The Great Spirit

by Zitkála-Šá When the spirit swells my breast I love to roam leisurely among the green hills; or sometimes, sitting on the brink of the murmuring Missouri, I marvel at the great blue overhead. With half-closed eyes I watch the huge cloud shadows in their noiseless play upon the high bluffs opposite me, while into… Continue reading The Great Spirit

James Bond: The Spy Who Nearly Came in from the Cold

by Jonathan English [As the new Bond film No Time to Die showcases a character who has deepened, growing more mature, emotionally honest, and even sacrificial, the following groundbreaking article looks back nearly 60 years to explore overlooked depths in the 1962 Ian Fleming short story "The Living Daylights." Further, as illuminated here, the dark… Continue reading James Bond: The Spy Who Nearly Came in from the Cold

Awakening Love: Christian’s Descent into the Underworld in Moulin Rouge!

by Jonathan English Twenty years ago now, Baz Luhrmann’s brilliant cinematic marvel, Moulin Rouge!, blazed across the silver screen. It would go on to receive eight Oscar nominations. Still, many critics seem to overlook its depths, bedazzled and almost blinded to deeper meaning by the film’s surface splendor, fast-paced brilliance, and abundant musical allusion.[1] For… Continue reading Awakening Love: Christian’s Descent into the Underworld in Moulin Rouge!

Satyagraha: Gandhi’s Civil Disobedience and Nonviolent Resistance

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn famously said, “the line separating good and evil passes . . . right through every human heart.” Humanity has always struggled internally, in the space between our better angels and our darker thoughts. As division and hate blight our body politic, the compelling moral power of Gandhi’s satyagraha remains a vibrant and ever-relevant resource. Martin Luther King, Jr. and others in the Civil Rights Movement were deeply inspired by . . . (An essay by Jonathan English)