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Barbara Falconer Newhall

Veteran journalist Barbara Falconer Newhall riffs on life as she knows it.

  • A CASE OF THE HUMAN CONDITION
  • MY EVER-CHANGING FAMILY
  • WRITING & READING
  • MY ROCKY SPIRITUAL JOURNEY
  • WIDOWED
  • FUNNY BUTTON

Geoff Machin

Does Nature Even Know We’re Here?

August 20, 2022 By Barbara Falconer Newhall

baby-feet-on-beach

Does nature even know we’re here? Is nature benevolent? Cruel? Or indifferent? I used to think it was benign. Now I’m not so sure.  Read more.

A Hopeful Realist Is Keeping Me Company These Days

April 24, 2021 By Barbara Falconer Newhall

hopeful realist contemplates the pinwheel-galaxy-NASA

I like to think of Geoff Machin as a hard-headed realist. A hard-headed — hopeful — realist is just the right company for me these days. Read more.

Looking for God? Try This

September 10, 2017 By Barbara Falconer Newhall

By Barbara Falconer Newhall The people I interviewed for my book, “Wrestling with God: Stories of Doubt and Faith,” are like old friends. I like to look them up from time to time and take in their wisdom and their stories — funny, poignant, passionate. To make contact I don’t need to pick up the phone […]

Our Sin — Or God’s? My Gino Geraci Talk Revisited

March 24, 2016 By Barbara Falconer Newhall

a dead bird dropped on a homeowner's doorstep by the neighbor's cat. Photo by Barbara Newhall

To my mind, given our evolutionary origins, there can be no original sin. God’s sin, maybe — but not human sin, not inherent human depravity. Read more.

Nature. We Love It — But Does It Give a Darn About Us?

May 15, 2014 By Barbara Falconer Newhall

NASA satellite image of Great Lakes covered with ice and clouds, March 8, 2014. NASA image.

In her new book, Writing Wild, Tia Welling quotes the popular mythologist Joseph Campbell: “The goal of life is to make your heartbeat match the beat of the universe, to match your nature with Nature.” I like Joseph Campbell. But I’m not so sure about nature. Read more.

Geoff Machin — We Go Looking for God, When We Could Be Having a Beer

February 27, 2009 By Barbara Falconer Newhall

Geoff Machin -- science is obvious. God, not so much. The Sombrero Galaxy, NASA. NASA & STScI photo. copyright@stsci.edu

Humans are the only living things that know they exist & ask why. We’d have more fun if we didn’t ask so many questions, just go to the beach & have a beer. Read more.

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LET’S CONNECT

ON THE FUNNY SIDE

High School Revisited: The More Things Change, The More They Stay the Same — Only Different

Seaholm High School Birmingham Michigan exterior. photo by BF Newhall

My old high school, deep in flyover country, has moved into the 21st century: The girls room is now the women’s room and the library the media room. Read more.

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  • A Case of the Human Condition
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TO MY READERS

Please feel free to share links to my posts with one and all and to quote briefly from them in your own writing, remembering, of course, to attribute the quote to me and to provide a link back to this site.

My Oakland Tribune columns, btw, are reprinted by permission of the Trib. With the exception of review copies of books, I do not accept ads or freebies of any kind. Click on the "Contact" button if you have questions. Enjoy!

 

DON’T MISS!

Lisbon-cathedral-crucified-christ

A Meditation for Holy Week: An Afterlife Where Time Does Not Exist?

Bay Area News Group runs a story on May 10, 2015. It's an interview with Barbara Falconer Newhall by Georgia Howe. Photo by Barbara Newhall

A Newspaper Story With My Name on It — That I Didn’t Have to Write

My grandfather David Falconer in 1893. Photo by Ludington Studios

A Case of the Human Condition: Am I Scotch?* Or Midwestern?

tree-trimmer-in-tree

My Husband Is Gone. But the Tree Trimmers Showed Up as Promised.

MORE DON'T MISS!

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