Category: religious/spiritual

The Colbert Questionert

My family and I have been recording and watching Stephen Colbert for years, beginning with his years as a correspondent on The Daily Show, followed by his entire run on The Colbert Report and his current gig as host of The Late Show, which is having its final shows this week. While CBS said that it was for financial reasons, the perception is that it was really the result of Stephen’s jokes about Trump, especially as CBS’s parent company was negotiating a sale that needed administration approval.

My occasional blog series, JC’s Confessions, was inspired by Stephen’s Midnight Confessions from his early years at The Late Show, which was followed by a book.

Another long-running feature was Stephen asking his famous guests to answer the Colbert Questionert, which was supposed to reveal their inner selves and be “fully known.” In homage to Stephen and his talented writing team, I, a distinctly non-famous person, will share and answer the Colbert Questionert.

1. What’s the best sandwich?
Grilled cheese, made with Cabot cheddar cheese (which is white, not the bizarre orange that some cheddars are) on homemade white bread
2. What’s one thing you own that you really should throw out?
Deteriorating sheet music that I inherited from a friend of my family when I was a child
3. What is the scariest animal?
A violent person with a gun
4. Apples or oranges?
Apples, because, as Stephen often notes, you can’t put peanut butter on an orange. Also, for me and my delicate constitution, oranges are too acidic.
5. Have you ever asked someone for their autograph?
Lots of someones, as I often ask poets to sign their books for me
6. What do you think happens when we die?
I think that our soul, which can also be understood as our consciousness, continues to exist as energy. This allows us to reunite with loved ones who have passed away and to live eternally within Divine Love, which is my interpretation of heaven.
7. Favorite action movie? The Incredibles, because it gives action without blood and gore.
8. Favorite smell?
fresh-baked bread
9. Least favorite smell?
ammonia
10. Window or aisle?
I like to sit in a window seat because I loved studying geology in college. I like to see the landforms and the clouds.
11. What is your earliest memory? I remember playing outdoors with my older sister and neighbors at the house we lived in when I was three.
12. Cats or dogs?
Dogs, although we only have people in our household due to allergies (and the fact that there is enough to do just taking care of each other)
13. You get one song to listen to for the rest of your life: what is it?
“Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen” from Mahler’s Rückert Lieder with mezzo-soprano Janet Baker.
14. What number am I thinking of?
Of course, I can’t answer this in Stephen’s absence, but my choice would, of course, be wrong.
15. Describe the rest of your life in 5 words.
Family – Love – Creativity – Service – Thinking

I don’t know if anyone will think that my answers make me “fully known” or not, but I do love that phrase because it appears in one of my favorite Bible passages, 1 Corinithians 13. Like Stephen, I am a Catholic and I wonder if that passage was in his mind when they decided to use that term in the Colbert Questionert. I find it a comforting concept because so many problems in life seem to stem from misunderstanding among individuals and groups.

I know that Stephen is not retiring so we will hear more from him in whatever creative vehicles he chooses. I will miss, though, hearing from him on a regular basis.

Thank you, Stephen, for all the years of laughter and insight. I hope you get a chance to rest and rejuvenate and spend more time with family after all your hard work.

And, maybe, you should answer your own questionnaire, so you, too, are “fully known.”

Postscript: On the next-to-last episode, Stephen did take the Colbert Questionert himself, asked by a parade of celebrities. I came back to edit this post to reflect the questions asked that night, but I wanted to still include these questions from earlier iterations.
A. Exercise: worth it?
Personally, no, except for physical therapy. One of the things that I’ve learned about my brain and body is that I don’t really get endorphin rush from exercise. I just get even more tired and, if I push too hard, will wind up needing a day or more of minimal activity or even bedrest to recover. My version of dealing with the chronic fatigue that can come with hEDS.
B. Flat or sparkling?
Flat, because my system doesn’t do well with bubbles.
C. Most used app on your phone?
Text. I use my phone as little as possible.

Baltic concert

Last Sunday, I sang a concert of music from the Baltic region with the Madrigal Choir of Binghamton under the direction of John M. Vaida.

It was a great experience for us and for our audience. We got to perform pieces by composers that were new to most of us. I added languages to my personal list of sung texts, Swedish and Estonian. We also welcomed the Fair Winds Quintet as our guests, made possible by a grant from the United Cultural Fund of the Broome County Arts Council. They played a set before the sung concert and another to begin the second half of the program after intermission. It was wonderful to have these talented local artists join us for the concert.

One of my favorite pieces on the program was “Cantate Domino”, a setting of part of Psalm 98 by the Lithunian composer Vytautas Miškinis. Another highlight was Sergei Rachmaninoff’s “Bogoroditse Devo” from his All-Night Vigil. I had first sung this under the direction of Dr. Bruce Borton with the University Chorus. Bruce had prepared a new edition of the Vigil for us to use and we later sang this movement in later programs, so it always reminds me of him. Bruce also became the second artistic director of the Madrigal Choir a few years before his retirement from Binghamton University. After the pandemic shutdown and the end of University Chorus, Bruce welcomed me to Madrigal Choir. Shortly after I joined, Bruce fell ill. I wrote about the last concert he conducted with Madrigal Choir here and about singing at his funeral and Madrigal Choir tribute here. This Rachmoninoff piece was part of a concert dedicated to Bruce at the University. I was grateful for the opportunity to sing it again, especially at Trinity Episcopal Church where Bruce had sung and volunteered for many years as a congregant.

I particularly loved the final piece of the program, a newly written hymn by Carolyn Winfrey Gillette, set to the tune “Finlandia” by Jean Sibelius. Rev. Gillette is a local Presbyterian pastor and hymnist with over 500 hymns to her credit. This poem, “O God of Love, This Is a Time of Turning”, was written in January, 2026, after speaking with a seminary friend serving in Minneapolis. We printed the words in the program and invited the audience to join us in singing – and they did!

We sang, “May we stand firm for truth and peace and justice;
May we leave fear and hatred far behind.”

May it be so.

Doug Rose

(Photo from Channel 12 News.)

Yesterday, spouse B, daughter T, and I attended the memorial service for our neighbor, Doug Rose.

Doug had lived a life of service, including being a police officer, but was known to most in our town for his fifty years of service with our volunteer fire department. He began volunteering at age 16, eventually becoming chief and training dozens of firefighters. The colon cancer that took his life was considered in the line of service, bringing to mind that firefighting is a hazardous endeavor with a lot of toxic exposure. Even during his illness when he could no longer go out on calls, Doug continued working for the department, doing planning, advising, and reports.

The fire department stood by Doug and his family, keeping vigil in his final days and helping with the memorials. Uniformed members of the department filled a third of the church at the memorial service, with emergency vehicles ready to be part of the cortege.

The most touching part of the service was when Doug’s daughter shared memories and stories of her dad. There were touches of humor, which were welcome at such a sad time. It was also a reminder of how we knew Doug and his family as neighbors. His children were a bit younger than ours but still close enough to play together and then be in school together. The whole family was service-oriented. Doug’s wife was a nurse until her retirement. His daughter now teaches at the same neighborhood elementary school that she, her brother, and our daughters attended. His son began volunteering with the fire department at 16, as Doug had, and now works as a dispatcher. Our neighborhood and town are safer and more cared-for because of Doug and his family.

A number of the stories shared involved Doug’s size. I remember the first time we met that he had to duck a bit to enter our house, his 7’2″ (220 cm) frame putting his head perilously close to the ceiling. B remembers seeing him directing traffic when he was a police officer, towering over the roof of his squad car. T recalls that, even though he was so big, she wasn’t afraid of him when she was a child. He was a dad looking out for the kids; she didn’t know that he was also well-known for his ability to break up bar fights.

Doug’s family was very important to him. He became a grandfather but his grandson, who was born early, only lived a few days. Because my faith tradition believes that we are reunited with our loved ones after death, I am imagining Doug now cradling his grandson and telling him stories about his family still on earth. As we were reminded by the reading of 1 Cor 13 at the memorial service, “Love never ends.”

Rest in peace, Doug.

what is lost

(Hearts by Angie Traverse)

Today is the 21st anniversary of the death of my friend Angie.

I’m thinking today about what is lost when a person dies at a younger-than-expected age. Angie was 54.

During one of her remissions, Angie and her spouse bought a second home on a lake that was special to their family. Angie told me she imagined grandchildren visiting there some day. I imagined visiting, perhaps with grandchildren of my own.

At the time, our children were tweens and teens.

Now, I have granddaughters, who are far away in London, UK.

I know that Angie’s children have children of their own, although I’m not sure how many or what their ages are. I imagine that they go visit the lake house sometimes. I imagine they tell stories about Angie so that her grandchildren have some inkling about who and how she was, even though she died long before they were born.

I imagine that there are still touches of Angie’s artistic and decorating skills on display.

I imagine that Angie’s spirit is still alive in her children.

Somehow.

One-Liner Wednesday: change

 As St. John Henry Newman said in his Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine, “To live is to change and to be perfect is to have changed often.”

Join us for Linda’s One-Liner Wednesdays! Learn more here: https://lindaghill.com/2026/03/18/one-liner-wednesday-why-3/

250th Evacuation Day!

March 17th is observed by Catholics around the world – and everyone who is of Irish heritage or who just wants to join the celebration – as St. Patrick’s Day.

My late father-in-law was an elementary school principal in western Massachusetts for many years and observed March 17th as Evacuation Day, the day in 1776 when the British evacuated their soldiers, some loyalists, and their ships from Boston, ending a 332-day siege. This year marks the semiquincentennial of that event.

At school, he would announce the day over the intercom in morning announcements. As computers and dot matrix printers appeared later in his tenure as principal, he designed an Evacuation Day card.

He would also buy Evacuation Day flowers for his wife, a bit of an inside joke as she also was of Irish heritage so March 17th was St. Patrick’s Day for her. After he passed away in 2005, we took up the family tradition of Evacuation Day flowers, sending them to Grandma and also featuring them in our home.

Now, we give Evacuation Day flowers to our daughters, which is even more ironic now that one of them lives in London with daughters of her own who will, no doubt, have a different perspective on this history.

Wishing you all a great day, whether you observe St. Patrick’s Day, Evacuation Day, or just another Tuesday today!

About the photo: This is a picture of my dad, known here as Paco, taken in Ireland in 2019 when my sisters took him on his first-and-only trip there when he was 94. He was of Irish heritage and had wanted to visit but wouldn’t go without our mom who didn’t fly. The trip happened in October after her death in May and, though we couldn’t have known then, just months before COVID-19 became an international pandemic. Paco passed away in September, 2021, so it was indeed the “luck of the Irish” that he was able to see Ireland in the brief window in which it was possible.

Paco’s middle name was Patrick.

SoCS: Love

Linda’s prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday this week is “love.” I’m assuming she chose that prompt for today because it is Valentine’s Day and love is in the air.

B is making individual beef wellingtons for dinner with tiramisu for dessert, leaving the cocoa sprinkled on top off my portion because I can’t have it. (Update: photos here https://joannecorey.com/2026/02/18/one-liner-wednesday-valentines-food/)

Meanwhile, I will be spending the day resting after yet another medical test and a physical therapy session yesterday. If I’m lucky, I’ll manage to make vigil mass this afternoon. I’m hoping that a down day today will make if possible to get through a two and a half hour Madrigal Choir rehearsal tomorrow.

In short, I’m not doing anything special for B this Valentine’s Day.

And he is perfectly okay with that.

B and I met and became friends when I was in my first year in high school and he in his second. By the wonders of our history teacher, Miss Stewart, who seated us in alphabetical order, we were near each other. Within a couple of years, we were high school sweethearts. We married a few weeks after I graduated from college and will celebrate our 44th anniversary this spring.

Our love for each other is an integral part of who we are and who we became, given that we have been growing together since our early teens.

B doesn’t need me to have a special Valentine’s Day gift for him to assure him of my love.

He knows my love for him is who I am and I know his love for me is who he is.

I will, of course, enjoy the special dinner he is making.

And the lemon blueberry scones currently in the oven for breakfast.

But I live B’s love every day and that is the real Valentine’s Day gift that is with us for life.

I hope that love finds each of you today in whatever form it may take for you.

SoCS: life chapters

I often think of my life in chapters.

They aren’t sequential or in blocks of time, though.

It’s more that they are organized topically.

For example, in my volunteer life, there are chapters around church, social justice advocacy, environmental causes, and school curriculum and committees when I was a parent.

In music, there is the church music and organ chapter, composition, and choral music, starting in high school, then Smith College both as a student and alum, decades with University Chorus at SUNY-Binghamton, and now with the Madrigal Choir of Binghamton.

In my personal life, the chapters are very long. Some as a daughter, granddaughter, and sister are life-long. Even though my parents and grandparents have all passed away, being a daughter and granddaughter is forever, as is being a sister.

Another long chapter which is ongoing is with my spouse B, who I met early in high school. We will celebrate our 44th anniversary later this year. I think that part of the reason we are who we are at this point is that we were able to grow and change together over all this time.

And then, there is my writing life, with chapters for school, what I think of as utilitarian writing like doing commentary, blogging, and poetry.

Two chapters that remain close to my heart are as a mom and, for the last 8 and a half years, a grandmother. Those chapters are the most forward-looking. I don’t think of my daughters’ and granddaughters’ stories as sequels to mine because they are their own authors but I am honored to be a chapter in their own books of life.
*****
Linda’s prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday this week is “chapter.” Join us! Find out more here: https://lindaghill.com/2026/02/06/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-feb-7-2026/

hearing differently

Those of us who attend Christian churches that follow the common lectionary are hearing 1 Corinthians 1:26-31 and Matthew 5:1-12a (the Beatitudes) this Sunday.

These passages struck me differently this year because of what we are seeing in Minnesota and across the country where people are standing up to the powerful for the sake of justice and mercy.

In I Corinithians, we hear “God chose the weak of the world to shame the strong.”

In Matthew, we hear:
“Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they will be satisfied.
Blessed are the merciful,
for they will be shown mercy.”
“Blessed are they who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

I know it will be a long haul and take a lot of work and witness, but these passages give me hope that the millions of us – of all faith traditions or none at all – who are not powerful individually will be able to re-establish a society that respects human dignity and rights for all the people.

JC’s Confessions #34

the sin of being American

In the first few seasons of The Late Show, Stephen Colbert did a recurring skit, then a best-selling book, called Midnight Confessions, in which he “confesses” to his audience with the disclaimer that he isn’t sure these things are really sins but that he does “feel bad about them.” While Stephen and his writers are famously funny, I am not, so my JC’s Confessions will be somewhat more serious reflections, but they will be things that I feel bad about. Stephen’s audience always forgives him at the end of the segment; I’m not expecting that – and these aren’t really sins – but comments are always welcome.

I’m guilty of being an American.

In the opening blurb for JC’s Confessions, I say that things I write about here “aren’t really sins” but this post will be an exception.

In Catholic theology, there is such a thing as social sin.

From the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church  

#118 Certain sins, moreover, constitute by their very object a direct assault on one’s neighbor. Such sins in particular are known as social sins. Social sin is every sin committed against the justice due in relations between individuals, between the individual and the community, and also between the community and the individual.  
~~~from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ website

Although this is a society-wide, structural sin, it mires all of us in the evil being done in our name and with our tax dollars. One needn’t look far to see the injustices being perpetrated on individuals, families, groups of people, and entire countries by the Trump administration, despite millions of us protesting against it and numerous findings of illegality by the courts.

Despite my own objections and (tiny) actions, I still bear responsibility for this sin. The truth is that I have benefitted from this system, in ways that others cannot. For example, my Italian grandparents and Irish great-grandparents were not considered “white” when they arrived in the United States, but their descendants with our pale skin and American accents found it much easier to fit into our society and find opportunities for education and employment. While it seemed that the United States had made progress in recognizing and redressing discrimination and prejudice against people of color and immigrants, those gains are being obliterated by the current administration on a massive scale.

One of the many insidious things about the current state of affairs in the United States is that too many people are not recognizing the responsibilities we have to each other as communities, as a society, and as a nation. While I happen to have a faith tradition that supports this viewpoint, in our democracy, our responsibilities to one another are the foundataion for everything. Our Constitution begins with “We the People.” It’s about all of us, not just the powerful or wealthy or Christian.

The Trump administration in its policies has made clear that they don’t consider themselves to be serving all the people, instead catering to the rich in economic and regulatory matters and punishing in any way possible millions of people who are immigrants, of color, LGBTQIA+, non-Christians, Democrats, women, liberal, progressive, residents of Democrat-led cities or states, experts in their field, or anyone who doesn’t support their agenda in some way.

Somehow, while I can see and acknowledge this sin and my part in these systemic injustices, those currently abusing their power in government, business, and communities refuse to accept responsibility for their actions, instead blaming those whom they victimize while excusing their own unethical behavior. A recent, outrageous example of this is the ICE/CPB aggression against protestors who are peacefully exercising their First Admendment rights, while Trump pardoned nearly all those who had participated in the violent insurrection at the US Capitol on January 6, 2021.

The Catholic Church does offer ways to seek absolution for our sins but these focus more on personal sin, not social sin. One aspect of seeking forgiveness for sins is that you are supposed to avoid committing that sin in the future, an impossibility with social or structural sin.

I realize that many of you, if you have managed to read along this far, may disagree with the entire premise of this post, reasoning that I’m not responsible for the actions of my government and society that I oppose. You may even be inclined to offer forgiveness. I do appreciate that sentiment and thank you for your support. Even more, I thank you for whatever way you help your neighbors and uphold human dignity.

We are all in this together.
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This post is part of Linda’s Just Jot It January. There is still time to join us! Find out more here: https://lindaghill.com/2026/01/30/daily-prompt-jusjojan-the-30th-2026/. The prompt for today is “cinnamon.” It’s one of my favorite spices and you may be wishing I’d written about that instead…