In the spirit of Thanksgiving — and because I have some time to kill before I eat — I thought I would share with you this excerpt from a letter the German pastor and theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote to his friend Eberhard Bethge while Bonhoeffer was awaiting execution at the hands of the Nazis for his role in an attempted assassination of Adolph Hitler.

There is hardly anything that can make one happier than to feel that one counts for something with other people. What matters here is not numbers, but intensity. In the long run, human relationships are the most important thing in life; the modern 'efficient' man can do nothing to change this, nor can the demigods and lunatics who know nothing about human relationships. God uses us in his dealings with others. Everything else is very close to hubris. Of course, one can cultivate human relationships all too consciously in an attempt to mean something to other people [...] it may lead to an unrealistic cult of the human. I mean, in contrast to that, that people are more important than anything else in life. That certainly doesn't mean undervaluing the world of things and practical efficiency. But what is the finest book, or picture, or house, or estate, to me, compared to my wife, my parents, or my friend? One can, of course, speak like that only if one has found others in one's life. For many today, man is just a part of the world of things, because the experience of the human simply eludes them. We must be very glad that this experience has been amply bestowed on us in our lives...

Amen to that. (Tip of the hat to Ruth Holladay.)

The LA Times has posted an interesting interview with Craig Newmark, the founder of Craigslist. Recommended for folks who are interested in where journalism and media are going.

In short, Newmark sees a future for lean, hyper-local properties. He sees citizen journalists coalescing in virtual newsrooms with "strong leadership." He sees the revenue coming from display ads purchased by small local businesses on a sponsorship model. He admits this isn't anything we haven't heard before but it's always good to hear it again.

Here's an excerpt:

But we'll see, then, looser, weaker networks of talented writers who maybe wind up being some of your natural allies who may feed into your organization or similar. But networking is going to be probably the biggest critical success factor, as we used to say at IBM, and right not [sic] it's the size of your network that may determine success in large part. And you will be, you know, involving amateur writers, since some of them will provide some really useful stuff to you and help out.

This one is pretty funny.

Here's an amazing video my friend Liz posted to my Facebook profile. Bowie's performance here is just unbelievably emotional. As it should be. Just imagine if you learned that in five years everything was gonna be gone forever. All the beauty of the world returned to dust. Who would you forgive then? And how would you treat people? How would live your life? How grateful would you be for every day?

I don't think we can sustain that kind of thinking all the time, but wow.

Set against the backdrop of candidate Barack Obama's 2008 election-day visit to Indianapolis, a liberal young man must confront his conservative parents as they struggle to accept him for his true self. Meanwhile, an ambitous church leader struggles with her faith at a cultural crossroads.