Hey Justin! What if you had a ring that made you invisible when you put it on? Would you use the ring to take the books you’ve been wanting from the kid’s section at the bookstore the next time we go to the mall? No. Why not? Because someone would know. In the summer of 1989, as I prepared for my first PhD-candidate solo flight in the classroom scheduled for the coming fall semester, I solicited advice from anyone and... Read more
Tomorrow is my wife Jeanne’s birthday–join me in celebrating this wonderful event by reading my annual tribute to my very favorite person! The Little Red-Haired Girl Read more
Pardons are in the news, particularly Presidential pardons. Presidential pardons are nothing new, and everyone seems to believe that the President’s power to pardon is unlimited, but can the President pardon himself? “Yes,” says Trump’s legal team in a twenty-page memo leaked this week, which also argues that the President cannot be charged with obstruction of justice, since as the top justice official in the country, that would be charging him with obstructing himself—which apparently is not possible, although he... Read more
A conversation heard behind the scenes: Dude! Did you see what just happened?? How could I?? I’m in charge of the freaking luggage today and am stuck way back here. Why is the crowd always biggest when I have luggage duty? The big guy just got dissed in front of everyone! Are you shitting me? Tell me! He was already in a pissy mood and this woman kept nagging him and bothering him until he finally put her in her... Read more
My family and I spent three years in the middle nineties living in the South—specifically, Memphis. It was my first teaching job after graduate school. As dyed-in-the-wool Northerners, it was not an easy fit, but we were introduced to many new things—including kudzu. Introduced from Asia in the late 19th century as a garden novelty, but not widely planted until the 1930s, kudzu is now America’s most infamous weed, earning the title of “the vine that ate the South.” According... Read more
Organized religion often is a source of packaged answers and comfortable solutions to important questions about God and ourselves. A odd story from the Jewish scriptures suggests that eventually such answers and solutions must be left behind. Early in the Book of Joshua, the Israelites cross the Jordan River and enter the land that has been promised to them, even though it is already occupied by nomadic tribes and city dwellers who are under the apparently mistaken impression that since... Read more
Memorial Day week is a time for solemn remembrance. It also tends to be a time in which Americans express their patriotism with flags on their lawns and with slogans like “America First” and “America—Love it or Leave it.” How should persons who profess the Christian faith think about American exceptionalism and exclusivity? This question crossed my radar screen unexpectedly last Saturday morning. As I was doing a bit of minimal cleaning in the house, I had MSNBC’s “AM Joy”... Read more
It is Memorial Day, a great day to honor those who have made sacrifices over the years, including the ultimate sacrifice of their lives, to protect our freedoms. It is also a good day to consider how well we are living out the freedoms that these sacrifices were made for. In an early season episode of House of Cards, then Vice President Frank Underwood, fresh off another policy victory energized by skillful manipulation and lying, turns toward the camera for an... Read more
On a very sad morning almost ten years ago, my favorite vehicle ever was towed out of my driveway. perched on the back of a flatbed tow truck. As my car rounded the bend, donated to charity for a tax write-off and undoubtedly destined to be dismantled for parts, I began to wax nostalgic. Although I came of age during the turbulent sixties and early seventies, I was not your classic anti-establishment rebel. I grew up in rural northern New England,... Read more
In “Slander,” from her latest collection of essays, What Are We Doing Here?, Marilynne Robinson writes that when she applied for the faculty position at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop at the University of Iowa where she spent her teaching career until her retirement in 2016, the job description said that candidates should be able to teach the Bible as literature. And so she did—something that I also have the privilege of doing as a professor at Providence College. She notes,... Read more
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