I remember his presidency: his big toothy grin, his common man persona, and his background as a naval officer and peanut farmer. He is generally hailed for his character and his post-presidency, even though most thought his years as president were not so great. I don’t see how we can… Continue reading
If necessity is the mother of invention, then desperation is the mother of writing. The desperation is the need to understand our own hearts and minds. Stating things so another can understand is a key component of our own understanding. That’s the cathartic element of writing non-fiction. The human spirit… Continue reading
Welcome to day one of 2025. Every day of this entire year is “yet to be determined.” I have a sense of excitement at the beginning of every year. There are new things I want to explore, new disciplines I want to acquire, and some crappy things I want to… Continue reading
Christmas 1981 The news hit us hard. Everything in our busy lives faded from our minds as our thoughts were consumed with one new haunting fact. Patty had a large tumor that required a hysterectomy. She was twenty-five. We got married very young. Patty was only eighteen. I was all… Continue reading
I have been wanting to write about this for so long that I am now only two months from turning 7 – One. I remember the milestone birthdays, 40, 50, 60, 70, especially seventy, though 50 was interesting, since it was at Chucky Cheese. When I was a kid, if… Continue reading
About 300,000 people move out of Illinois every year, for a net loss of 116,000. We are moving out of Illinois. About 226, 000 people move to Tennessee every year. The net gain is 43,000. We are moving to Tennessee. I have a few people to “blame” for this: My… Continue reading
When I pray and when I think, I tend to labor over what is wrong, what needs to be fixed. These are the black specks on the blank piece of white paper. I focus on what’s wrong with other people and especially what’s wrong with me, and, of course, what’s… Continue reading
It is so easy to enumerate what I am done with when it comes to religion. It is profoundly more difficult to figure out what to hang onto. I feel like I should occasionally ask myself that question to see if I am total heretic or just a free spirit. … Continue reading
I feel like I need to write a disclaimer every time I write a post that is critical of the institutional church. I write about my experience over several decades, both very much inside the church and outside of it. I am not mad at anybody. There are no “sour… Continue reading
This is one of the easiest and most cathartic posts I have ever written. It’s easy because I can clearly catalog the characteristics of evangelical religion that are distasteful to me. Since I write this at the peak fervor of our presidential campaign, Evangelical entanglement with politics immediately comes to… Continue reading
It has been a long while since I have posted here and I have missed it. I realize that my readers come from different perspectives and some of the posts I put up are not exactly their cup of tea. A long time ago, I went through my social media… Continue reading
Finally, a little time to think, and pray. God made an unassuming entrance into our little world. The creator became the creation. You would think his entrance would have been grandiose. Instead, it was humiliating. He was born into a blue color, working class family. It was a really bad… Continue reading
He was a comedian that played a teacher on a TV show whose character went on tirade about corruption in the country’s government. The tirade went viral on social media, and he was elected president of the country. That was a TV show. Now that same actor/comedian is the actual… Continue reading
John 20-21 Each mealtime has a special feeling to it. Breakfast is refreshing because it has been a long time since dinner. In our day, many people skip it or eat a pop tart on the way to work. Almost never does someone fix breakfast for you. So, when we have… Continue reading
I have been blessed with good health and hardly ever get ill. Now that I am an old man, some things don’t work quite as good as they used to, but I really don’t have anything to complain about. I don’t have any of the chronic conditions that many of… Continue reading
What does it mean when your parents die? How about when their whole generation has moved on to the next life? My Mom passed away two days before Christmas, so I am trying to figure that out. She was the last of her generation in our family as she joined… Continue reading
I was tired. Really tired! I might even have experienced heat exhaustion. Anyway, it was hot, ninety-five degrees to be exact, and I was exhausted. Moving dirt, laying sod and pushing a lawn roller filled with water is hard work even when it is not scorching. But I feel fulfilled… Continue reading
We should have known Poised, ready to pounce Shocked by the audacity Grieved by the brutality This living room war This you tube terror These people like us All we do is discuss As we watch at a safe distance. Every night bloody bodies Scores, hundreds, thousands Soldiers, mothers, children … Continue reading
Or is exclusive. And is inclusive. Or makes enemies. And makes friends. Or gets its way or blocks the way. And gives a little, learns a lot, and finds a way. Or vilifies. And reaches out. Or believes it has the truth. And believes there is more to learn. Or is a false… Continue reading
I have lived through so many international conflicts. The Cuban Missile Crisis – Even as a small child, I understood the threat of Russian supplied ballistic missiles with nuclear warheads ninety miles from our shore. The Cold War – In school we had drills in which we went to the… Continue reading
When you get married, you not only marry your wife or your husband, but you are also grafted into each other’s family, and their traditions. One of Patty’s family’s Memorial Day traditions was to visit the various small town cemeteries where loved ones were buried to place flowers on their… Continue reading
She looks so much like us. Except she is not trying to decide where the family is going out to eat tonight or what they are going to watch on their streaming TV service. Instead, she shelters in a basement, overcrowded, with no bathrooms, and enough food for only one… Continue reading
“Follower of Jesus” is the new cooler way to say “Christian”, a word loaded with centuries of baggage that no longer seems very Christian. Yet, “follower of Jesus” sounds a little smug to me. It reminds of those church-goers in ancient Corinth who weren’t in the camp of Paul or… Continue reading
A few years ago, I was having some back pain, so the doctor ordered some x-rays. A couple of days later someone from his office who was probably about the age of my favorite sweater called to inform I had osteo arthritis. I was taken aback by this news and… Continue reading
From the archives. This snowy winter day seemed like a good time to remember a warmer, more hospitable time and place. The Gulf of Mexico makes a great backyard, though it’s a lot different than life on the Wisconsin/Illinois border near the perpetual chill of Lake Michigan. Palm trees replaced… Continue reading
Sunday, June 20th, 2021, was a good day. It was after all, Father’s Day. Later in the day we were going over to my son’s for one our raucous family gatherings. So, I had time to hang my new backyard party lights, but soon things took a sudden turn south. … Continue reading
It was nearly a half of a year ago when my cousin reminded me of the “Prayer of St. Francis.” Lately, I have been reading it over nearly every day. A monk from the thirteenth century penned something so counter intuitive, so aspirational, so challenging, that I wonder if I… Continue reading
The Christmas Letter is something I don’t recall ever coming across until we moved to this area about twenty-five years ago. It basically is a way to stay in touch with folks we have encountered through our life and relay to them on what has been happening over the last… Continue reading
You don’t have to be a democrat or republican, conservative, or liberal. Don’t be deceived into thinking the only choices are one or the other. You could choose both, or neither. You could be a lot one and little the other, or a little bit of each. You be could… Continue reading
My brother died of Covid December 29th, 2020. Because of the pandemic, we just held his memorial service back in Missouri last Thursday. Bill was 72, five years older than me. He was not in good health and resided in a nursing home. Yet, this disease that has taken hundreds… Continue reading
Here I am in my happy spot again on this tropical, secluded southwest Florida island on the Gulf of Mexico. I lived most of my life thinking I would never have an opportunity like this, even once. So, coming here for the sixth time in about a dozen years is… Continue reading
Saw this somewhere and decided to take the challenge. Jesus. Christianity is based on Jesus, not a church or a prescribed set of beliefs. Love. Christianity is based on love, loving God, loving others (especially those we do not understand), and loving ourselves (in a healthy, non-arrogant sort of way,… Continue reading
We are living in strange times, aren’t we? I certainly did not want for anyone to take an unnecessary chance to be exposed to a disease that took my brother’s life. Also, an oversized chapel at the funeral home did not seem like the right setting for what would have… Continue reading
It doesn’t feel like Christmas to me. It’s hard to say why, since emotions can be hard to figure out, but it is safe to say some of these things have had an effect on me an many others. Covid has cancelled all festive events; for many it has had… Continue reading
Every year when Christmas rolls around, I feel like I should feel something; something warm and cozy that evokes a sense of joy, gratitude, and peace. Usually, things are just too busy for me to get around to that until very late in the season. There are those moments late… Continue reading
I am looking at the edges of the earth. My panoramic view is so spectacular that it is rounded off at the edges. Even better, it’s the Gulf of Mexico. Better yet, I am sitting on the patio of the villa we have rented for the week. The warm Gulf… Continue reading
Hey ya’ll! Yes, that is a southern greeting! And yes, I am in the south. The southern portion of the Appalachians in Northern Georgia, more particularly, the southern Blue Ridge Mountains. When I say I am in the mountains, I mean I am in the midst of a majestic mountain… Continue reading
Kenosha, Wisconsin (pop.100,164, about 150,000 with suburbs)) is our nearest city at about 10 minutes away. We are there several times a week. It was a manufacturing city that has successfully re-invented itself as a distribution center and tourist destination. It’s growing. The downtown is rapidly redeveloping and the Lake… Continue reading
I’m a t-shirt, shorts, flip flop, beach sort of guy who likes it toasty outside and air-conditioned inside. This summer has miraculously come through. That’s downright rare to have consistently warm weather here in the upper Midwest on the shores of Lake Michigan. What a wonderful gift in the midst… Continue reading
It’s demoralizing when you take a step in good faith only to find out that it was a mistake and then realize that we need to change your route. That’s where hundreds of thousands of people have found themselves in relationship to their faith and the institutional church. So, I… Continue reading
We just wished America a happy birthday. She is a magnificent lady, but she is starting to show her age. There are a few tell-tale signs that everything is not working as good as it used to. It is one of those concerns that I would like to address today.… Continue reading
Today will be a departure from the COVID pandemic of disease, information, misinformation, varied projections, confusing advice, and conspiracy theories. Instead, I want to talk about my gallbladder. Hold on there, partner! Don’t skip to the next marvelous insight from the internet because much wisdom came from my encounter with… Continue reading
It’s an oxymoron. How can you be social and distant? Do social media and technology finally attain a higher purpose? Perhaps, though they have so many limitations. There is no substitute for physical proximity and eye-to-eye contact. Social distancing is an odd term. Very clear and very imperative in one… Continue reading
“Better to light one small candle than to curse the darkness.” – ancient Chinese proverb This is the post that I have been wanting (and dreading) to write for months. It violates that age-old admonishment to avoid discussing religion and politics. If fact, they may be the two most… Continue reading
Ever notice how the cows all face the same direction in the pasture, but there is one that didn’t seem to get the memo and is separate from the herd doing his own thing? That’s me. I dislike housing tracts where the nearly identical a dwellings are crammed in close… Continue reading
A few years ago, when I was having some back pain, I got a call from my doctor’s office informing me of the results of my x-rays. The nurse who was probably not as old as some of my clothes, informed me I had osteo arthritis. I was shocked and… Continue reading
The Kansas City Chiefs won the Super Bowl last night after a fifty-year drought. But does it really matter? If I didn’t know better, I would think the NFL was enterprise invented by billionaires, lawyers, and modern-day gladiators. It is an American oddity. The world has soccer, known elsewhere as… Continue reading
The call comes.Everything changes.A flurry of activity ensues. Sunken cheeks.Is she aware?Is she there? Each breath scrutinized.Sit and watch.Was there a slight change? Nurses care.Hospice explains.We speak words of love, not knowing if they are heard. Even the aids kiss her forehead as tears roll down their faces.Our hearts melt.We love their love. Faith and… Continue reading
The more I heard of Senator McCain’s story, the starker the contrasts became between the man who tried to become president and one who is president. One was born into a family of service with a glowing history of military careers. The other was born into a life of privilege… Continue reading
The deaths of Anthony Bourdain and Charles Krauthammer may be practically forgotten and long gone from the internet’s trending topics by now. Yet, they deserve to be remembered. They were artists who, to the best of my knowledge, never painted a portrait or sculpted a bust. They used words, reasoning,… Continue reading
