I notice that on this day in 1755 the Spanish established the town of Laredo. We didn’t have much music in my house as a child. My mother felt obligated to purchase records of classical music, which, with the exception of some Mario Lanza, who she seemed to have a crush on, were never played. The exception was when my father brought home Marty Robbins’ 1960 album More Gunfighter Ballads & Trail Songs. (Eventually we had the first album in... Read more

I see it is World Naked Gardening Day. Beyond advertising it, I don’t think I shall be involved… Read more

BEING THERE, BEING HERE A Mother’s Day Meditation James Ishmael Ford My childhood memories don’t really feature my mother very much. The dominant figures within the family throughout my growing up were my father and my mother’s mother. My father was handsome, smart and troubled, an alcoholic and a schemer always looking for the main chance, and always bungling it. I guess my most positive illustration of him would be George Clooney’s Ulysses Everett McGill in Oh Brother, Wherefore Art... Read more

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This morning the Zen teacher Brad Warner posted a screen shot of a tweet from the New Age guru Deepak Chopra sharing a tidbit of wisdom, “When you reach pure awareness you will have no problems, therefore there will be no need for solutions.” Brad posted it to mock the good doctor. Now, in my opinion, Dr Chopra deserves a lot of mocking. I even do a little in my next book. (And, my spouse says he deserves a little... Read more

Stephen Colbert tells us, “I am still reeling from President Obama’s announcement yesterday that he is gay.” What a week… I know people, particularly the president’s political opponents, if enemy is too strong a term, who like to point out that he was apparently in favor of marriage equality when running for state senate, and then against when running for senate and the presidency, until now, when he’s in favor. Political expediency when noticed is never a pretty thing. But,... Read more

By someone’s accounting this is the day in the year 70 that Titus, son of the emperor Vespasian began his siege of Jerusalem. Spoiler alert: it would not end well for the Jewish people. This isn’t one of those great what-if moments in history, like the death of Alexander or the sinking of the Spanish armada in a storm. What began on this day was simply a marker toward the end point of events that had been in play for... Read more

Apparently following a tweet the senator sent me, and I suspect a number of other constituents, a response to a request for his support of marriage equality. Dear Reverend Ford: Thank you for contacting me regarding same-sex marriage. I have been reviewing and thinking about this issue for some time out of respect for Rhode Islanders with varying viewpoints on this issue. It is a matter that deserves and demands serious and thorough consideration, not a quick reaction, because it... Read more

A drizzly and dark morning here in Hingham. Sitting in a little coffee shop, sipping a latte, checking emails and throwing up a brief posting here ahead of the last part of my clergy conference being held at a Catholic monastery just outside of town. I’ve just waltzed through the headlines and see that North Carolina passed a nasty little bit of legislation enshrining hatred for homosexual persons and restrictions on their basic civil rights in their constitution. As a... Read more

Happy birthday, Gary! Gary Snyder is an American original, teacher, translator, Pulitzer prize winning poet, environmental activist and American Zen pioneer. As nearly everyone knows Jack Kerouac celebrated him as Japhy Ryder in the Dharma Bums. Even though we share lineage connections (that’s Zen talk for meaning we practice in the same schools of Zen), I’ve only met him once. And the “met” really deserves those scare quotes, as what it was was I was working at Moe’s Books in... Read more