Getting Into The Chicago Code

In the era of serialized television, where every drama has to give us a tight narrative that builds up to a singular climax I have forgotten about the procedural drama, particularly cop shows. Many say that watching five seasons of The Wire ruined other shows like Law and Order for them, because the former attempts to ground us in reality as much as possible where good does not trump evil and storylines don’t end in neat packages. On the other hand, not all television has to be jam-packed with so much plot that it can be likened to a novel. The goal is to be entertained, so when I saw the aggressive promos for the new Fox drama The Chicago Code I made sure to hop on.

The Chicago Code is the brainchild of Shawn Ryan, who is only the creator of the second greatest crime drama of all-time, The Shield, which was also integral in paving the way for basic cable networks to push scripted dramas that dealt with heavier fare. So there was a good amount of hype and expectations that this show would live up to that standard of excellence, despite being on a Big Four network. Does The Chicago Code deliver on these expectations? Well, kind of.

The show follows the exploits of three major characters. Chicago Police Department superintendent Teresa Colvin (Jennifer Beals), CPD detective Jarek Wysocki (Jason Clarke), and corrupt Chicago alderman Ronin Gibbons (Delroy Lindo). The main premise is that Colvin forms a secret task force to bring down Gibbons. However, the show relies on a “case of the week” format and attempts to tie them in to the main arc. It also makes heavy use of voiceover narration, which is a sticking point for a lot of people. Not trying to compare the two, but the voiceovers are more similar in style to Goodfellas than say, Dexter, but it’s a love/hate aspect of the show. I don’t think they are a crutch but that seems to be a minority opinion. The more glaring negative is hammy, cliche dialogue. The show is shot on location in Chicago (more on that later) and it’s obvious the writers want to let us know that we are in the motherfucking Chi. The pilot has one too many Chicago Cubs/White Sox references, and over the top lines like “YOU THINK YOU CAN CHANGE THINGS IN CHICAGO?!” I’m also not sold on some of the actors, namely Billy Lush who plays a mole inside the Irish Mafia.

On the plus side, the show is beautifully shot for a network drama. I may be biased but the directors take full advantage of their photogenic location with drawn-out car chases and aerial shots. Jennifer Beals may be the most unrealistic choice ever to play a police superintendent but she does a fine job, even though as a native Southsider she manages to sound like a Masshole. Delroy Lindo does a great job of chewing scenery and acting like a mix between Harold Washington, Rev. Jesse Jackson and Mayor Daley. The show sets him up as an evil genius and so far he’s up to the task. I’m still not sold that we will get a huge payoff on the main corruption storyline, but the show is certainly enjoyable enough on a weekly basis that I keep watching. Those looking for intricate storytelling should probably just watch The Wire again, but if you’re a fan of Law and Order and shows of that ilk I highly recommend diving into The Chicago Code.

Supreme Court Decides in Favor of Wesboro Baptist

The United States Supreme Court this morning voted 8-1 in favor of the Westboro Baptist Church in a case brought by the father of a Marine killed in Iraq whose funeral Westboro picketed in 2006. The majority opinion, only Samuel Alito dissented, determined whether Albert Snyder, the father of a Marine killed in Iraq, was entitled to monetary damages due to his suffering emotional damages as a result of Westboro’s protest at his son funeral in Westminster, MD five years ago.

Marine Lance Corporal Matthew Snyder was 20 years-old when he died in Iraq in a non-combat-related vehicle accident in Al-Anbar province on March 3, 2006. Westboro Baptist church members staged a protest at Snyder’s funeral in his hometown of Westminster. The elder Snyder has claimed emotional distress and physical problems related to the protest, and has said he cannot separate memories of his son from the hate-filled protest.

The Court, however, found that Westboro was engaged in protected public, not private, speech “in a public place on a matter of public concern” and therefore Snyder was not due any damages.

“Simply put, the church members had the right to be where they were,” Chief Justice John Roberts said, writing for the majority. “Westboro alerted local authorities to its funeral protest and fully complied with police guidance on where the picketing could be staged. The picketing was conducted under police supervision some 1,000 feet from the church, out of the sight of those at the church. The protest was not unruly; there was no shouting, profanity, or violence.”

Roberts, however, went on to note the Court was not deciding on the larger Constitutional question of whether protests at funerals are protected. This ruling only affected Albert Snyder’s rights to compensation in this specific instance.

“Our holding today is narrow,” Roberts wrote. “We are required in First Amendment cases to carefully review the record, and the reach of our opinion here is limited by the particular facts before us.”

Roberts pointed out, as the Court has said in the past, that even reprehensible speech that the overwhelming majority of Americans disagrees with must be protected under the right to free speech. “If there is a bedrock principle underlying the First Amendment, it is that the government may not prohibit the expression of an idea simply because society finds the idea itself offensive or disagreeable,” Roberts wrote in today’s decision.

Left unsettled by the Court in this decision, however, is the larger of question of whether a state can block a person’s or group’s protest at a funeral. Maryland and 43 other states have passed laws in recent years barring demonstrations at funerals because of the Wesboro protests.

In an impassioned dissent, Justice Alito wrote that the right to free speech does not allow for “the vicious verbal assault that occurred in this case.” Alito believes the Westboro Church member “brutally attacked Albert Snyder” and that he is entitled to damages as compensation for his suffering “severe and lasting emotional injury.”

Photo here.

Afternoon Numbers: SF Edition

In a startling change from past designs, the iPad 2 will be 10' long, 5' wide, and weigh 1,200 lbs. It's designed for the burgeoning hill giant demographic.

Absolutely nothing interesting happened today.  Nothing whatsoever was announced at the Moscone Center in San Francisco today.  There was nothing doing with tablet computing.

Okay, so I’m lying.  Apple announced the iPad 2: Electric Bugaloo today.  It’s 30% thinner, twice as powerful, five times as intuitive, and 100% more magical.  It’ll prolly cost the same as the iPad 1: The Phantom Menace when that one came out.  Should you buy it?  I don’t know.  I don’t have an iPad and there’s probably better things out there to spend money on in the middle of a recession.  Shock of shocks, AAPL closed up 2.81 (.8 %) to $352.12.   The DJIA was up by a hair (.07%) to close up 8.78 at 12,066.80.  The NSDQ did a shade better, closing up .39% to close up 10.66 at 2,48.07.  Meanwhile, the redheaded stepchild bastard S&P closed up a modest .16% to close at 1,308.44, up 2.11.

In other news, Charlie Sheen is doing much better without a publicist, offering a subdued interview to CNN saying that he is sorry that his children were taken away by the police and that he understands that the police are doing their jobs and blah blah blah.  Bottom line: there was no reference to goddesses, tiger blood, winning, or Adonis DNA.  So Charlie Sheen’s stock is up… meaning that it’s up from $.02 to $.025

In other insanity news, Qaddafi almost killed a bunch of reporters from CNN when the Libyan Air Force dropped a bomb.  To be clear, the reporters were in Libya.  They were almost killed because Qaddafi is now bombing his own people.

On the “Who Hates Jews Today?” front, there haven’t been any reports of anti-semitic slurs against the Chosen People.  Then again, we do control the media so maybe my people have just gone with not publicizing the anti-Semitism.

In conclusion, we need a cure for cancer. Obviously Steve Jobs has an uncanny ability to meld sleek design, consumer electronics, hip marketing, and planned obsolescence into one shiny package and as long as we all keep buying iPads and iPhones, the economy will be fine.  Charlie Sheen should “free-ball” his publicity from now on and nothing bad will happen as a result of him being on Twitter.  And the current leader on the PGA Insanity Open is Qadaffi, who last was heard saying, “The American president will leave office, the European leaders will leave their offices, and Gadhafi will still be a leader.”

And Charlie Sheen is WINNING!

Clouds Are Not to Be Trusted

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Did you know that your precious pictures, videos and email live in a cloud and could disappear at any time?  This week Google accidentally lost data for 40,000 to 150,000 users (reports vary) and is trying to restore the data.  Flickr is well known for deleting photos and Facebook might remove your art photos because some old cat lady is a prude who is just thinking of the poor children.  Usually photos are on your computer since you had to retrieve them from your camera, but email often exists only on your provider’s servers.  Cnet has put together a video showing how to backup your data from Gmail and some other tips for backing up your other data.

Medical Science to Rest of World: “Run for your lives, it’s HPV!”

HPV, or the human papillomavirus, has long been considered a woman’s worry, with advocates going so far as to text message young women aged 18-26 to remind them about getting all their vaccinations. Not that it is impossible for males to contract the virus, but the biggest danger with HPV is getting cervical cancer, right?

Wrong. HPV, as it turns out, is a gender-neutral offender. In fact, “while women are able to naturally fight the virus, men are not as inherently able.” Because we’ve largely ignored HPV’s impact on men, we’ve let it infect them at alarming rates.

How alarming? Half of all men are thought to have HPV. Yup, that’s one out of two men. In the world. And that might be lowballing it: “some scientists say privately the actual figure is more like 100 percent.” Emphasis added, because what the fuck. A hundred goddamn percent! Scientists are never 100% sure of their findings; hell, I’m only 98% sure I’m wearing pants right now. But how many men have HPV? A hundred percent of them. That means if you are a man, you have HPV. I AM 100% CERTAIN OF THIS FACT, BECAUSE SCIENCE.

So, um, dudes and ladies, get your HPV vaccinations. If you don’t, you will turn into a tree.

 

DoW Update:  As pointed out by by Booboo, “There are over 150 subtypes of HPV. 2 of them are strongly associated with cervical and anal cancer. These are the 2 that the vaccine affects. There are a half dozen or so that may cause warts, a few that may cause non-cancerous changes in cervical tissue. The rest are extremely common but benign. Do you have HPV? Probably. Is it one of the virulent cancer-causing strains? Far less likely. However, cancer is a bitch and if you are in the appropriate age group you should seriously consider the vaccine.”

Scott Walker Hasn’t Forgotten About the Children; He’ll Break Them, Too

Koch brothers’ hype man Scott Walker laid bare the full of his budget proposal yesterday.  In it, he called for nearly $1B in cuts to public school funding, while ensuring that local districts wouldn’t be able to spuriously find a way to close the gap he’s creating. How? By inserting a provision requiring districts to reduce their property tax authority.  It’s assumed that Walker will soon legislate a bully and a pickpocket into each municipal school, in order to extract additional funds directly out of kids’ pockets.

Fear not, though, fair Wisconsin residents!  Walker didn’t just take his chain saw to the expense side of the ledger.  No, no, not at all.  He also looked for ways to trim up the budget from the revenue side, asking for an estimated $82M in tax cuts, much of that coming from capital gains realized on investments in ‘Wisconsin based businesses’.  Wait, you mean cutting more revenue will only further impact the ability of the state to shore up it’s budget issues by forcing even more spending cuts?  Well done, high school accounting students! Your classes just landed on Scott Walker’s chopping block!

Further, let’s assume that power plants, the kind that Walker wants to privatize and sell off (without bids!) as part of his larger plan, would qualify as ‘Wisconsin based businesses.’   But remember, the Koch’s aren’t interested in those power plants.  Nope, never. Ignore the fact that their own website, under ‘Industry Areas’ lists ‘supply energy to communities to heat and cool buildings’ in the first sentence highlighting their offerings.

Walker is also touting cuts to cities and counties in his budget, just so they don”t feel left out as Walker machetes his way through what’s left of the middle class.

In case you happened to catch yourself feeling bad for Walker, don’t worry, he’s still got folks on his side. In spite of the poll numbers indicating that support for him is waning, Americans for Prosperity is putting together a ‘Stand Against Spending. Stand With Walker’ bus tour this very weekend!.

I don’t need to tell you who the primary backers of AFP are.

In short, Scott Walker is Flava Flav, if Flava Flav ever worked for Don King.

The Best Video Game Music You’ve Never Heard

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With the recent success of the PLAY! concert series and a Grammy win for Civilization IV’s theme song “Baba Yetu“, it would seem that video game soundtracks are finally beginning to be taken seriously as music. But whether this heralds an era where video games themselves are considered a legitimate artistic medium on par with film remains to be seen. After all, the pieces of video game music that have received the most attention so far have been the classical and New Age-style compositions of Civilization and Final Fantasy rather than the iconic looping synthesized tracks that have long been admired by video game nerds, spawned countless remixes, and influenced and inspired various music subgenres.

It is the firm belief that these are just as deserving of recognition that inspired me to create this list. And while it would be pretty easy to throw together a list of the most well-known and acclaimed pieces, I wanted to highlight some amazing tracks you may not have heard from some rather obscure games, lesser-known sequels to classics, and Japan-only exclusives. In the spirit of my own generational prejudices, I’ve also attempted to limit the list to games from the nineties. Some of these games are great, others are laughable, but all of them are rockin’.

*****

10. Captain Commando: Enemy Spaceship

Conceived as a brilliantly cheesy homage to classic pulp sci-fi and B-movies, this Capcom beat-em-up featured a mummy, a ninja, a mecha-piloting baby, and the titular Captain fighting hordes of scuba divers, aliens, cross-dressing samurai, mad scientists, and fire-breathing homeless people. This invigorating track follows the common trend at the time of video game composers mimicking the sounds of progressive rock and 80’s metal, which is a pretty good fit for walking down the city streets and beating the crap out of everything you see.

9. Skyblazer: Storm Fortress of Kh’lar

Aside from being one of the best games on the Super NES that no one played, this criminally overlooked action-RPG was one of the few games of the time to utilize a Middle-Eastern motif, which made for some amazing boss monsters and a uniquely beautiful score, particularly here and in the end credits.

8. Alisia Dragoon: Stage 1

This beautifully designed game was animated by a little studio called Gainax, later responsible for a little series called Neon Genesis Evangelion. Although the repetitive and limited arcade-style gameplay didn’t quite live up to the quality of the art, ethereal fantasy-themed tracks such as this one did wonders for the game’s atmosphere.

7. The King of Dragons: Cave of Hydra

The music in this completely cliched and thoroughly enjoyable fantasy hack-and-slash is exactly what you’d expect, which is to say it’s awesome medieval-style fanfare that will make you want to draw your sword and charge forth into battle.

6. Gourmet Sentai Bara Yarou: EXBunny

In this bizarre game that only the Japanese could make, an odd assortment of flamboyant villains has taken over the world’s food supply, and you must defeat their hordes of walking light bulbs and giant heads that sneeze on you in order to obtain ingredients that you will then give to your robot cook to turn into delicious meals. Here I am fighting a playboy bunny that turns into a power ranger that turns into a giant tanuki, complete with giant testicles, all set to a keyboard-laden speed metal soundtrack. There isn’t much more I can say about this.

5. Eternal Champions: Character Bios

Some of you may recognize this track as the one sampled by a certain Bone Thugs-n-Harmony in their song “Eternal“. In fact, they loved this game so much that they sampled another track from it for the more well-known “Crossroads“. Not only was Eternal Champions chock full of great tunes, but it boasted a great storyline, unique characters, a complex fighting system, and a Sega CD remake with gruesome fatalities that made Mortal Kombat look like Sesame Street.

4. Streets of Rage 3: Yamato

While the first two Streets of Rage games are considered Sega classics, few cared for this final installment, released late in the 16-bit era and lacking the stylish spark of its predecessors despite having superior graphics and a wider variety of moves. One of the main targets of criticism was acclaimed composer Yuzo Koshiro’s decision to shift to a more aggressive electronic industrial sound rather than the upbeat and melodic club disco tracks that had made the first two games so memorable. Nevertheless, there are a few gems in here, such as this killer Japanese-flavored techno track that serves as the theme for one of the game’s most annoying bosses.

3. Segagaga: Final Battle, Part 2

If you so much as think about making a Lady Gaga joke, I will end this article right now. I’m not kidding.

A strangely prophetic game released in Japan shortly before the Sega Dreamcast’s unfortunate demise, this simulation RPG has the player attempt to guide a failing Sega Corporation back to market dominance, though I’m not sure why that would involve blasting your own company’s gaming systems. Anyway, this sweeping neoclassical metal track was originally written for the cancelled Dreamcast release of Thunderforce VI, later released on the PS2. Listen to this every morning when getting out of bed and be inspired by the notion that even if you fail in your endeavors, you probably won’t fail as badly as Sega’s last two consoles.

2. Guardians/Denjin Makai 2: Stages 1 and 2

Both the best and most obscure game on the list, this stylish mid-nineties arcade beat-em-up boasted seven selectable characters and more combos and special moves than any fighting game of the time. The stage 1 and stage 2 BGMs at 0:14 and 3:35, respectively, perfectly complement the insanely fast-paced futuristic anime-style gameplay with dueling guitar harmonies and wailing crescendos.

1. Golden Axe 2: Boss Theme

Though this console-only sequel failed to attain the classic status of its predecessor, it was an improvement in almost every sense, including the soundtrack. This hair-raising boss music will immediately make you dread the coming battle. The only drawback is that they will probably never make a boss epic enough to deserve this dramatic an introduction.

*****

Well, that’s it. I hope you enjoyed reading this list as much as I enjoyed making it. Just remember – no matter how good these tracks are on their own, they are almost always better combined with the sounds of you kicking the enemy’s ass.

Sheen It: A Retrospective

Sue me. I can’t stop watching Charlie Sheen clips. I can’t help myself from clicking on clip after clip of Sheen’s now-infamous interviews with ABC’s Good Morning America. Like this. And this. And, oh heaven help me, this, from 20/20.

Watching a celebrity self-destruct in real time has become a bit of blood sport in our tabloid-frenzied culture. Even WebMD is in on the action. We are transfixed by the train wreck, by the tragedy of witnessing potential unfulfilled, opportunity squandered, and the pitfalls of privilege.

Sheen’s various interviews to media outlets (ABC, CNN, Radar Online, among others) have generated a lot of buzz, but people have been talking about Charlie Sheen’s bad behavior for a long time. Sheen’s drug, gambling, and sex addictions have been high-larious fodder for more than a decade. Here’s a flashback to a November 2000 episode of “Who Wants to be a Millionaire,” featuring a chubby Drew Carey, a thin Alec Baldwin, and knowing laughter with Reg over Sheen’s troubles.

Many celebs, world-weary and drug-wise themselves, take the “he’s an adult, it’s his life” stance, including recovering addict (and Mel Gibson defender) Robert Downey, Jr.

As I was looking at clips of Sheen’s media blitzkrieg, I couldn’t help remembering the early days of Charlie Sheen, when he was the youngest addition to a roster of hot young Hollywood stars including Johnny Depp, Rob Lowe, and the Coreys. Too young to belong to the Brat Pack with his brother, Emilio Estevez, Sheen stepped out of the shadows of his famous acting family in iconic roles in “Lucas,” “Platoon,” and “Wall Street.” My girlhood crush on Charlie Sheen evaporated sometime around 1990, long before his current troubles, but about the time his film career took an unfortunate turn. I’m guessing “Hot Shots” happened when his need for hookers and blow took over as his primary vocation. This little primer on the glory days of Charlie Sheen is for the young readers who’ve only known the cranked up, Hawaiian shirt wearing, wife beating, piece of shite we see before us now.

Early in his career, Sheen racked up a series of strong roles in great films (and if you say 1984’s “Red Dawn” isn’t a great film, we’re fighting).

Here’s how I’d like to remember Sheen (and Corey Haim, for that matter, on the banana seat bike). In 1986’s “Lucas,” he plays a classic clean-cut jock with a soft side. Part of Sheen’s charm in those heady early days was his apparent effortlessness on film.

He won acclaim for his role in Oliver Stone’s “Platoon” (1986) and worked with Stone again in a lead role as Bud Fox, a wanna-be player striving for the finer things in life in “Wall Street” (1987).

Sheen continued work in 80s classics, including “Young Guns,” “Eight Men Out,” and “Navy Seals,” churning out over 20 movies before the end of the decade. The 1990s marked a turn in his career, from dramas to comedies.

So was Sheen ever funny? If you’ve somehow watched his television show (let’s pretend you haven’t), that is a legitimate question. He told CNN’s Piers Morgan that he is able to make Two and a Half Men so damn funny because he lives such a crazed lifestyle. Everyone on it says knows coke makes you funnier. Here’s a clip from “Major League II.” Decide for yourself.

Perhaps you like your comedy a little less subtle, in which case I recommend the 1993 vintage “Hot Shots! Part Deux.”

His appearance in “Loaded Weapon” (also 1993) was mercifully brief.

It only gets worse from there, except for a small cameo in “Being John Malkovich” (1999).

By this time, Sheen’s film career was essentially over as he transitioned to television, starring in Spin City in the early 2000s as a replacement for the ailing Michael J. Fox. For me, his best and most prophetic work was in “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off,” with Jennifer Grey’s old nose.

And now you’ve Sheen It. Go work on winning.

Spirituality Corner: God, the Devil and the Void

“I believe that we are all spiritual beings having a human experience, and not the other way around.” —  This is the fourth Spirituality Corner post in an ongoing series.

 

This post begins with the prologue to a novel I wrote in 2005 called We Are Stardust. It’s the story of a psychic who discovers via her visions that the Antichrist is the President of the United States.  The President is equally psychic, and the two of them get locked in a battle of wills that sometimes is more of a tango of divine adversaries.  I’m using this prologue as the starting point of a dialogue I’d like to open up, regarding (as the title says) God, the Devil and the Void.  (The “Void” part is designed to let atheists and agnostics know that they are most welcome in this discussion.)

*

“Little children, it is the last time:  and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time.”   (1 John 3:18)

 

According to Christian prophecies of the End Times, the Antichrist in human form will function as Satan’s second in command during the apocalypse.  It is widely assumed that he will ascend to a position of great worldly power through his promise of peace in a volatile era.  Like his immediate superior, Lucifer/Satan, the Antichrist is frequently depicted as someone of infallible personal charisma.

 

Contrary to unrelenting dramatic portrayals in popular culture, the Antichrist will not arrive bearing the countenance of a maleficent, horned demon.  Instead, since he is the shadow realm’s reverse doppelganger of Christ, he will incarnate fully prepared to emulate convincingly the hallowed, human qualities of Jesus Himself.  Using a wealth of Christian aphorisms and references, the Antichrist will deliberately lead all but the most perceptive of his followers down the path of wickedness.

 

The term ‘Antichrist’ may also be associated with a collective or collaborative energy:  dark forces or forces of evil. These malevolent influences fulfill an essential purpose in the cycles of creation.  Corresponding to spirit collapsing into matter, they epitomize the proverbial fall from grace.  The dark forces prevent humanity from rising up towards the exaltation of spirit, symbolized by the idea of ascension into heaven.

 

This spellbinding drama of Good versus Evil is universal.  Throughout the ages, it has inspired some truly great theatrical performances (e.g., the collective works of William Shakespeare), as well as enduring philosophical debate, bewildering political diatribe and trite blockbuster action films that range in quality from abysmal to mediocre.

 

People who believe in the concept of Heaven endeavor to identify themselves with the principle of good. However, there are others without a moral or religious bias.  While not condoning evil deeds or evildoers, these individuals’ inquisitiveness may predispose them to seek an objective comprehension of the motivations of evil actions.

 

Rejecting the concept of sinners consigned to Hell, these free thinkers subscribe to the belief that contrition and forgiveness are every human being’s birthright.  They are the disciples of a radically extremist notion that preceded formal Christianity:  the kingdom of heaven is within you – a quote widely attributed to the rebel Jesus.

 

Although good and evil are often considered polar opposites, more precisely, they are counterparts: the existence of one validates the other.   Creation’s full spectrum unfolds in a cyclical synthesis of light and dark; life and death; heaven and hell; good and evil… each individual pair designed in perfect complement of each other.


 

Regardless of whether you believe in God, the Devil, or/and the Void, you most likely have empirical opinions about other absolutes: life and death, light and darkness, good and evil, love and hate/indifference, truth and deception, etc.

 

I believe that life is never black and white: it is varying shades of grey, and all polarities in manifestation.  So while there may be a need for religious people to believe in an absolute good (God, heaven) and an absolute evil (Satan, hell), non-religious people may view the world through a completely different prism.  To them, the concept that all we are is stardust, free-floating in the void, makes rational sense.  As someone who believes in God but has never been a member of any religion, I find that I am often standing in the balance between these two worlds.

 

Witnessing the agony, turmoil, brutality, hatred and hopelessness that seem to be omnipresent, I have frequently questioned how any all-powerful creator could ever allow this.  But witnessing the stark nihilism of some – very far from all, I must emphasize – non-believers seems equally nonsensical to me.  For me, the middle ground is accepting my human insignificance while embracing the blessing of my human experience.  I am fascinated to discuss spiritual subjects with people on every point of the spectrum of belief, because I want to understand what brings people to believe what they do.

 

What I’d like to know in the comments – in addition to any critique regarding this post – is:

  • What are your beliefs regarding the concepts of God, the Devil and the Void?
  • How have your current beliefs been influenced by the inculcation of parents, teachers, clergy, etc. in childhood?
  • What other spiritual influences shape these beliefs in these “ultimate” themes?

 

The Meaning of Life