You’ll understand if I tell you I live near this town. It’s not an hour away, and it lies along that shared length of seacoast known as the Great Salt Marsh, which runs from southern Maine, across New Hampshire, and along Massachusetts to the end of Cape Ann. All the towns in all three states sharing this coastline also share a common sense of identity that has bound them together since long before there were states, or a nation, here.... Read more

The salt of the earth.  It used to be a fond and frequent phrase for working folks, for ordinary people, for dependable wage-earners. They were also called the backbone of the nation. Of late, the backbone has been in spasm, and the whole nation in agony because of it. The backbone has a new name now, the forgotten, a name given by Donald Trump, elected on the strength of his promise to allay fear, yet he inflames it, his promise... Read more

Sen. Jeanne Shaheen stood in front of the State Capitol in Concord, NH, in the damp cold weather of the day and spoke to a far-larger-than-anticipated crowd of folks, huddling, mittened and hatted, together, holding their hand-made signs. The expected 1000 turned into over 5000. Shaheen spoke with energy and conviction, and with the experience of a woman who has picked up and dusted off the broken hearted before.  ‘No more hand-wringing’, she said, ‘let’s get to work, there’s a... Read more

Nicodemus was flabbergasted that night, as he listened to Jesus talking to a crowd of poor folks in the streets of a run-down neighborhood. Upper class rabbis like Nicodemus never went there, it was considered a dangerous place. So it had taken some courage for Nicodemus to come to hear Jesus. No one else he knew had ever heard the fellow. But there were rumors, more every day, of the way Jesus incited the rabble to hope for a new... Read more

Jesus had a penchant for giving people nicknames. He called Peter, who was often anxious, and sometimes foolish, the Rock. It had the effect of buoying him up, in the eyes of the others at least, who may well have been tempted to poke fun at him. Jesus called James and John, the sons of Zebedee, the Sons of Thunder.  He knew their dad, a guy with a fishing boat who may have yelled a lot. And James and John... Read more

So this is the story, as the gospels tell it: the Child comes almost unnoticed into the world, seen by a few, then hidden, bringing light into darkness as the old year dies. And then the man steps forth publicly, to be plunged into dark waters, from which his light rises stunningly before a crowd. Drawn to him, demons begin to whisper their slant on the politics of the world, insistent that he join them – see it their way.... Read more

Why is it that we continue to cruelly twist Matthew’s and Luke’s stories of the birth of Jesus by forcing both his parents to spend their lives without the joy, blessing, comfort and delight of sex? Why has sexual self-denial been written into Mary and Joseph’s consent to work with the Angel of God, making their consent, instead of active cooperation, bondage in abstinent humiliation? And what kind of God is this, who cannot live in the presence of human... Read more

Did the Russians hack the DNC’s emails? If they did, was it to promote the Trump campaign? Is man-made global warming  a Chinese lie? Is Obamacare a terrible thing for America? Did Hillary Clinton commit crimes involving money and influence when she was Secretary of State? Does Hillary belong in jail? Is America a great nation? Was it greater once? When? What makes a nation great anyway? Until recently, fake news was pretty much confined to the tabloids in the... Read more

Remember the Pied Piper? He lured children to their deaths, offering them delightful illusions that made them want to follow him. And in my opinion, the Pied Piper of this election was the delicious illusion of experience, as the special something that would make Hillary Clinton desirable in America’s eyes. Yes, I do know Hillary is more than two million votes ahead and still counting. But we all know that many, many of those votes were cast to keep that... Read more

The Great Door of the Church Year swings open with the scraping noise of metal on stone. Wild Man John pushes against the door’s reluctance, leaning his shoulder into it, breathing hard as he shoves it open to reveal the darkness within. The Year begins in darkness, always. Christmas, like Easter, arrives in enveloping, sheltering darkness. The light needs shelter at first, and it is only within darkness that the light can be truly seen. The old year ends with... Read more