Life
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Identity Theft
The Self is not a gift that one can give to another Rather, it is a thief’s relic we must take for ourselves in order to someday be ourselves.
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For Sylvia
I am not ready for anything to happen
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The Christmas That Almost Wasn’t
December 26, 2018. Yesterday could have been a very different Christmas. 21 days ago, I tried to take my own life. I’m writing about it for several reasons. First, it has become exhausting trying to keep track of who “knows” and “doesn’t know” what happened, thus creating multiple opportunities for awkward questions and conversations. For…
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Blessings and Breakage – Thoughts on Christmas and 2017
Blessings and breakage live perilously close to one another. At times, blessings and breakage intertwine, to the point where you often can’t tell one from the other, if, in fact, they are not already one and the same.
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When You Start, it’s Just a Pile of Wood.
In order to become something useful or beautiful, that pile of wood has to go through a transformative process that only a true woodworker understands. And for this craftsman, that process becomes very personal, with the wood an extension or representation of myself, going through life, going from a pile of wood, to becoming something…
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Nobody Knows
“Nobody knows the trouble I’ve seen Nobody knows but Jesus Nobody knows the trouble I’ve seen Glory Hallelujah Sometimes I’m up and sometimes I’m down Yes lord, you know sometimes I’m almost to the ground O yes, Lord, still Nobody knows the trouble I’ve seen Nobody knows but Jesus Nobody knows the trouble I’ve seen…
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Pride. No Prejudice.
It’s June 16 – just past halfway through Pride Month 2017. If you are a Facebook friend of mine, you’ve noticed a steady stream of pictures and stories oriented around the struggles (and victories) of many in the LGBTQ community, many of whom I count as friends as well as brothers and sisters in Christ.…
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Man Learns of His Heresy in Friends’ Bathroom
I’m a bathroom reader. My own bathroom is well-stocked with reading materials, and I’m always pleased when I use a host’s bathroom and find it replete with “stuff” to read. I’m not fussy – give me a Reader’s Digest, a Guideposts – heck, I’d probably read a Watchtower if it were there. I’ve even been…
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T+ 5 Days: Recalibration
Those of you who know me or follow my blog know I was disappointed with Tuesday’s election. I thought then (and still do) that the electorate had made a mistake. My initial Facebook “statement” follows: So, anyone who has followed my posts knows I am disappointed this morning. I think America has made a wrong…
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The Curse of Comparison
So. Several things are on my mind. First (and second, and third), this summer has wrought HUGE changes to our cultural cloth: Marriage equality, the resurgence of racism, The DONALD (for Pete’s sake), the insidious encroachment of ISIS, ISIL, the so-called Islamic State, etc., the tenuous balance of the Chinese economy (and, I dare say, government)…
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Feelings on Failure at Fowling
I am not an athlete. I’ve known it most of my life. My high school physical education coach confirmed it, saying, “Son, with hands like that, you better play basketball or the piano, and I know you don’t play basketball”. Now, one might argue that physical EDUCATION might have done something to improve my basketball ineptitude,…
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Isn’t it Ironic? Getting beneath the surface of the RFRA debate
Some of you who know me have heard my rant on Alanis Morisette’s 1996 hit, “Ironic”, where she sings about a lot of things that are NOT ironic. Rain on your wedding day? Not ironic – kind of a bummer. A black fly in your chardonnay? Gross, but not ironic. Good advice that you just…
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Ted Cruz does not represent me
If you have ALL of the answers to EVERYTHING, it’s not really ‘faith’ anymore, is it? And even if you think you have all of the answers (bless your heart), please don’t think that you have all of MY answers. Because you don’t. And neither does Ted Cruz.
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The power of paying attention and gaining perspective
Today I will let others’ words speak: From this morning’s episode of “On Being“, with Krista Tippett: The Summer Day Mary Oliver Who made the world? Who made the swan, and the black bear? Who made the grasshopper? This grasshopper, I mean- the one who has flung herself out of the grass, the one who is…
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And Happy Ever After! I wish.
We will always need (and therefore find) someone or something to blame.
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A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to “The Kingdom” – Part 2
Pretty much every model of Christian thought I have sat under has happily fed my view that “The Kingdom of God” is mostly a place that is not here, in a time that is not yet.
