grief | Explorations Media

Which Is the Better Story @Image Journal’s Good Letters blog

Image courtesy of 20th Century Fox Studios.

“There’s a scene early in Ang Lee’s majestic Life of Pi film in which the main character watches everything he loves die. Pi is floating in a vast, murky sea as the ship carrying his family and their zoo animals recedes into the distance and sinks. His arms are stretched out wide and his whole body seems to reach for them as they slip away.

This is the moment when I forgot I was wearing 3-D glasses and felt as if I was in the water with Pi, losing everything I love. I’m not sure I would have reacted as viscerally as I did to the scene if it had not been produced in 3-D. As it was, I sat in my seat and wept.”

Read my whole [spoiler alert!] review at Good Letters. It’s my first appearance at the Image blog and I’m honored to see my byline there.

Posted on November 24, 2012 by cascheller

Art, Beauty, Books, Christianity, Community, Culture, Ethics, Faith, Family, Friendship, grief, Humanism, Islam, Philosophy, Redemption, Theology, Travel, Vocation, Walkin' the Talk

3-D, Ang Lee, Art, Atheism, Beauty, Books, Christianity, Community, Culture, death, Entertainment, Epistemology, Ethics, Faith, Family, filmmaking, Friendship, grief, Humanism, Islam, Judaism, Life of Pi, lost at sea, movie review, ontology, Philosophy, Redemption, religion, suffering, Theology, tragedy, Travel, Vocation, Walkin' the Talk, Yann Martell

Recapturing Innocence With Ang Lee @TheHighCalling

Director Ang Lee in New York City, courtesy Explorations Media, L.L.C.

The sound of a baby’s laughter. A six year old’s wide-eyed wonder on Christmas morning. The moment you first believed. Who doesn’t want to relive innocence like that?
For Academy Award-winning director Ang Lee, recapturing innocence in life, in filmmaking, in the cinematic experience is at the heart of his film adaptation of Yann Martel’s best-selling novel, Life of Pi. Speaking to a group of journalists in New York City last month, Lee said the film is about what happens to a young boy’s innocence after the ship carrying his zoo-keeping family sinks and he’s set adrift on a lifeboat with a dangerous tiger.

The ocean becomes like a desert, Lee said. “It’s a test of his faith, his strength.” …

Read the whole thing at The High Calling.

Posted on November 24, 2012 by cascheller

Art, Beauty, Christianity, Community, Culture, Ethics, Faith, Family, Friendship, grief, Humanism, Islam, Leadership, Travel, Vocation

Ang Lee, Art, Beauty, burn out, Christianity, Community, creativity, Culture, David Magee, Ethics, Faith, Family, filmmaking, Friendship, grief, Humanism, innocence, Islam, Judaism, Leadership, Life of Pi, mentoring, religion, suffering, Suraj Sharma, TheHighCalling, Travel, Vocation

When Storms Come @Faith&Leadership

Hurricane Sandy Aftermath: Bay Head, South Pt. Beach

Bayhead, New Jersey

Like a thrill ride gone terribly wrong, Hurricane Sandy barreled through my beloved Jersey Shore last month. Except during college and a six-year sojourn in California, this area has always been home, the place where I grew up and where I have lived for most of my life.

When the storm was over, the terrain upon which my memories live had been torn asunder. Friends have asked how I’m dealing with the destruction. My home wasn’t damaged, but I have been through so many deadly storms in the last decade that they’ve been worried for me.

The loss of wealth, health, ministry, community and, most impossibly, the loss of my firstborn child to suicide have left me vulnerable, they think.

But I’ve become adept at responding effectively and efficiently to trauma. So much so that I sometimes think I should work in disaster response. …

Read the rest of this gratitude reflection at Duke Divinity School’s Faith & Leadership site. It’s my first article there and I’m honored to see my byline at the website of such an esteemed institution.

Posted on November 19, 2012 by cascheller

Christianity, church life, Community, Culture, Faith, Family, Friendship, Gabriel Gifford Scheller, grief, Leadership, Redemption, Theology, Walkin' the Talk

Christianity, church life, Community, Culture, death, Faith, Faith&Leadership, Family, Friendship, Gabriel Gifford Scheller, gratitude, grief, Hurricane Sandy, Leadership, Redemption, resilience, Thanksgiving, Theology, Trauma, Walkin' the Talk

Common Grace Flowing at the Jersey Shore @UrbanFaith

“Hurricane Sandy did a whole lot of mischief here at the Jersey Shore. So much so that Halloween has been canceled* by order of the governor. I doubt anyone cares. We’re too busy looking for power, gasoline, and cell service to celebrate anything more than our safety and that of our loved ones.

Any Jersey Shore native worth his or her salt has lived through a few hurricanes and many a nor’easter. Few of us has seen anything like this. Where I live two miles inland fromMantoloking, New Jersey, we lost power and saw a lot of downed trees. A mile east and all the way to the bay, the water was four feet deep yesterday. The main road is clear today, but the smell of diesel fuel is strong closer to the bay that separates us from the barrier island. Boats that were knocked off their boatyard perches and found their way into the street and onto people’s porches.”

Read the rest at UrbanFaith, where I am now an editor-at-large rather than news and religion editor.

Posted on November 19, 2012 by cascheller

Community, Culture, Environmentalism, grief, Public Square, Redemption, Social Action, Walkin' the Talk

Community, Culture, Environmentalism, Flickr, grief, Halloween, Hilton Garden Inn, Hurricane Sandy, Jersey Shore, Mantoloking New Jersey, Natural Disaster, New Jersey, Public Square, Redemption, Sandy, Social Action, UrbanFaith, Walkin' the Talk

Week One With Hurricane Sandy @NJShorePatch

“It’s been a week since Hurricane Sandy hit and like many others, we still have no electricity at my house off Mantoloking Road. Our neighborhood is humming with the sound of generators, but I’ve been worried about the silent households ever since the temperatures dropped.

In the past week, I (like you) have seen a lot, starting with a house strewn in the middle of Gale Road. A homeowner there said it washed across the bay and through the marsh onto his low lying street—a street that still reeked of diesel fuel on Thursday. Homeowners were shoveling thick, smelly muck from their driveways like it was snow that day. They thanked me for stopping and listening, even though that’s all I did.”

Read the rest at Brick Patch, where I’ve resumed my weekly column to write about Hurricane Sandy recovery.

Posted on November 19, 2012 by cascheller

Community, Environmentalism, Family, grief, Leadership, Public Square, Redemption, Social Action, Walkin' the Talk

bay head, Brick, Community, Environmentalism, Family, Frankenstorm, grief, Hurricane Sandy, Leadership, Mantoloking, Natural Disaster, New Jersey, NJ Shore Patch, Point Pleasant Beach, Public Square, Redemption, Social Action, Walkin' the Talk

An Ode to the Jersey Shore @NJShorePatch

The most beautiful place I’ve ever been is the top of a mountain in the Austrian Alps. It was Easter Sunday 2001 after a rain storm. A group of us were in Austria for 18 days doing construction work on a church in the valley below and took a windy drive up, up, and up into the sky to have lunch at a country inn that rightfully belonged in a fairytale.

We were literally enveloped by clouds. I felt as if I could reach out and touch heaven with my hand. The physical and metaphysical worlds merged to a degree that I’ve never experienced before or since. Perhaps it was the altitude.

Men were dressed in lederhosen and women in colorful dirndls. There was homemade cheese, speck, and plenty of beer. Way too much beer for the Austrians. One man fell off his bar stool, hit the stone floor with a frightening thud, and was up drinking again before we fully comprehended what had happened. Our group was teetotaling, so we simply drank in the moist, clean air and the breathtaking sights. Those were intoxicating enough. It was the kind of place about which tourists say, “I could live here.”

I’m not sure I said that, but I did inhabit the moment, as I have many others like it when I’ve immersed myself in the particular beauty of a place. Whether I’ve been in Paris, or on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington, or in the hill countries north of San Diego or San Antonio, I’ve given myself over to the charms inherent in every bit of earth I’ve traversed.

And each time I’ve come home to the Jersey Shore knowing more deeply than before that I am of this place. …

Read the rest at Manasquan Patch.

Posted on March 4, 2012 by cascheller

About the Explorer, Community, Culture, Family, Food, Friendship, Gabriel Gifford Scheller, grief, Redemption, Travel, Walkin' the Talk

Christine A. Scheller, Community, Culture, Family, Food, Friendship, Gabriel Gifford Scheller, grief, Home, Jersey Shore, NJ Shore Patch, Redemption, Travel, Walkin' the Talk

Photojournalism from Whitney Houston’s Home-going Service

Whitney Houston funeral guest showing program to journalists (photo by Christine A. Scheller)

For more photos from Whitney Houston’s Homegoing Service, click here.

Trying to Get the Money Shot at Whitney Houston's funeral (photo by Christine A. Scheller).

Trying to Get the Money Shot at Whitney Houston’s funeral (photo by Christine A. Scheller).

Posted on February 19, 2012 by cascheller

Art, Beauty, Christianity, church life, Community, Culture, Faith, Family, Friendship, grief, Journalism, Public Square, Redemption, Theology, Travel, Vocation

Art, Beauty, Celebrity, Christianity, church life, Community, Culture, Faith, Fame, Family, Friendship, grief, Journalism, Journalists, Paparazzi, Privacy, Public Square, Redemption, Theology, Travel, UrbanFaith, Vocation, Whitney Houston Funeral

What I Wrote This Week @UrbanFaith: February 13 – February 17

On Location at Whitney’s Farewell: What reporting on location at Whitney Houston’s semi-private, gospel-filled funeral taught me about spiritual battles, grace, and celebrity.
Marriage Is for Black People, Too: Ralph Richards Banks’ book ‘Is Marriage for White People?’ made him the target of angry critics. Now, the author has his say about interracial dating, the link between fewer marriages and the crisis in black communities, and his take on conservative scholar Charles Murray’s latest book on class and race.
Obama Birth Control Compromise Take 2: Activist Lisa Sharon Harper and ethicists Cheryl J. Sanders and Charles C. Camosy weigh in on the Obama administration’s contraception mandate accommodation.

Posted on February 19, 2012 by cascheller

Art, Bioethics, Books, Christianity, church life, Community, Culture, Democracy, Education, Ethics, Faith, Family, Friendship, grief, History, Journalism, Leadership, Medicine, Philosophy, Politics, Public Square, Race, Redemption, Science, Social Action, Technology, Theology, Vocation, Walkin' the Talk

Art, Bioethics, Books, Christianity, church life, Community, Culture, Democracy, Education, Entertainment, Ethics, Faith, Family, Friendship, grief, Health Care Reform, History, Is Marriage for White People? Ralph Richard Banks, Journalism, Leadership, Medicine, Obama Contraception compromise, Philosophy, Politics, Public Square, Race, Redemption, Science, Social Action, Technology, Theology, UrbanFaith, UrbanFaith.com, Vocation, Walkin' the Talk, Whitney Houston Funeral

A Quarter Century of Jersey Shore HIV/AIDS Response @NJShorePatch

Tyler Alyxander and Ina Kaplan at "A Night of Illusion" fundraiser.

I well remember when the thought that I could have AIDS first occurred to me. It was 1986 and I was newly married. I had gotten pregnant by an East African man two years earlier and my husband had fallen in love with both me and my baby.

All seemed well, until I began paying attention to the news that AIDS had first appeared in sub-saharan Africa among heterosexuals. I dutifully got tested, then waited anxiously for the phone call that told me I was not infected.

Other people I knew heard different news. There were whispers that a high school classmate who had been an intravenous drug user and died of a drug overdose had taken his own life after getting the diagnosis.

It was a scary time, especially for anyone who had been anything but virginal. …

Read the rest at Manasquan Patch.

Posted on January 31, 2012 by cascheller

church life, Community, Culture, Education, Ethics, Faith, Family, Food, grief, Leadership, Medicine, Public Square, Redemption, Science, Social Action, Vocation, Walkin' the Talk

anti-retroviral drugs, Beacon Light Fund, church life, Community, Culture, Education, Ethics, Faith, Family, Food, grief, HIV/AIDS, homelessness, housing, Leadership, Medicine, Miss Gay New Jersey, NJ Shore Patch, Public Square, recession, Redemption, Science, Social Action, The Center Asbury Park, Vocation, Walkin' the Talk

Thoughts on Getting Through Thanksgiving After Suicide @NJShorePatch @HuffPost

How gratitude, a change of scenery and sharing stories have helped me face the Thanksgiving holiday after my son’s suicide.

Memorial Tree from 2010 New York City Survivor Day event.

My son Gabriel was a Thanksgiving baby. His birthday didn’t fall on the actual holiday until his second birthday, but it does every four years, including the year he died by suicide, 2008. The association between his birthday and our most heartwarming holiday presents both challenges and opportunities for getting through what has become, for me, an emotionally-fraught month.

When the leaves begin to change color and the air begins to bite, I start wrestling with memories of baking Turkey-shaped shortbread cookies for his school celebrations and his favorite apple pie for our family one. The pain of creating new memories that don’t include my son is one I don’t think will ever subside entirely.

But, in my family, Thanksgiving isn’t about football, movies or family fights, though the day may include all of those. It’s about gathering around an over-stuffed table to give thanks to God for his sustenance and his faithfulness, no matter what the circumstances of our lives have been. …

For tips and information about International Survivors of Suicide Day November 19, read the whole thing at Manasquan Patch or at The Huffington Post.

Posted on November 18, 2011 by cascheller

Community, Faith, Family, Gabriel Gifford Scheller, grief, Leadership, Psychiatry, Psychology, Public Square, Redemption, Social Action, The Huffington Post, Travel, Walkin' the Talk

American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, Community, Eric Marcus, Faith, Family, Gabriel Gifford Scheller, grief, International Survivors of Suicide Day, Leadership, NJ Shore Patch, Psychiatry, Psychology, Public Square, Redemption, Social Action, Thanksgiving, The Huffington Post, Travel, Walkin' the Talk

Photojournalism by Explorations Media, L.L.C.

I’ve recently created what I think are some compelling photo sets on Flickr. As a journalist, I prefer realism to photo-shopped images, though artistic renderings can sometimes reveal truth better than fact. I recommend viewing these sets as slideshows, as I’ve arranged each one to tell a story.

Jesus, Bombs, & Ice Cream by M.W. Scheller

Hurricane Irene

Posted on October 8, 2011 by cascheller

Art, Beauty, Books, Christianity, church life, Community, Culture, Democracy, Education, Ethics, Faith, Family, grief, History, Leadership, Medicine, Politics, Public Square, Redemption, Social Action, Theology, Travel, Vocation, Walkin' the Talk

& Ice Cream, 9/11 Tenth Anniversary, A.R. Bernard, Art, Beauty, Bedrooms, Bombs, Books, Christianity, church life, Collections, Community, Culture, DeForest Soaries, Democracy, Education, Entertainment, Erwin McManus, Ethics, Faith, Family, Gerard Butler, grief, History, Hurricane Irene, Jersey Shore, Jesus, Judaism, Leadership, Machine Gun Preacher, Manasquan, Medicine, Michelle Monaghan, Movement Day, Musical Instruments, Ocean Grove, Politics, Pt. Pleasant Beach, Public Square, Redemption, Religious Artifacts, Sam Childers, Shane Claiborne, Social Action, Spring Lake, Theology, Tim Keller, Travel, Vocation, Walkin' the Talk

What I Wrote This Week @UrbanFaith: September 19-23

Mari White Presents the Newsboys: Entertainer Mari White hopes her new reality show about the popular Christian rock band The Newsboys is fresh, family-friendly television.
Christians Speak Out on Davis Execution: Death row inmate Troy Davis may be innocent, but he is scheduled to be executed tonight and Christian reactions are mixed.
Black Churches Buck Trends: While American churches overall have declined in attendance, Black churches thrive and encourage entrepreneurship, outreach, and profit-making.
“Machine Gun Preacher” Poses Tough Questions: A major new film presents an unsanitized portrayal of Christian conversion, but it also poses challenging questions about “redemptive violence.”

Posted on September 24, 2011 by cascheller

Art, Beauty, Capitalism, Christianity, church life, Community, Culture, Ethics, Faith, Friendship, grief, Leadership, Politics, Public Square, Race, Redemption, Social Action, Theology, Vocation, Walkin' the Talk

Angels of East Africa, Art, Baylor Religion Survey, Beauty, Black Church, Capital Punishment, Capitalism, Christianity, church life, Community, Culture, Entertainment, Ethics, Faith, Friendship, Gerard Butler, grief, Hartford Institute for Religion Research Decade of Change Study, Josephy Kony, Leadership, Lord's Resistance Army, Machine Gun Preacher, Mari White, Michelle Monaghan, Newsboys, Pacifism, Politics, Public Square, Race, Reality Television, Redemption, Redemptive Violence, Sam Childers, Social Action, Sudan, Theology, Troy Davis Execution, UrbanFaith.com, Vocation, Walkin' the Talk

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Which Is the Better Story @Image Journal’s Good Letters blog

Recapturing Innocence With Ang Lee @TheHighCalling

When Storms Come @Faith&Leadership

An Ode to the Jersey Shore @NJShorePatch

Photojournalism from Whitney Houston’s Home-going Service

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