Plastic Straws and Tipping Points

Back in 2015, a YouTube video of a sea turtle with a plastic drinking straw embedded in its nostril became the image that the sustainability movement needed. It was the face that launched a thousand plastic straw bans. In many ways, the campaign was a success story — one that elevated our awareness of single-use plastics to the point where it resulted in actual policy change. The anti-plastic straw movement didn’t actually originate with the turtle video.

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Walking on the Water

This coming Sunday is the 19th Sunday in Ordinary Time. In biblical thought, only God walks on the sea (Job 9:8 – “He alone stretches out the heavens and treads upon the back of the sea”; Ps 77:20 – “Through the sea was your way; your path, through the mighty waters, though your footsteps were unseen.”). But by treading on the sea, Jesus now takes a role that the Hebrew Bible had reserved for God alone. Continue reading →