This week I had an extra day in Washington DC. A perfect opportunity to literally “spend” a day. As I left the hotel, I told Mark, at the front desk, “I’m off to explore.” “Then do me a favor,” he said, smiling, “can you find me the secret of life?” “I’ll give it a shot,” [...]
There are moments in our lives that can change everything. For Chris Orwig, it happened in a tent, at the base of the Sierra Nevada Mountain Range in California. A bachelor party; and he was camping with a group of friends. When first invited, Chris said no. He relented when told that the first [...]
In Losing Moses on the Freeway, Chris Hedges writes about his father. “But what struck me about him most,” Chris writes, “as I grew older, is that he did not have to embrace difference. Charming, good looking, endowed with an infectious sense of humor, it would have been easier to go along. He could have [...]
“You know Dad,” Zach is talking with his mouth brimful of cereal, “I think my life has been pretty full.” “Really?” I say to my son. “Yeah. I mean, think about it. I have actually held a Serval Cat. In my lap. I have touched a real NASCAR race car. I have been on an [...]
It is coffee hour on a summer Sunday–that time after church service when we sip coffee (or if we’re brave, some unidentifiable fruit juice) and chat about the weather, the week’s news, or if it’s memorable, the sermon. Whatever we’re talking about, there are times when we’re aware of a self-conscious nudge to keep up [...]
Lady Elaine Fairchilde is the mischief maker in Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood. Lady Elaine is not a pretty puppet. To be fair, well. . .let us just say she is particularly beauty-challenged. In one episode, Lady Elaine was asked what she wanted to be when she grew up. She said without hesitation, ‘I want to be [...]
Mother Pollard was one of the elders of Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama, during the bus boycott of 1955-56. When her pastor the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., suggested she go back to the buses because she was too old to keep walking, she told him, “I’m gonna walk just as long [...]
“You are now running on reserve power and your screen has been dimmed. Please plug in your power adapted to begin recharging the battery. OK?” —message on an my Apple Computer PowerBook screen A few months ago I spent a delightful day with an ecumenical women’s group in La Verne, California. These are women whose [...]
