Sometimes I find myself sitting quietly and staring off into space. It’s not that there aren’t a million and one things to do to keep me busy. It’s not that I’m just being lazy or bored. It’s that I get a little bit overwhelmed. Okay, I get more than a little bit overwhelmed. In moments like these, I hear myself... READ MORE >
We came to the appointment with the radiation oncologist fending off worry but full of questions nonetheless. What would be the course of treatment? How many weeks would it last? Where would it need to be done? How extensive would be the damage from radiation? Where were we going to stay? How were we going to handle driving back and... READ MORE >
Three years ago, following a routine mammogram, the radiologist sent a nurse to get me from the waiting room to join them in the room where Linda was waiting. “Suspicious spots,” he said. “Need to follow up,” he said. “Cancer?” I asked. He wouldn’t say. But the surgeon did. So there was surgery and radiation and a decision about chemotherapy... READ MORE >
Centuries ago, as students came to the end of their academic careers at a particular school, they would appear before their teachers at the time of graduation. The teachers would pose a question to each student. The students would provide both an answer to the question and a defense of why their answer was correct. Graduation depended not only on... READ MORE >
There are three oak bookcases in the small guest room where I am staying. The aging owner, slipping away into the grayness of dementia, has given to others many of the books once housed there. But many remain. Books in Spanish and on teaching English to native Spanish speakers still fill the lower shelves of the case nearest the door.... READ MORE >
I saw the bump in the road long before I recognized what it was. The guy in the white pickup truck pulling his boat down the highway, probably coming from his favorite fishing lake after opening day, recognized the deer first and swerved hard to the right. When I realized the dark form in the center of the road had... READ MORE >
He was born September 8, 1918 and began broadcasting on the ABC radio network at age 14. He broadcast his show, News and Comments, on weekday mornings and mid-days and at noon on Saturdays. From the 1950s to the 1990s his radio programs reached upwards of 24 million listeners a week. His news program, begun in the later days of... READ MORE >
Bam! Bam! Bam! The sound of a young fist on the sheet steel gate echoes through the expectant courtyard like the first notes of a timpani in an empty concert hall. It is 7:00 a.m. This new sound joins the roosters and the guinea fowl that have been announcing the new day since 4:30 a.m. The smell of vigorously boiled... READ MORE >
Christmas 2014 was shaping up even better than I hoped. I’d spent weeks putting together a celebration for my wife that would follow The Twelve Days of Christmas. Each day, for 12 days starting Christmas Day, she would receive gifts according to the number of the day. For example, one gift on Christmas Day, for the first day, and 12... READ MORE >
So. God is immensely more than the conclusion of a logical argument. He is infinitely more than a philosophical principle. And heaven forbid he be reduced to a mere religious practice regardless of the ethereal, spiritual satisfaction such practice might bring. God is a real person, and as a person he can be known. But, we need to say more... READ MORE >
