Author Archives: jeshuahayden

Imagine that you’re about to be stranded on a desert island. You’re allowed to take one fragment of a piece of art from any genre with you – not a complete work of art, but a tiny piece of that work of art, such as a chunk of a painting or sculpture, a chapter fromContinue reading “Gifts from the Sea”

Shortly after my wife and I started dating, I made a horrifying discovery: She had never seen the original Star Wars trilogy. Well…that wasn’t exactly true. She had seen the opening minutes of George Lucas’ sci-fi epics, which are consistently ranked among the most influential works of cinema ever created. She had just fallen asleepContinue reading “The Return of the Last Jedi: Why Rian Johnson’s controversial film is better than you remember”

What makes a trustworthy leader? In the opening scenes of Top Gun: Maverick, we’re invited to eavesdrop on an elite group of fighter pilots, each of whom is pondering this question. It’s no mere intellectual curiosity. For these young aviators, the answer will spell the difference between life and death. They’ve been given a seeminglyContinue reading “The Lamb in the Cockpit: Christ-Like Leadership in “Top Gun: Maverick””

“Home, is it just a word? Or is it something you carry within you?” In the opening minutes of Chloe Zhao’s film Nomadland, we see these words inked on the arm of an Amazon employee named Angela, who is showing off tattoos to her new friend, Fern. It’s a quick scene that may not seemContinue reading “Joy in the Journey: Chasing Sehnsucht in Zhao’s “Nomadland””

It was almost the best day of his life. Joe Gardner, a resident of New York City, had spent most of his years teaching jazz band classes for middle-schoolers. The work had its own peculiar charm. Sure, the racket cooked up by distracted brains, untrained ears, and clumsy fingers could be grating. But there were momentsContinue reading “The Music of the Mundane”