at the Parson School of Design. The backpacks were exhibited in the show “State of Exception/Estado de Excepción.” Photo by Richard Barnes

¶ Processional. “Ice El Hielo,” La Santa Cecilia [Lyrics in English translation: “ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] is loose over those streets. / We never know when it will be our turn. / They cry, the children cry at the doorway, / They cry when they see that their mother will not come back.”]

Signs of the Times  •  29 August 2017 •  No. 134

¶ Processional. “The Flood Blues,” Louis Armstrong & Hot Seven Band featuring Bertha “Chippie” Hill.

Signs of the Times  •  23 August 2017 •  No. 133

Above: Spring in Zibak District, Badakhshan, Afghanistan

Special issue on
THE WAR IN AFGHANISTAN

Abbreviated issue

Afghanistan is "easy to march into, hard to march out of."
—Alexander The Great (4th century BCE)

Signs of the Times  •  16 August 2017  •  No. 132

¶ Processional. “O troubled dust concealing / An undivided love / The Heart beneath is teaching / To the broken Heart above.” —Leonard Cohen, “Come Healing”

Signs of the Times • 10 August 2017 • No. 131

Above: Garden of Morning Calm, Gyeonggi-do, South Korea

Invocation.
Don't the hours grow shorter as the days go by
We never get to stop and open our eyes
One minute you're waiting for the sky to fall
The next you're dazzled by the beauty of it all
—Bruce Cockburn, "Lovers in Dangerous Times”

Signs of the Times • 1 August 2017 • No. 130

¶ Invocation. Listen to my 3-year-old grandson recite e.e. cumming’s poem “I thank you God for this most amazing day.” (Special thanks to Marc Mullinax for technical expertise.)

Above: This beautiful “Nature Mandala” collage was created in June by children, and their teacher, Monica Hix, at a “Worship in the Arts” camp at First Baptist Church, Greensboro, NC.

Signs of the Times  •  25 July 2017  •  No. 129

Art ©John August Swanson http://www.johnaugustswanson.com/

¶ Processional. Traditional Samoan Medley performed by Choloration, a combined choir of Westlake Girls and Westlake Boys High School in New Zealand.

Signs of the Times  •  19 July 2017 •  No. 128

¶ Processional. “There’s a Meetin’ Here Tonight,” Cantus.

Signs of the Times  •  11 July 2017  •  No. 127

¶ Invocation. “I will bow and be simple, / I will bow and be free, / I will bow and be humble, / Yea, bow like the willow tree. / I will bow, this is the token, / I will wear the easy yoke, / I will bow and will be broken, / Yea, I'll fall upon the rock.” —a Shaker hymn, “I Will Bow and Be Simple” performed The Christmas Revels