Out of all of my favorite musicians, there is one artist that has a special place in my heart above all others. When I was a kid, Johnny Cash has reached the second peak of a career that that waxed and waned through six decades. In those days, Cash was… Continue reading
To the best of my knowledge, there is no definitive answer to the question, “What changes our life for the better?” Here is what I know. People inspire people. Programs seldom ever do. I remember teachers who were passionate about their subject, and caring toward me, more than I remember… Continue reading
Let’s play “Cool / Not Cool.” Cool: Female Not Cool: Male Women are cool because they can do anything a man can do, and do it better. Men are not cool because they have repressed women for centuries. They are over-sexed buffoons, controlled by their physical urges. It has been… Continue reading
Forty years is a long time, especially, if you are living with me. Then, they’re like dog years. Somehow, Patty has put up with me all of these years. I don’t know how she has done it (You will have to ask her about that.) Anyway, tomorrow, we celebrate our fortieth… Continue reading
No, it is not an archaic type of firearm, a wine, or the latest fragrance; it is a town in eastern Iowa where I got a speeding ticket. Sure, I know, “Don’t do the crime, if you can’t pay the fine.” Allow me to explain my displeasure in more detail.… Continue reading
Nothing says Memorial Day like noise, dirt, speed, heat, and cold. So the announcer proclaimed as the 900-horsepower winged sprint cars were being pushed onto the one-third-mile clay oval before a massive holiday weekend crowd of racing enthusiasts gathered at the county fairgrounds grandstand. It was sixty-seven degrees when the… Continue reading
It’s funny where it comes from. I am inspired by my ninety-one year old uncle that I love to visit when I am back in Missouri. To this day, he carries a bit of shrapnel in his leg from WWII that causes him some difficulty in walking. Yet, he finds… Continue reading
Something is wrong, very wrong! Something is missing. It is making us stupid. It is stressing our relationships. It is creating a gaping hole in the middle of our culture. I see it every day. It’s in my face on the cable news networks as a Republican spokesperson and his… Continue reading
Sometimes life seems boring, dull, and frustrating, leaving us with only fantasies of escape to ease our mental anguish. Other times we are so caught up in the beauty, the fascination, and the inspiration of the moment that we completely forget about our pressing responsibilities and illusive dreams. The regular preoccupations no… Continue reading
Photo credit: Marcel Oosterwijk. Creative Commons My seventeen-day long trip to St. Joseph, Missouri was a packed full of things to be done for my folks…packing, moving, having a sale, closing out the old apartment, taking over their business affairs, unpacking, taking Dad to the hospital, countless trips between the old… Continue reading
If you say something often enough, people will begin to believe it. If you pronounce it from a place of authority, it may be readily accepted. If it is artfully, passionately, and creatively communicated, it will eventually weave its way into culture as reality, no matter how faulty the logic… Continue reading
Image by brizzle born and bred. Creative Commons. I was born right in the middle of the Baby Boom Generation (1946-1964). The Cuban Missile Crisis, The Cold War, The Civil Rights Movement, the assassinations of John Kennedy, Bobby Kennedy, and Martin Luther King, Jr., the Vietnam War, student unrest, illicit drug… Continue reading
Millennials have been in the news a lot lately. Companies want to know how to market their products to this new, coming of age generation and employers want to know how to recruit and manage new talent that has a much different view of success. Anyway, this millennial frenzy got… Continue reading
Cultural institutions are failing us miserably and that is causing a worldwide season of unrest. Corrupt governments that have been in power for decades are being toppled right and left. Protesters claiming to be the 99%, upset by the widening wealth gap, have “occupied” city centers around the world. Citizens… Continue reading
Here are three quick observations about politics in America. We are obviously so polarized that we are paralyzed. Holding onto power is more important representing the people. There is a monumental lack of leadership and courage to lead the way to serious negotiation and resolution. Our two major political parties… Continue reading
This post is part of a synchroblog on Social Justice. There is a link list for the other contributions at the end of this post. Different Starting Places The pursuit of social justice is more than a feel good motivation for well-meaning people. It is a reflection of the fact… Continue reading
This post is part of the September Synchroblog, entitled, “Loving Nature: Is God Green?” Links to the other contributors articles are listed at the end of this post. The Oblivious I have some interesting mental images of how certain unnamed family members, friends, and neighbors have violated my environmental sensibilities. It’s… Continue reading
Saturday, Patty and I hung out with prize hogs, bulls, rabbits, geese, goats, turkeys, and chickens (my personal favorite). Baby pigs vigorously tugged on their mommie for their dinner in front of amazed city folk who had little knowledge of the origins of their bacon. Chicks hatched before our very eyes.… Continue reading
The vast array of scandals we have experienced the last few months has captured my attention like it has for so many other Americans. Here is the scandal roundup; at least some of the bigger, more recent ones. Former South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford bested Elisabeth Colbert (sister of comedian… Continue reading
The Evangelical church became a political force in the eighties. Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson and James Dobson began articulating a “Christian position” on issues of national interest. Interestingly, it was always the same as the Republican position. They began with moral issues, moved on to “family values”, and eventually had… Continue reading
I like senior citizens, perhaps because I am well on my way to becoming one. There are some ways in which I don’t like for people to act their age. Middle-aged people and older people that talk about their ailments and complain about taxes incessantly get on my nerves. But when… Continue reading
This month’s synchroblog theme is ordinary courage. Not to be confused with heroics, ordinary courage is the act of revealing our true heart. We usually call it vulnerability. The links to other posts on the topic are located at the end of this article. The most courageous thing we will… Continue reading
This is a book that hardly anybody wants to talk about. That alone makes it important. We don’t like talking about death or “having our affairs in order,” and we really don’t like delving into financial and personal business matters that involve the likes of the IRS. When Someone Dies… Continue reading
Figuring out what really pisses you off and agitates you can be very insightful because our motivations and passions flow from our deepest irritants and frustrations. Here are a few of my least favorite things. (I can hear Julie Andrews in my head.) Church programs that ignore the individuals they supposedly… Continue reading
Good Friday sucked. The original one was filled with brutality, torture, confusion, doubt, guilt, fear, and oppressive grief. My Good Friday began in a cemetery in a military chapel beside one of those massive fields with their row after row of tidy white grave markers of veterans. The seats in the… Continue reading
“Dad” Lewis, the owner of the hardware store in town, does not have many weeks left. He is dying of lung cancer. He has always been a man of few words who was not known for his compassion. His faithful wife is worn out and exhausted from taking care of… Continue reading
Assumptions “It seems to me Democrats (Liberals) want to help people and Republicans (Conservatives) want to help people help themselves.” That’s how it was summed up by someone who was, I think, pretty wise. But when I am in a bad mood, it seems to me that liberals are paternalistic… Continue reading
This post is part of the March Synchroblog: Guns and God. Links to the other posts are listed at the end the article. Abuse I am really tired of people trying to co-op God to support their political position. Guns and God do not go together. Gun control and God… Continue reading
I am just now sending a book to the editor that should have been published by last October. There are some reasons for the delay, like, travel and other pressing events. But the main reason that it is not published is me. Honestly, sometimes I think it is crap. Sometimes,… Continue reading
My Uncle Bob (John R. Hager) the oldest of my Dad’s four siblings, passed away last Friday. The “R” is for Robert and everyone called him “Bob.” I have only recently learned of some of the details his full life. After high school, he helped build a naval base in the… Continue reading
Why is “customer service” so often the worse possible place on earth to receive decent service? Why are we allowing our technology to cause us to avoid having a real, live conversation with another human being? Why are the very best moments in life usually unplanned? Why is there such… Continue reading
For far, far too long, Christians, especially Evangelicals were known for what they were against. They were against abortion, homosexuality, and most anything that made them uncomfortable. Is killing unborn babies bad? Yes, it is. Is it unforgivable? Is it “the platform” for Christianity? No, on both accounts. Following Jesus… Continue reading
Women are not from Venus and men are not from Mars. We are human beings, brothers and sisters, associates, neighbors, and yes, friends from the same planet. As a pastor in the eighties and nineties, I was taught to follow Billy Graham’s advice and never be alone with a woman… Continue reading
I am just going to come out and say it, church is broken. So are several other societal institutions. They just aren’t cutting it anymore. As institutions age they forget the reason for their existence of serving people. Eventually, the mission is traded for maintenance. The goal of serving people is subtly… Continue reading
Just thinking about the images makes me crazy. A twenty-year-old young man shot his mom in the face, then using her guns blasted his way into an elementary school and mowed down twenty-six people, most of them six and seven year old before taking his own life. The tears are… Continue reading
We’re wimps! We, the people of the United States of America are a sorry lot in the way we exercise our citizenship. I am a wimp, too, but I am beginning to train to be a better citizen. We vote based on superficial information that has been carefully engineered by… Continue reading
You probably are aware that Kansas City Chiefs linebacker, Jovan Belcher murdered his girlfriend who was the mother of his three-month-old daughter just minutes before driving to the Chiefs’ facility where he put a gun to his head and pulled the trigger, taking his own life. In the parking lot,… Continue reading
“I tore myself away from the safe comfort of certainties through my love for truth – and truth rewarded me.” – Simone de Beauvoir Not thinking is easier than thinking. Believing as we are told is easier than testing those beliefs. Finding a tribe (political party, denomination, unnamed segment of… Continue reading
By the time you read this Election Day 2012 will over. Thank God! However, I am writing on Tuesday morning. Patty and I have already squiggled in our ovals and fed our ballots into the optical scanner by 7:30 this morning. Either Barak Obama will be rehired or he will… Continue reading
I am seriously moved, definitely warmed and inspired as I just finished a new novel by Doug Worgul, entitled, Thin Blue Smoke. These characters got into my heart and let me know I still have a heart. They’re real and flawed. Some of them have had some really bad breaks… Continue reading
And I thought we were polarized during the last election cycle. Your neighbor puts up an Obama or Romney yard sign and you think, I thought he was an okay, but apparently he is an idiot. One of your Facebook “friends” writes about what an ass Obama or Romney is… Continue reading
While we are overwhelmed with political propaganda and endless chatter from the talking heads and spin doctors, there is not enough attention given to three foundational questions that should affect how we vote. The answers to these questions should be applied to every governmental program. Is it the role of… Continue reading
If I had a magic wand, here are three things I would fix in our political system. The Electoral College would be gone. When you vote for the candidate for your choice for the President of the United States, you are really voting for your state’s electors. All states, except Maine… Continue reading
I usually listen to talk radio streaming on my iPhone as I get ready in the mornings. This morning I began with my usual WPR (Wisconsin Public Radio) program doing their review of political happenings for the week with guests from the Democrat and Republican perspectives. Facts were irrelevant to… Continue reading
This is a comment in response to a post on another site (though it also posted here on glennhager.com). It covers several issues, so you would understand it better if you the post and the comment I am responding to. Here is the link to the post, so you can… Continue reading
As I was surfing Facebook, I saw an acquaintance’s claim that Romney was trying to take us back to the days of Ozzie and Harriet. It was a curious response to the debate. Some conservatives might look on those times as the good old days and some liberals regard then… Continue reading
I have hit an awesome chapter in Richard Rohr’s Falling Upward and I am trying to unpackage it. Every time God forgives us, God is saying that God’s own rules do not matter as much as the relationships that God wants to create with us. (pp. 56-57) I always thought of forgiveness as… Continue reading
There are some things I look for when hiring a plumber. I want to know if he knows what he is doing and if he is good at it. I want to know if he is honest, going to show up on time, do quality work, not leave a mess,… Continue reading
We live really close to Wisconsin (a block and a half away). The state is home to Reince Priebus, Chair of the Republican national Committee and Paul Ryan Republican Vice Presidential nominee. So, our geography, the campaign news reports, and the political conventions have me thinking about politics. The word, politics… Continue reading
Last Saturday, Patty I were selling Beadmomma jewelry (my wife’s company) at a local farmer’s market. It is a beautiful location on Lake Michigan, with sailboats in their slips just a few yards behind us, a historical lighthouse visible as we looked down the street just across an inlet, and museums along the way.… Continue reading
