Written 3/05/07 and representative only of my own opinions, remember. I have many wonderful people in my life who listen to Christian radio! My intent is not to be disrepectful . . . just to share my opinion . . . .You know how I feel about contemporary Christian music . . . and if you don’t, let’s just say that in general my opinion is not overly enthusiastic. The truth of the matter is, however, that I am not... Read more
Written 3/04/07To fully appreciate the impact of this particular experience you would have to know my history with radio. I come from the Sesame Street generation, one of the first to spend hours and hours in front of the television. Since my mother was convinced only evil could come from the watching of television, my own personal experience was rather limited (Sesame Street, yes, The Waltons, and Little House on the Prairie, pretty much). Imagine the social damage caused by... Read more
Written 2/25/07In my free time, which I actually have a little bit of right now, I am reading a book given to me for my birthday . . . by my sister-in-law, Anna, who knows how much I love getting lost in Adriana Trigiani’s books. A word of profundity from her latest, Home to Big Stone Gap:“Truth be told, she was humiliated. She couldn’t believe a preacher would actually have the guts to say anything to her about her private... Read more
From ashes to “hosannas” we follow you.Walk with us through the desert, Lord, even as we stumble and fall on our journey to the cross.Create a holy pause in our cluttered lives.Empty us of all that would keep us fromentering into your suffering for thesake of the world.Sharlande Sledge I’m giving up church for Lent. You heard me. After a challenging year of rigorous work, opening a new facility, welcoming new staff and integrating many new members, I find myself... Read more
Today is my birthday. For those of you would never believe if you saw me, I am now, uh, 37 years old. Strange, only a very short time ago being 37 seemed really old and completely incomprehensible personally. Now it seems so young . . . carefree, just really at the beginning of life . . . . (Apparently, it is also delusional.)Last year on my birthday I received a card which I thought deserved note on the blog. This... Read more
I have spent much of my free time the over the last week serving as research assistant in the Social Studies efforts of my 8-year-old, Sammy. Sam had to do a project on an ancient city, including a timeline, and one other assignment. He could choose between making a model of the ancient city and writing a newspaper article as if he lived in the city during an important time in history. Venice was the choice. Why? I do not... Read more
I’ve always known that great things can be achieved with a hair dryer. I’ve known this fact because I myself have occasionally exited a professional hair salon looking far better than I have ever looked after any effort exercised by myself on my own behalf. I knew this about hair dryers. What I did not know and would never have believed, ever in my entire life before now, is that, since I can’t even consistently coif my own hair, I’d... Read more
I first became aware of the poem about 10 years ago. It was painted, lettered by hand, on a white cinderblock wall on Simon Bolivar Avenue in New Orleans. I drove past the wall every morning on my way to work at a large downtown homeless shelter where I ran a program for women.It always seemed a little curious to me that these words were painted on a wall bordering an empty parking lot, littered with trash, frequented by homeless... Read more
It’s a strange, strange phenomenon. As I sat listening to her talk about leaving for Zimbabwe for at least six months carrying only a backpack, I was caught somewhere in between nostalgic recognition when I saw the sparkle in her eyes and heard the lift in her voice . . . and the strangely recognizable horror she described her parents feeling right at this moment.My friend Sadie has left for an adventure halfway across the world, and I couldn’t be... Read more
I was talking with a friend today about how to make difficult decisions. I must be very naive, but I had thought, that is, I was under the impression, that once you got past the biggies (prom dress—strapless or sleeves?) that the process got easier. I’d thought there might be a point at which you could sort of turn on the cruise control and take a little break, that the road signs would be clearer and the “right decision” more... Read more
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