Donna Freitas: May 2008 Archives

Former Harvard neuroscientist, Jill Bolte Taylor has taken a strange path on the road to enlightenment—and not one that most of us would want to follow—it was while she was having a stroke that she reached nirvana. Now she's written a book, "My Stroke of Insight," detailing how the left brain is what gets in the way of our happiness, and everyone from The New York Times to Oprah Winfrey is jumping on Dr. Taylor's bandwagon.

I don't know how I, watcher for all-things Christian chastity culture-related, missed this big New York Times feature, "Dancing the Night Away, With a Higher Purpose," by Neela Banerjee, from last week about the growing popularity of the Purity Ball.

A Purity Ball, writes Banerjee, is a formal dance where "men st[and] and read aloud a covenant “before God to cover my daughter as her authority and protection in the area of purity," a gesture signaling "that the fathers would guard their daughters from what evangelicals consider a profoundly corrosive "hook-up culture," over the course of an "evening, which alternate[s] between homemade Christian rituals and giddy dancing...a joyous public affirmation of the girls' sexual abstinence until they wed." It's similar to a debutante ball, with the girls attending wearing "floor-length gowns, up-dos and tiaras," however the girls range in age from the very young (elementary aged) to college-aged.

I just wanted to make a few quick remarks about my wonderful, Indiana Jones movie adventure this weekend...

First of all, finally(!): the return of the true, non-stop fun, adventure flick. Whatever happened to that old-fashioned, Indiana Jones-style action adventure, I found myself wondering as I left the theater this weekend after seeing "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull"? The lighthearted kind that keeps you on the edge of your seat, but doesn't come with an added dose of drama, darkness and depression? The last movie I can remember that felt like pure action fun was the remake of King Kong. The new Indiana Jones movie is, well, like all the old Indiana Jones movies--delightful, funny, and exciting.

Second of all, kudos to Spielberg and Lucas on managing to make a family-oriented film (literally--with Indy, long lost son, and Marion Ravenwood of "Raiders" fame) that takes Indiana's entire family along for the ride. Is there plans for an Indiana Jr. series in the making? One has to wonder after seeing the Crystal Skull…. Plus, audiences get treated to a long overdue, sweet natured Indiana wedding at the very end.

John McCain may have sealed the Republican nomination, but apparently libertarian Ron Paul's supporters are not only hanging on, they are approaching his continued campaign with all the fervor of religious zealots, according to a New York Times Sunday Styles section article, "It's Not a Campaign, It's a Mission," by Alex Williams.

From missionaries to young apostles, Williams evokes just about every synonym for "religious follower" in the book as he details the activities of this holdout, hold-on group of Ron Paul supporters, who think of Mr. Paul as a "political saint" of sorts. On true-believer even describes Paul as "a hero on the level of a Gandhi."

Okay, I'm going to take a minute to gush like a teenaged girl right now: Kirk Cameron, a.k.a. Mike Seaver from "Growing Pains," that family-friendly television series that we all loved to watch during the '80's, has written a spiritual memoir about life on the set to give his side of the somewhat controversial stories that swirled around his conversion to Christianity while still working on the show and subsequent Christian-based projects like the "Left Behind" movies. The book is called "Still Growing."

And I got to interview him for it! (Insert me squealing here.)

You have to understand: Kirk Cameron was my first teen crush. I had a poster of him on the wall. I had photos ripped from Tiger Beat hidden under my bed. I just about shrieked like a 13-year-old when I found out I was going to get to talk to him.

The New York Times Home section runs every Thursday and occasionally they run a "Living Together" column. This week's is more of a human (and spiritual) interest story than a story about interior design. In "Making Their Own Limits in...

Just about everyone knows about James Frey's fall from grace and off the best-seller list with his faux memoir "A Million Little Pieces." A public reprimand on Oprah's couch will do that to an author. (Or anyone for that matter.)...

For all you "Twilight" series fans (whether or not you prefer Edward or Jacob), if you haven't seen it already, the first trailer for the movie from MTV films just released this week. Check it out here. As Time Magazine...

Today, the documentary "Surfwise" releases, a film about a family with nine children, all-raised in a 24 foot camper, hippie-commune-style, parked along the best California surfing beaches. In the New York Times review, "A Family That Surfs To a Beat:...

There have been several Fridays home this past semester that have left me watching television all evening, and my newfound interest in "Ghost Whisperer" which is followed up by "Moonlight" has had me pulling a CBS all-nighter and watching "Numb3rs"...