Giving Meaning to Life

By Elliot Fein
Published on September 4, 2003

In the movie, "Oh God! Book II," a little girl searches for God (alias the late George Burns). She looks for the Divine in every house of worship in her city. When she is about to give up hope, God appears.

She asks God, "Where have you been, God? I need you. I looked in every sanctuary in the city trying to find you."

God responds, "Why did you look there? People only show up in those places three times a year."

Family Values and July Fourth

By Elliot Fein
Published on July 3, 2003

I recently increased my odds of renting a quality flick at my local Blockbuster by skipping over the new releases section and checking out a classic: the 1990 Barry Levinson film "Avalon."

An epic story of a Russian Jewish family in Baltimore that abandons its past to assimilate into mainstream American life, "Avalon" traces three generations of the Krichinskys from its immigrant beginnings to the third generation of their American existence.

Creating a Sacred Space

By Elliot Fein
Published on August 1, 2002

In 1978, when I first applied to college, I didn't know what I wanted to study as an undergraduate. I left the space blank on the college application form where I was supposed to indicate an intended major. Someone in the admissions office, based on my grade point average and my achievement test scores, took the liberty and placed me in a major called leisure studies.