Interviews

Like most kids who think about what to do when they grow up, Josephine Pickup had a ready answer when one of her Sunday School teachers years ago asked her that question: "A Christian Science practitioner!" But unlike a lot of kids who dream about their future careers, eight-year-old Jo really did grow up to become just what she'd said that day so many years ago. As Jo tells it, "When I was five years old, the top of my spine started to protrude at the back of my neck.

CAN REAL SAFETY BE BOUGHT, or is it just a matter of luck? No way, says Brazilian lawyer, Paulo Barreto .  He recently spoke with  Journal  staff editor Suzanne Smedley about how big-city living has caused him to think more deeply, in fact, spiritually, about the concept of security.

If our hopes and affections are spiritual, they come from above, not from beneath, and they bear as of old the fruits of the Spirit. —Mary Baker Eddy, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures Sometimes you plan a trip.

Before a hiking trip to the Grand Canyon in the 1990s, Dee Lewis's daughter repeatedly asked, "Mom, are you breaking in your boots?" Dee admitted that yes, she was breaking them in—while sitting at her desk. She hadn't quite gotten to the great outdoors, because the great indoors was calling.

Although Scott Putnam grew up in a Christian Science household, the path that led him to his healing practice in Portland, Oregon, took many twists and turns along the way. Born in Illinois, Scott moved to San Jose, California, in the seventh grade, and later went on to graduate from Principia College, where he lettered in tennis and worked as a sportswriter on the school paper.

THE HOUSE LIGHTS DIM and guest conductor Alastair Willis walks briskly, but gracefully, to his place at the podium as the audience applauds. Without missing a beat, he lifts his baton, and The New York Pops' "A Holiday Celebration" concert is underway.

FOR SOME COMPOSERS, CHOREOGRAPHERS, and painters, a composition can be launched by the sparest of ideas—a phrase of a few tones, a rhythm of lines on a city street, or a surprising color combination in a wildflower. Some artists acknowledge that they're simply taking dictation from an all-creative divine intelligence.

FORMER EDITOR of the Journal, Allison "Skip" Phinney, a Christian Science practitioner and teacher in Boston, talks about what's on his mind.

I enter Estrella Romero's sunny kitchen the morning of our interview as she's busily slicing tomatoes and plopping them into a blender. "Te gusta?" [Do you like it?] she asks me, holding up a clove of garlic before adding it to the other ingredients.

Tell people the truth, says Martin Sirota , a Christian Science teacher and practitioner in New York City. He doesn't care if they agree with him.