Tapestry

Swearing around members of a congregation? "Parish" the thought. But could profanity sometimes have a place on the pulpit?

Rev. Dr. Allan Rudy-Froese of the Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary believes swear words can sometimes be the most honest words. Daniel Benson, a minister in the United Church of Canada, says swear words can express moments when other words won't do it.

Two spiritual leaders discuss swearing and the role it plays in society and in the authenticity of their ministry. Plus, Olly Robertson, a researcher at Oxford who specializes in swearing, weighs in on the science of swearing.

When the first lockdown hit New York City in 2020, freelance writer Max Falkowitz was stuck by himself. He’s single and lives alone, and Falkowitz was struck by how little he touched living beings anymore. He went from hugging friends to walking cautiously alongside them.

To take up his unwanted free time, Falkowitz decided to hunt for a hobby. He started with growing house plants but it wasn’t all-consuming enough. Bonsai, the Japanese art of cultivating tiny trees, seemed to be a specific enough venture, with enough depth that Falkowitz dove in.

Falkwotiz found that tending to his miniature cedars, redwoods, and pines, helped him feel better. He tells Tapestry that the experience not only brought him closer to an understanding of life and death, but brought him community.

Until now, a lot of forays into genderless fashion have been subdued and shapeless, featuring neutral colours and boxy silhouettes. The author and activist behind the #DeGenderFashion movement says a truly gender-fluid approach to dressing could allow room for a much more expressive wardrobe.

Christmas music, whether you love it or hate it, has a power over us we can't control, and science can back it up. Musicologist Joe Bennett at the Berklee College of Music in Boston has done a brief analysis on how we can define what a contemporary Christmas song even is, and the patterns and themes that seem to hit us at the heart. What makes "White Christmas" tick? Joe has a guitar and the answer.

Olly Robertson, a research assistant in The Oxford Psychological Interventions for Children and Adolescents research group at University of Oxford, meanwhile has written about the science of Christmas cheer, and why things like mistletoe, the Christmas tree, and of course the music have such an emotional impact.

The American Religious Sounds Project tries to answer the hard question: What does religion sound like? The researchers are inviting the listener to imagine religion as something that people do in all kinds of different spaces, as opposed to something people are.

Meanwhile, across Canada, church congregations are windling and costs to maintain their buildings continue to rise. So where does that leave the approximately 27 thousand buildings across Canada? Kendra Fry helps congregations see their buildings reborn as community hubs for everyone to use — religious or not.

"These buildings are incredibly important. They are often located literally geographically at the centre of their communities," said Fry. "The reason that not-for-profits use them is because of their location, because of their price, and not surprisingly, because of their accessibility."

It could be a game-changer in making cities and towns more liveable in Canada and around the world.

The space race is back! But it’s not being run by NASA or Russia. Headlining new flights into the upper atmosphere are billionaires. Concordia’s Ted McCormick says there’s danger in leaving space exploration up to the richest among us. And Canadian video game designer Craig Adams releases a project about how to think about the future in a rapidly changing world.

A.G. Holdier believes that Marvel films and Disney princess movies would satisfy the existential inclinations of Friedrich Nietzsche and other philosophers because they deal with what it means to be human.

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...they had a lot of resilience. For Chris Knight, the chief film critic for the National Post newspaper, the life lessons found in Star Wars are now hitting pretty close to home.

Next week on Thanksgiving Sunday, Tapestry producer Kent Hoffman tells his story on The Doc Project on how he managed to find comfort in rituals again during a time of loss in the pandemic.

J.B. MacKinnon has travelled the world to try and discover what might be inconceivable to many – what if, one day, the world stops shopping? Thad Russell’s parents built an off grid home, but their plan to live a more modest life wasn’t as nearly simple as they hoped.

Father James Martin is a noted advocate for the LGBTQ community. He says there is much the Catholic church can do now to offer its support, even without changing church doctrine. Father Martin explains the difference between sadness and despair, and what The Lord of the Rings can teach us about morality.

Given the enormous costs of intoxication, why has the consumption of alcohol remained at the heart of social life? Author Edward Slingerland says it was essential to human evolution.