Have you ever asked for a little help? Right now I’m reading Billy Coffey’s Snow Day. He tells the story about an elderly man in a crowded store shouting out, “Help me. Somebody help me.” People cautiously began to venture over to see his need. An EMT rushed over, thinking medical emergency. A store manager was quickly on the scene, fearing lawsuit. When he had a growing audience, he yelled again. “I need help. How much is this skillet?” Relief... Read more
It was nothing short of appalling. Twenty years ago something unspeakable happened at a sleepover. A stupid thing really, but a child was damaged. A family torn apart. A community horrified. A permanent label was applied to this once upstanding citizen. And he rightfully suffered through the humiliation, stood before the condemnation of a jury of his peers and went to prison where who knows what happened. It’s hard to feel sorry for the guy. The good news is that... Read more
It’s a curious mess. Many writers start out with a grand vision and they attack the keyboard without any regard. They simply throw ideas, furiously typing anything that comes into their head. Photo by Brenda, I’m no different. Stray thoughts. Disconnected ideas. Sentence structure that would cause my 8th grade English teacher to shudder. Missing subjects. Missing verbs. Then I begin to trim, sorting out the good from the bad. The ugly stuff is easy to lop off like a busy gardener with... Read more
Click here to get all future issues sent directly via email. She said we should help create a “holy space.” The nurse who was charged with the dying had perhaps the best and worst job anywhere. On one hand, she helped families sort out the messy details of a loved one’s final days. There was the business side with Social Security administrators, Medicare and the purposefully obtuse word that everyone still understands — “arrangements.” But the good part of her... Read more
I’ve been out of touch this week, as I’ve had the sadness — and the honor of saying goodbye to my father who lived for 93 years. I’ll write some observations about this process over the coming days, but for now, I want to share a little. He was a roofer by trade, a cowboy at heart and a gentleman by nature. For more than 50 years, he crawled over rooftops, and literally hung on the edge of danger. We... Read more
Grandad had a small house he rented. I remember the bright red paint that gave off a certain sweet smell in the hot sun. I remember the screened-in porch, a barrier from the bugs that beat on the fabric, looking for a way to get near our bright lights.But the real job was the neighbor’s yard. It was a cornucopia of boyhood wonders. My brother and I would swing on the apricot trees, play hide-and-seek in the garden and touch the farm equipment.... Read more
We all have things in our past that we would rather forget. The ugly.The dirty.The shameful.The painful. Things we thought buried, sunken in the earth’s core. Rotting. Decaying. Forgotten. Then, like zombies rising from the dead, they come back at the oddest of times. An old relationship returns with the barbs ready to pierce. A wound healed begins to ooze again. Words spoken that evoke bitter memories. They rise from the past. Mumbling, moaning, they step into our living rooms... Read more
Image via Wikipedia This is not a post about sports. This is a story about redemption. This is for every person who thinks there’s no hope. The Texas Rangers are going to the World Series to play the San Francisco Giants. Let the record stand that I’m rooting for the Giants. But it’s hard not to cheer for Josh Hamilton, the Rangers amazingly talented outfielder. Read on. Josh had the world ahead of him as a high-school senior. Picked no. 1... Read more
Today, Bonnie Gray over at Faith Barista posed this question for her ongoing blogging jam on faith: How does your faith connect to your happiness? I must confess that I have aversion to the term, “pursuit of happiness” and I bristle when people use it to justify their behavior. Happiness, although thrown into the Bill of Rights by Thomas Jefferson, is not really a Christian imperative. We act like it is – using it as an excuse to leave a spouse,... Read more
If you know me only by the words on this page, you might think I’m a somber man, writing these weighty tomes. Looking back at the hundreds of posts in this blog, I sometimes gasp at the tone. That’s one serious dude! But spend a half an hour with me and you’ll see that I’m a joker, maybe even a jester at time. Image by Getty Images via @daylife I’m a lover of laughter. Much to my mother’s chagrin, who hoped... Read more
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