Human Spirit

Many quilting circles have their roots in the church or church-related activities. But recently I received a quizzical look from church members when I said that quilting is a spiritual endeavor.It helps us look at the way we learn about ourselves and our values. It connects us with others and the world around us. It is how we find meaning and purpose in life. Quilting explained a lot to me about the human spirit, our behaviors and our beliefs. In explaining the truths about quilting, I also discovered truths about being human.

Actor Nigel Reed claims not to know why he has been tapped for the second time to play the role of Augusta, the title character and aged septuagenarian in "Travels With My Aunt. " As he observes: "It can't be because I look good in a dress. " Actually, none of the four actors who play 25 different roles in the stage version of Graham Greene's 1969 novel puts on a skirt, let alone high-heeled pumps or a wig. Traditionally, the actors wear monochromatic black and white, and the show is performed without props or a set. The role of the mild-mannered bank clerk, Henry Pulling, is divided between all four performers.

Actor Nigel Reed claims not to know why he has been tapped for the second time to play the role of Augusta, the title character and aged septuagenarian in "Travels With My Aunt. " As he observes: "It can't be because I look good in a dress. " Actually, none of the four actors who play 25 different roles in the stage version of Graham Greene's 1969 novel puts on a skirt, let alone high-heeled pumps or a wig. Traditionally, the actors wear monochromatic black and white, and the show is performed without props or a set. The role of the mild-mannered bank clerk, Henry Pulling, is divided between all four performers.

H aving, over the last few months, had ample opportunity to contemplate and discuss the matter, we feel the time has come for The Baltimore Sun to take a position on what may be the most pressing issue of our time. We hereby officially oppose snow. This newspaper does not appear previously to have taken an explicit position on this or on any other major form of weather, but a search of the archives reveals a dangerous quasi-pro-snow policy. In February 2007, we noted that "maybe we wouldn't even mind one more snowfall," and in 2004, we admitted an affection for "an occasional snowman and a well-thrown snowball."

"Hands on a Hardbody," which was shown at the Maryland Film Festival and opens today at the Charles Theatre, is a documentary about a contest to win a fully loaded Nissan pickup truck in Longview, Texas. But that's the very least of it.In recording the experiences of a handful of Texans who gut out a grueling three-day marathon, S.R. Bindler has created a film of transcendent beauty and power. "Hands on a Hardbody" starts out as a slice of life and winds up being a funny and wise testimony to competition, human vulnerability, the unique tribal rituals of the contemporary South and, yes, the triumph of the human spirit.

A release came to me the other day which told about the second annual tournament of the Association of Disabled American Golfers.The release reminded me of the National Amputee Golfers Association tournament that I covered some years ago at Baltusrol Golf Club in New Jersey. When you see a guy strike the ball soundly while holding the club in one or more prosthetic devices, you know it's another affirmation of the human spirit.This group, ADAG, has recently acquired a corporate sponsor for its 1994 National Tournament, the Electric Mobility Corp.

"The Waterdance" is Neal Jimenez's semi-autobiographical film about a young writer suddenly locked in a wheelchair, and how he not only survives but triumphs. It's not one of those feel-good numbers full of cheap pieties about "the human spirit" but a tough, unsentimental and surprisingly funny movie. Rated R.4 "Sister Act" hasn't got a lot but it's got Whoopi Goldberg, as a lounge singer on the run who goes to ground in a cloistered convent and teaches the sisters about Motown. Rated PG.

"Have Mercy, Confessions of the Original Rock 'n' Roll Animal," by Wolfman Jack with Byron Laursen. 362 pages. New York: Warner Books, $21.95It is said that Bob Smith, who called himself Wolfman Jack, was the world's most famous disk jockey, and I know of no good reason to argue with that. He died the other day, still howling right about up to the end, and by weird coincidence, now comes his something-like autobiography. It's full of details of deals, and a lot of names, times, faces and outrages that will entertain almost-fans, delight fanatics and appall those who the Wolf always appalled.

TERRORISTS have won. They captured our attention and will not let go.Does a tree falling in a forest that no one hears make a sound? A bomb exploding that no one knows about creates no terror.An act of terror is a public relations stunt, resorted to by the side that could not win a fight, debate or election. Occasionally, it provokes events that overturn an outcome. Usually, it fails.U.S. authorities have steered a center course on the evidence of plots to commit carnage where people will congregate in front of cameras at the turn of the millennium.

The Carroll County Arts Council will hold its second annual series of award-winning international films next month. Films will be shown at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. Fridays. Tickets are $5 for adults and $4 for council members, those ages 60 and older and children ages 12 and younger. Subscriptions to the series are $17 for adults and $13 for others. Scheduled movies are: Feb. 4: Osama, from 2003, in Pashtu with English subtitles; rated PG-13. Osama was the first Afghan film to be made since the end of the Taliban regime.

Four decades after its premiere, Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? has lost none of its sting. That's demonstrated with piercing precision in the production launching its national tour at Washington's Kennedy Center. On the surface, "precision" may seem the wrong word for what goes on in this play - a dark-night-of-the-soul account of a middle-aged professor and his wife who "entertain" a young couple by subjecting them, along with themselves, to a series of lacerating mind games: "Humiliate the Host," "Get the Guests," etc. WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF -- Through Jan. 28 at the Kennedy Center, Washington.

Five kidney patients from across the country have received new organs from five unrelated living donors in what doctors at Johns Hopkins Hospital called the first five-way kidney swap in medical history. The 10 surgeries took place last week in an all-day marathon that required more than 100 surgeons, nurses and others working simultaneously in five operating rooms. All of the patients were recovering yesterday, and several were wheeled into a news conference, where they expressed gratitude to doctors and donors for a new lease on life - and amazement at the scope of the medical enterprise.

When I was in high school (class of '96), the music you dug dictated which clique you fell into. Since grunge was king at the time, sorrowful Kurt Cobain sympathizers abounded. And we're talking about Arkansas, so the country crew - with super-starched rodeo shirts and super-tight Wrangler jeans - was strong. The hip-hop homeboys dressed like West Coast gangsta rappers: chucks, long shirts and low-hanging Dickies. The metal heads were few, but they stood out. The guys wore black fingernail polish; the girls sported combat boots.

A Memorable Place To the summit of Mount Cameroon By Christa Hasenkopf SPECIAL TO THE SUN After my first year of teaching, I hopped a plane to Cameroon last June to visit a college roommate who was working in the Peace Corps. Climbing Mount Cameroon, the highest mountain in West Africa, was high on my to-do list. At 13,435 feet above sea level, Mount Cameroon would be the highest elevation either my friend or I had climbed, and to top it off, it's an active volcano with craters, hardened lava flows and even rain forests at its foot.

The Carroll County Arts Council will hold its second annual series of award-winning international films next month. Films will be shown at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. Fridays. Tickets are $5 for adults and $4 for council members, those ages 60 and older and children ages 12 and younger. Subscriptions to the series are $17 for adults and $13 for others. Scheduled movies are: Feb. 4: Osama, from 2003, in Pashtu with English subtitles; rated PG-13. Osama was the first Afghan film to be made since the end of the Taliban regime.

Exploring space is noble purpose for human spirit As the old saying goes, "If God had intended for man to travel in space, He would have put a moon near the Earth." And He did. So let's colonize it ("Bush charts new course to moon, beyond," Jan. 15). Let's hope the president makes the development of the lunar base an international effort. One of the best ways to keep the peace - whether it is among your children or among nations - is to give people higher goals. What could be better, more noble, more useful and more uplifting to the human spirit than building a permanent colony on the moon and a system for traveling to and fro?

The early rioting reports were encouraging. Maybe even a cause for civic pride. Yes, the barbarians were at it again, smashing, looting, burning. But it appeared that Chicago had a higher class of barbarian than other cities.They had hit a bookstore. And not just any bookstore. Not some mass purveyor of lurid best sellers or self-help glop.No, it was the venerable Stuart Brent Books, on glittering Michigan Avenue, where for years true book-lovers have sought the thoughtful, the rare, the profound.

THOSE WHO lined up early yesterday to be among the first to purchase Hillary Rodham Clinton's autobiography, Living History, will probably turn first to the chapter titled, "August 1998." The contents of that chapter were heavily leaked last week, but anyone willing to plunk down $28 for this book would want to read for himself or herself how Hillary Clinton reacted when her husband, the president, told her that there had been "inappropriate intimacy" between him and intern Monica Lewinsky.

When the American poet William Carlos Williams wrote, "It is difficult / to get the news from poems / yet men die miserably every day / for lack / of what is found there," he was pointing out that although poems do not provide us with the daily journalistic information we crave, they carry a kind of news that might offer solace and respite in the face of difficulty and even misery. Williams' claim for poetry is really a claim for poetry's ability to elevate the human spirit and imagination above the prosaic conditions of our age. The poems in A. Van Jordan's Rise come as close as poems can to telling both the news of the moment and the truth of the human spirit.