by Richard Subber | Feb 7, 2026 | Human Nature, Theater and play reviews
not so very far…
Movie review:
Mr. Holmes
It’s hard to get past the sterling ability of Ian McKellen to create spectacular life in any character, and the Sherlock Holmes character is fertile ground for McKellen’s superlative histrionics.
Mr. Holmes (2015, rated PG, 104 minutes) is worth your time on several levels, starting with the talented Mr. McKellen and Laura Linney (playing his housekeeper, Mrs. Munro).
There’s a mystery (of course!) and Holmes’ almost pathetic attempts to solve the cold case that ended his career are good drama.
The dramatic crux of the movie is a brief scene with his client of yore, Ann Kelmot, (played by Hattie Morahan), who made him an offer he shouldn’t have refused. Holmes comes to understand the full measure of his regret as he remembers more details of their final interview.
The pathos is overwhelming:
(Ann Kelmot) “The dead are not so very far away. They’re just on the other side of the wall.
It’s us on this side who are all of us so…”
(Sherlock Holmes) “…alone.”
You have time to watch this one.
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Movie review. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2026 All rights reserved.
Poets talk about poetry
…a red hot bucket of love…
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Above all: Poems of dawn and more with 74 free verse poems,
and the rest of my poetry books are for sale on Amazon (paperback and Kindle)
and free in Kindle Unlimited, search Amazon for “Richard Carl Subber”
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by Richard Subber | Jan 24, 2026 | Human Nature, Politics, Tidbits
it’s underprotection…
“…these two trends—
overprotection in the real world
and underprotection in the virtual world—
are the major reasons why children born after 1995
became the anxious generation.”
from The Anxious Generation
by Jonathan Haidt (b1963)
New York: Penguin Press, 2024
385 pages
p. 9
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Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2026 All rights reserved.
Book review: Sketches by Boz
…the Miss Willises are a scream…
by Charles Dickens
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Above all: Poems of dawn and more with 74 free verse poems,
and the rest of my poetry books are for sale on Amazon (paperback and Kindle)
and free in Kindle Unlimited, search Amazon for “Richard Carl Subber”
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by Richard Subber | Jan 22, 2026 | Book reviews, Books, Human Nature
think “victims”
Book review:
The Anxious Generation
by Jonathan Haidt (b1963)
New York: Penguin Press, 2024
385 pages
Haidt’s book is subtitled How the Great Rewiring of Childhood is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness. If you think he’s talking about the internet, and cell phones, and computers, and television, and social media, you’re right on the money.
“Screen time” and all of the accompanying behaviors are making our kids sick.
It seems a bit strange to me that Haidt did not use the word “victims” in The Anxious Generation. All those folks didn’t ask for smart phones and devices when they were born.
Haidt makes compelling arguments that too much “screen time” is devastating too many young people, and old people too. Among his suggested pathways to remedy:
Just say “no.”
Don’t use social media today.
Use crayons with your young grandchildren.
You probably didn’t have a phone with you when you were a school student.
Your kids don’t need one.
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Book review. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2026 All rights reserved.
A quote from General Custer
Hint: something to do with Indians…
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In other words: Poems for your eyes and ears with 64 free verse and haiku poems,
and the rest of my poetry books are for sale on Amazon (paperback and Kindle)
and free in Kindle Unlimited, search Amazon for “Richard Carl Subber”
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by Richard Subber | Jan 15, 2026 | Human Nature, Tidbits
different realities…
“I have striven not to laugh at human actions,
not to weep at them, not to hate them,
but to understand them.”
Baruch Spinoza (Benedict de Spinoza) (1632-1677)
from Spinoza’s Tractatus Politicus, 1676
I accept the reality that some other people
don’t see reality the same way I see it.
I don’t like it, but I accept it.
I keep my candle burning in the darkness.
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Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2026 All rights reserved.
Book review: Shantung Compound
They didn’t care much
about each other…
by Langdon Gilkey
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many waters: more poems with 53 free verse poems,
and the rest of my poetry books are for sale on Amazon (paperback and Kindle)
and free in Kindle Unlimited, search Amazon for “Richard Carl Subber”
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by Richard Subber | Jan 4, 2026 | Book reviews, Books, History, Human Nature
the work of mortal men and women…
Book review:
The Rise of Christianity:
A Sociologist Reconsiders History
by Rodney Stark (1934-2022)
Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1996
246 pages
The rise of Christianity in the centuries after the life of Jesus relied on the work of mortal women and men.
Stark offers a patient and compelling description of how Christianity spread from Nazareth in Galilee and became a powerful force throughout the known Greco-Roman world before Emperor Constantine embraced the faith early in the 4th century AD.
This is not a “religious” book. The words “bible,” “hymn,” “communion,” “priest,” “Pope,” and “prayer” are not in the index. The Rise of Christianity acknowledges but does not dwell on the doctrinal aspects of the Christian faith in the early years.
I wouldn’t presume to summarize Stark’s account of the sociological, emotional, and political factors that enabled the rise of Christianity.
You may find it surprising and valuable to know that the new religion appealed to both the rich and the poor, that women were the majority of first converts, that women held leadership positions in the early churches, and that the Christian commitment to help one another notably enabled the Christian communities to do better in surviving the plagues that killed so many people in the early centuries (the pantheons of non-Christian gods were conspicuously unhelpful).
Stark says: “Finally, what Christianity gave to its converts was nothing less than their humanity. In this sense, virtue was its own reward.” (p215)
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Book review. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2026 All rights reserved.
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My first name was rain: A dreamery of poems with 52 free verse and haiku poems,
and the rest of my poetry books are for sale on Amazon (paperback and Kindle)
and free in Kindle Unlimited, search Amazon for “Richard Carl Subber”
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by Richard Subber | Dec 30, 2025 | Human Nature, My poetry, Poetry, Reflections
thinking it over…
think about it
We’re walking, slow.
What’s he thinking?
What’s her fleeting joy?
Maybe they ask the same of me.
Are we really different?
I’m bigger,
they have growing to do.
I can see out the window,
they see so many things
for the first time.
I remember last week’s party,
they will re-learn the fun
of blowing out the candles.
I can ride a horse,
they can see a horse where the chair is.
I wish I could stay longer,
they will welcome my return…
…but for now, we climb the bosky trail,
hand in hand, we laugh together,
we chase that squirrel with our eyes,
we wonder:
what’s he thinking?
what’s his fleeting joy?
maybe he’s asking the same of us.
September 7, 2025
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My poetry. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2025 All rights reserved.
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many waters: more poems with 53 free verse poems,
and the rest of my poetry books are for sale on Amazon (paperback and Kindle)
and free in Kindle Unlimited, search Amazon for “Richard Carl Subber”
Your comments are welcome—tell me what you’re thinking.
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