Tomorrow night marks when Christians honor and remember the Virgin Mary's journey ending with the birth of Christ. When we lived in Monroeville, Ala., our minister kept a picture of a very pregnant Mary on his office table. At first glance, the picture seemed an affront. There Mary was, misshapen and swollen, her face contorted in pain, riding on a donkey traversing rocky, steep terrain to Bethlehem.
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Planning a family trip to New York? There's no better time to go than when the giant tree in Rockefeller Center soars like a mini-skyscraper, when the Rockettes combine pageantry with the Christmas story and when the cold, crisp air provides an extra reason to snuggle during a Central Park carriage ride.
When I taught in Orlando, Fla., I discovered the wonderful, incomparable Zora Neale Hurston's literature. I was captivated with her literary snapshots of life in Eatonville, the first incorporated black town in America, which was later engulfed by the metropolitan amoeba named Orlando. Through literature I found a medium for all my students to experience a slice of black American life, some of it painful, some of it inspiring and much of it amusing. Black or white, old or young, stories make history come alive, like the ones hitting the shelves now for February, Black History Month.
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2,000 protesters support gay rights
2,000 protesters support gay rights
GALLERY: NC Wine Festival
GALLERY: Priddy's General Store
GALLERY: Priddy's General Store
GALLERY: Scene and Heard 5-27-2012
GALLERY: Scene and Heard 5-27-2012
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