I miss swimming. Growing up, swimming with synonomous with existing, or so I thought. You ate, you read books, you played tag, and you swam. That was the substance of childhood. In fact, from childhood-tinged glasses, it was the substance of summer life. Summer life was uncomplicated, and swimming, well, swimming was grand. As a child, it seemed we swam for entire days. The schedule went something like, leave the house at 11am, get to the beach several minutes after... Read more

After six weeks in Louisville, and four in Evanston, Illinois, I’m now at home in Machias, Maine. It’s been a great summer for many reasons. Much growth has been had in the past few months, growth that only come from stretching oneself, trying new things, and generally experiencing the ups and downs of life as a twentysomething. But enough about all that. It’s time to give a few ruminations on being home in Machias, where I’ll be for the next... Read more

American professional sports are not known for producing quotable masterpieces. Sure, there’s the occasional Yogi Berra, a man who bears a capacity for wit and wisdom that tugs at the general public. Far more common, however, is the athlete seemingly trained at the academy of the catch-phrase. You know the type. Their sagacity usually stems from a beautifully crafted reporter’s question, something like, “Incredible comeback, sports star. How did you guys manage to mount that one?” Generally, this bombast of... Read more

I admit it. I’ve always been a sucker for a good reality tv show. Not that there have been that many. MTV kicked the whole deal off with “The Real World,” which began airing in my junior high years. From the moment I first saw it, I was fascinated, and for a number of reasons. Here’s a few. 1) The people. MTV handpicked a small group of VAPs (very attrative people) in filling the cast list. This was a dynamite... Read more

If you enjoy good music, go to http://www.gotee.com/host.php and listen to the first song in the “player” that automatically cues up on the page loading. The song, “Love,” represents what hip-hop fans know as the “summer jam.” That’s slang for a “fun, upbeat, put-you-in-a-good-mood kind of song that only comes along once in a while.” This song is AMAZING. Can’t stop playing it. On the summer jam thing, you know what I’m talking about. The type of music that lifts... Read more

Christians are known in the culture at large for being those who believe that people are essentially flawed, that by nature humankind does wrong, and that these wrongs are played out in ways both private and public. This view of human nature is not popular in a time when many believe that people are actually very good and that our chief struggle rages not against a hankering for objective wrong but against psychological problems, cultural pressures, and one’s environment. Such... Read more

Being a magazine lover, I’ve had a fair amount of opportunity to ponder this one, and have come up with the following key idea: the article should tell you information about the subject that you cannot find out yourself. It’s a simple principle, but a true one, I think. Part of the draw of Time, Newsweek, or even Sports Illustrated is that one learns new things in reading the articles of these publications. The magazine that simply repackages biographical information... Read more

Has anyone stopped to think for a moment about the role of the personal trainer in today’s society? It’s a rather fascinating occupation, if you ask me. It purports to serve a key purpose: to individually whip a customer into shape. Hiring a personal trainer certainly seems to increase one’s chances of becoming fit. Instead of bumbling through endless racks of dumbbells, countless machines resembling spacecraft prototypes, and the gauntlet of treadmills, one simply plunks down a chunk of change... Read more

One thing has become alarmingly clear through my recent conversations with a number of non-Christians. Unlike those of the past, many people today perceive no need for salvation of any type in a spiritual sense. In place of some questing for wholeness, some search for forgiveness, one finds often vague notions about either 1) a naturalistic significance and termination to life or 2) an ethereal, one-size-fits-all, everybody and their labrador goes to heaven type of mentality. Though children are still... Read more

Came across a recent Rolling Stone article that profiled actors Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson, stars of the recent film Wedding Crashers. Though both men are talented comically, and have led interesting lives, the piece focuses almost entirely on their pursuit of the opposite sex. Profiling two men are quite popular with women and so have numerous tales to share, RS is more than happy to be an eager audience and to peddle their escapades, a pattern the magazine perpetuates... Read more