Norman Lear > life of the spirit

“Everything tells me that the world would be an exquisite place to live were everyone able to respond to life as Jesus did. I call that 'mama-loshen.' That is a Yiddish word meaning straight talk mixed with common sense. Actually it goes deeper than that. 'Mama-loshen' is the understanding that comes when one's common sense derives as much from the soul as the mind. The Sermon on the Mount is simple mama-loshen. And anything that ain't mama-loshen doesn't square with my religious sensibilities.”

- Norman Lear

Life of the Spirit

• Overview
• Education for the Human Spirit
• The Search for E Pluribus Unum
• Power and Principles
• Nurturing Spirituality and Religion
• More Reflections on the Meaning of Life
• Declaration of Conscience
• Why I Am a Born Again American
• A Profile of Norman Lear

Overview
Norman Lear has long regarded the life of the spirit as one of the great human imperatives of our time. In a series of speeches and articles over the years, he has urged a frank exploration of spiritual questions as a way to discover what human beings, despite their many differences, may truly hold in common. As he once put it, “If we think of our many and varied religions as uniquely different trees along a thousand-mile river – and appreciate that they are all nurtured by the same stream – can we not agree to discuss that stream openly, freely, and anywhere and everywhere – as a common river of values? It nurtures all of our spiritual traditions while uniting us as a species.”