In for a penny, in for a pound. Throwing good money after bad. Do you ever regret a decision and yet despite the regret, you persist in the decision? We keep reading a book, watching a movie, eating a meal, living a life where we’ve invested time and money and energy and spirit. We don’t make the difficult admission that we invested poorly and simply quit. People stay in churches, jobs, relationships, long after they should’ve made the painful choice... Read more
From the day he was born to the day he was murdered, 39 years later, Martin Luther King, Jr. was outside the mainstream. Born to a comfortably middle class family, the color of his skin made him a second class American. He refused to accept the status quo of racism and became the famous face of the original Black Lives Movement. With his visage on United States postage stamps and a federal holiday commemorating his birth, King’s radical messages have... Read more
All of the people in the Bible are Middle Eastern, African, and Mediterranean. When we turn our backs on their descendants today, we reject the literal Children of God. Read more
In George Orwell’s Animal Farm the animals rebel against human masters and promise a future of equality for all animals. The pigs end up in control of the farm and they become everything they abhorred. Oppressive to the other animals, the pigs take on human characteristics and even wear the farmer’s clothes. For years, Evangelicals stressed a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, a morality above reproach, and a Christianity that sent missionaries and shoeboxes full of supplies to the farthest... Read more
Tom Hanks stars in A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, but the movie isn’t about Mr. Rogers. The movie is inspired by a 1998 article written by journalist Tom Junod. Hollywood created a fiction of the journalist, so the character in the movie is Lloyd Vogel. It’s a shame, because the original article would have made for a better movie. Over the years, Junod and Rogers became actual friends. That, too is a better story than the movie. The entire... Read more
When a con artist starts to believe her con, that’s know as becoming a shut-eye. She literally believes her own lies and shuts her eyes to reality. This is different from the marks believing the con. You want the mark to believe the con. (“Mark” comes from the chalk mark that midway workers would put on the back of a rube who was easily fooled. Today marks are distinguished by their red hats and TRUMP stickers.) In addition to being... Read more
““Love is at the root of everything,” Mr. Rogers says at the beginning of the documentary, Won’t You Be My Neighbor, “all learning, all relationships— love, or the lack of it. And what we see and hear on the screen is part of who we become.” To read a review of the documentary about Mr. Rogers, visit “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?” Follow the link below to buy the movie, Follow the link for more from Mr. Rogers. Inspiration from... Read more
How long will society last without electricity? How long would you last? What would you do to survive? My work in progress is a unique trilogy that begins on the first day of baseball’s World Series, in the year 2022. The books tell the story of a wife and husband struggling as society dissolves in the wake of a mysterious cataclysmic event. Novel one explores the moral dilemmas faced by a mother trying to protect her child and survive in a... Read more
World Communion Sunday – Wikipedia en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Communion_Sunday World Communion Sunday is a celebration observed by several Christian denominations, taking place on the first Sunday of every October, that promotes Christian unity and ecumenical cooperation. It focuses on an observance of the eucharist. The tradition was begun in 1933 by Hugh Thomson Kerr who ministered in the Shadyside Presbyterian Church. Going through some boxes, this eve of World Communion Sunday, I found these notes: Communion is communion with one another and communion... Read more
I’m filled with terror. Terror-filled. Terrified. The edits are progressing. I’ve lost track of when the publisher, Immortal Works, returned my manuscript for the first round of edits. But I only have 30-45 days to return it. When the publisher is investing time, money, and effort into your debut novel, here’s what you don’t want to do: Make the publisher mad. The publisher is expanding rapidly, and will publish the debut novels of a bunch of writers next year. I... Read more
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