Over the past six months or so, we have endured a major pandemic that’s killing us and an election that drove a divisive wedge between us. Beneath the surface another drama was unfolding that threatened to diminish us even further: the life-long host of “Jeopardy” was dying of cancer. At the end of each weekday, when the sound and fury of nightly news programs concluded their chaotic reporting of the trauma and tragedy of the day, we welcomed the game show with host Alex Trebek. We watched the new contestants along with the returning champions compete with their knowledge of […]
When Our Memory Is Our Future
“You show promise.” Do you remember when someone told you that? It may have been a teacher or a coach. Some other adult you respected in your growing years. I can’t pinpoint the memory in my own mind, but the phrase swirled around me, caught hold and pulled me toward the future with more hope. I had almost forgotten about it, until I heard it recently. Suddenly, time-released capsules of images exploded in little visions of all those in my past who said that to me. Maybe they never said it out loud, but I somehow knew that they believed […]
To Dream an Impossible World
In the short yet endangered history of western civilization as we know it, religion and politics became the strangest of bedfellows as empires and kingdoms feuded over whichever god would best serve their cause. Rome was the first to misuse this power. Luther upset the applecart in the Reformation. Henry VIII did it in jolly old England for a divorce. Hitler did it as part of his holocaust endeavor. Even the good ol’ USofA [founded on the notion that there will be “NO established religion”] employed King James’ version of holy writ to justify slavery and still misuses the remnants […]
Waiting for the Hallelujah Chorus
George Frideric Handel was a musical stranger until I started singing in our college choir. Maybe we had met earlier, but his name just didn’t ring a bell like it would when we joined with the Jackson Symphony Orchestra each December to sing the “Messiah”. My infatuation with Handel’s major oratorio finds me still humming from this work every Christmas season. “For unto us a child is born…and the government shall be upon his shoulders and his name shall be called wonderful, counselor, the mighty God…the Prince of Peace.” If you are familiar with the entire work, you will know […]
Worshipping the Ground on Which We Walk
When we worship the ground we walk on, the route is not that infamous road paved with good intentions nor the primrose path. Not even memory lane nor the yellow brick road to Oz. Rather, the basic surmise here is that of ordinary terra firma. However, there’s something magical about this common ground when one develops a reverence for it and those special people in our lives who tread thereupon. It’s one of those terms of endearment we use almost too casually. “He just worships the ground she walks on” assumes an infatuation with the beautiful and adorned one. The […]
The Insight of Hindsight
“Today is the tomorrow that you worried about yesterday” proclaimed the cross-stitch sign in the dentist’s office. That’ll make your brain itch. While you’re scratching your head about it, here’s another way to consider time: “Today will be the yesterday you’ll try to forget about tomorrow.” We are forever living existentially between our hindsight and our foresight. If we could measure our hindsight, we would probably all have 20/20 vision. And we use such sight to discover who we are. I am the accumulation of years of experiences. My character is formulated by the building blocks of days and years […]
Turning Down the Noise
Maybe it’s because these new hearing aids really do their job, but I’ve noticed how loud we’ve become as a country and a culture. I’m not just talking about used politicians. Rather, I am referring to all the gizmos and gadgets that are now part of our landscaping arsenals. Take this fall season when the autumn leaves drift by our windows, those autumn leaves of red and gold forming some kind of unwanted nuisance on our yards and driveways. Such a season invites us to sit on our patios and porches to enjoy nature showing off her multi-colored tapestries. Suddenly, […]
Those Gallant Ghosts of Gettysburg
This Thursday past marked the date [in 1863] of Lincoln’s most poignant address in memory of all those soldiers who gave the last full measure of their devotion on that particular and decisive field of battle. More than just another fall day on that sacred place, that day’s memorial service represented the hopes and fears of a nation still hurting from the ravages of death and destruction that broke the very fabric of our faith in each other. This beleaguered yet resilient country is now a band of wandering pilgrims on our way to celebrate its annual Thanksgiving in quite […]
Losing Our Religion
Over the past few months, I have come as near as I ever have to losing what was left of my religion. This pandemic is beginning to wear thin, and the recent election was thick with thieves full of all sorts of chicanery, negative ads and stonewalling the outcomes. Good news has come: we just might have a vaccine before we can say the Apostles’ Creed, and the voters have made their choice for a new President crystal clear. There is a God! A lot of people have lost their religion over a lot of things, but have you ever […]
What Counts the Most?
A lot counting has been going on over the past few days as this country elected its 46th President. Democracy is built upon counting the ballots of its citizens and the whole notion that each vote counts. The race for the White House became a cliffhanger and a nailbiter over the past few days while five states seemed to take their everloving time in the counting process. In the political struggle leading up to the election some of the rhetoric became dicy and desperate. Forget that old campaign vision of a “kinder and gentler” democracy where all voters are respected […]